Althouse: "I don’t remember spelling it out, but it had to have been, that she’s going to be elected president and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out."

April 14, 2018

"I don’t remember spelling it out, but it had to have been, that she’s going to be elected president and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out."

"I don’t remember consciously thinking about that, but it must have been because I was operating in a world where Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump, and so I’m sure that it was a factor."

Said James Comey, talking to George Stephanopoulos on the occasion of the publication of “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership."

62 comments:

Fabi said...: Sure, Jimmy. We believes ya.; 4/14/18, 4:45 PM
Ray - SoCal said...: What ever happened to the ideal of justice being blind, and not politicized.; 4/14/18, 4:55 PM
Birkel said...: I look forward to James Pickering TOTALLY PWNING Althouse over this.

Maybe grown up and all around fopdoodle Chuck will type lulz to prove he is TOTES SERIOUS, you guys.; 4/14/18, 5:00 PM
Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...: I find this reasonably believable. Most people thought she going to win and he didn't want to look like he had been hiding something critical before the election.

Nate Silver thinks the election may have been swung by Comey's letter, argued here:

The Comey Letter Probably Cost Clinton The Election

I am a bit skeptical, but it took very little to change the outcome, given that she still won the popular vote.; 4/14/18, 5:01 PM
dreams said...: That's a big admission. Comey isn't very smart, just tall.; 4/14/18, 5:04 PM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Comey is the tallest Drama Queen in the world.; 4/14/18, 5:07 PM
Wince said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/14/18, 5:10 PM
Kevin said...: Comey was just following CFR6969.0FUCK "I Might End Up Looking Bad", Section 3.2.CoverMyAssPosthaste.

And he's still following it today.; 4/14/18, 5:13 PM
Wince said...: Here's the most revealing part of the interview that, unfortunately, ABC edited out.

GS: Perhaps you think too much of your honor, friend?

JC: Well, it's not just the honor. It's also great for balance. And climbing. And grabbing things.; 4/14/18, 5:14 PM
Achilles said...: Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

I am a bit skeptical, but it took very little to change the outcome, given that she still won the popular vote.

She won the popular vote because California opened their voting booths to the entire country of Mexico.

Comey was trying to whitewash Hillary so this wouldn't come up after she was elected. It is hilarious that you douchebag leftists think it was a bad thing this popped up before the election.

Hillary was obviously a criminal and none of you care.; 4/14/18, 5:15 PM
walter said...: To protect and serve..; 4/14/18, 5:25 PM
Quayle said...: In the world where she was going to win, it was to everyone's advantage to get it all out there so it could be called "old news" by everyone, if anyone every brought it up later.

Anyone who knows the Clintons and how they operate, know that this is how it works.

But bad for me and her, she didn't win. So then I looked really crappy because I was now a scapegoat for her not winning.

But I was trying to help the cause. Really I was.

Look, I'm one of the good guys!; 4/14/18, 5:35 PM
Anonymous said...: The most important thing about this was that Comey was the Director of the FBI, which we would like to believe is politically neutral, yet here he is setting himself up as the man who can ensure that Hillary's election is legitimate. Does anyone else see the problem here? What a jackass!; 4/14/18, 5:41 PM
buwaya said...: They were doing the "old news" thing re the email scandal and Clinton foundation in late 2015- early 2016. Cited as such in commentary during debates vs Sanders. And at other times as required.

It all never got old enough I guess.; 4/14/18, 5:43 PM
buwaya said...: And IIRC some of the commenters here did the "old news" thing also. This; 4/14/18, 5:46 PM
madAsHell said...: Comey always carries himself like he is the smartest-person-in-the-room, but I think he just tied his dick in a knot.

He's throwing smoke, but the wind is blowing against him.; 4/14/18, 5:50 PM
Sebastian said...: "we would like to believe is politically neutral"

Progs would like to believe the agencies are politically under control.

Which they mostly are and were. Except that Comey trying to do Hill a favor, and create old news, backfired. Still, he redeemed himself quickly with his attack on Trump.; 4/14/18, 5:53 PM
Humperdink said...: Keep digging Mr. Comey, keep digging.

The guy is getting the worst PR advice imaginable.; 4/14/18, 5:55 PM
Anonymous said...: Comey will be back at FBI. The Press hero Adam Schiff is a shoo in as AG or FBI Drirector when Dems take over WH, Senate and House in 2020. For a special prosecutor role, he would ask for Comey.; 4/14/18, 6:00 PM
Earnest Prole said...: It's a critical admission: Comey's justice was not blind; it was based on his handicapping of the Presidential race.; 4/14/18, 6:02 PM
rcocean said...: That's funny, cause Comey acted like Trump was illegitimate from Day 1. And his book is trying to make him look "illegitimate"

I mean, calling the POTUS a "Mob Boss"?

Look, there's a REASON Obama appointed Comey. And it wasn't because he was a "Republican".; 4/14/18, 6:08 PM
Etienne said...: Someone needs to hand him a Tantō so he can go home and do the honorable thing.; 4/14/18, 6:12 PM
Birkel said...: Even Bernie Sanders was in on the "old news" nonsense. The only old crimes are those past the statute of limitations. Well... for the little people anyway.; 4/14/18, 6:16 PM
robother said...: Protecting Hillary from an illegitimate Presidency: Mission Accomplished!; 4/14/18, 6:18 PM
Tommy Duncan said...: It is revealing to understand "hiding" was an option on the table.; 4/14/18, 6:20 PM
Jim at said...: given that she still won the popular vote.

The difference in the popular vote count was determined by the state of California and the state of California only. Stop acting like it was some nationwide verdict.; 4/14/18, 6:24 PM
Achilles said...: Earnest Prole said...

It's a critical admission: Comey's justice was not blind; it was based on his handicapping of the Presidential race.

Trump is blessed with his enemies.

The leftists don't understand how bad this looks to the average observer. But if they were any dumber they would have to have someone else vote for them...

Oh about that...; 4/14/18, 6:39 PM
Amadeus 48 said...: America’s Politico! Welcome back! You provide some of the best political satire on the Web. Tell us about Corey Booker again. I love it when you tout that man’s virtues. Tell us about T-bone!; 4/14/18, 6:41 PM
Achilles said...: Amadeus 48 said...

America’s Politico! Welcome back!

Got tired of being trumpit so switched troll names.; 4/14/18, 7:03 PM
Michael K said...: "Comey was the Director of the FBI, which we would like to believe is politically neutral, "

It has NEVER been neutral. Even Hoover was a politician.; 4/14/18, 7:25 PM
Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...: ...I was operating with my head stuck so far up my ass in a world where there was no possible way Hillary Clinton was not going to beat Donald Trump,....

I willingly and with enthusiasm ran my office as a political machine, but I bet the wrong way.; 4/14/18, 7:28 PM
Gk1 said...: What a dork. I am sure glad he's on the leftie's side. "No hoper" is what springs to mind when I see Comey do an interview now.; 4/14/18, 7:31 PM
madAsHell said...: Someone needs to hand him a Tantō so he can go home and do the honorable thing.

I agree. I'm convinced McCabe is going to eat-the-barrel, and leave a suicide note blaming everyone else.

Of course, he might be suicided. It's a transitive verb.; 4/14/18, 7:41 PM
rehajm said...: Remember that doosh that wrote that book a few months ago and said the lies in it were true if they felt true? Me neither but Comey comes off as about as credible as that guy.; 4/14/18, 7:51 PM
cubanbob said...: Comey overstates his drama about Hillary. Hillary has been in the public eye for twenty five years and at least half the country has known for for that long that she is a criminal. Part of the insanity the Left is suffering is due to the fact that they helped Trump become the Republican nominee with the expectation no Democrat could lose to Trump and yet Hillary did.; 4/14/18, 8:00 PM
GRW3 said...: Everything that happened to Hillary in the campaign was intended to be a brush back pitch to be sure she stayed on the Obama course. The progressives feared that Bill would guide he on a triangulation path that would also undo a lot of thr Obama legacy.; 4/14/18, 8:02 PM
wildswan said...: This what Hillary is saying right now - that this news relaese by Comey stopped her momentum and let Trump win.

So Comey is saying that (1) if we agree with Hillary that the news caused her loss then (2) we have to agree that he (Comey) did the right thing because (3) Trump would have been right to contest the result by saying that he (Trump) would have won had the news come out before the election. Because (4) the news did come out before the election and (5) [the news coming out is why] (6) Trump won.

So this argument is pretty intricate and not really likely to account for the behavior of millions. Is this reasoning, the reason why one person, Comey, acted as he did? Well, he tells us he didn't think it at the time. So that seems pretty simple and decisive. No. No, this argument isn't why he acted as he did.

But wait.

Comey now thinks he thought (maybe) of this intricate argument as part of the background of his decision so he thinks that (in a sense) he thought it at the time - although (in another sense) at the time he actually thought something else. So that's pretty intricate also.

So this is an intricate guy talking about a gal with a life whose reality, if any, has more levels than Inception.

So it's funny how easy it is to see through both of them. "It's your fault." "No, it's yours."; 4/14/18, 8:26 PM
PB said...: Big strong man of ethics.

OF COURSE everyone thought Hillary would win and they wanted to make sure they still had jobs or very high-paid sinecures after she was elected. They weren't going to do ANYTHING that would piss off that vindictive witch. You can take it to the bank that the Clinton inner circle reached out to all important players and made sure they knew what they had to do to kill any serious investigations into Hillary, her campaign, her state department or her foundation.; 4/14/18, 9:04 PM
Darrell said...: Comey is the giant that hid behind the curtains shaking, lest Trump shake his hand. Maybe he's campaigning for a spot in the loony bin rather than the genpop that he deserves.; 4/14/18, 9:05 PM
chickelit said...: Neither Comey nor Stuffinopolis have Stormy appeal, so don't expect a ratings spike tomorrow. Well, except for the sexless cohort.; 4/14/18, 9:12 PM
Luke Lea said...: To get an idea how these people think:

"The recording of this discussion between State Department operative Victoria Nuland and Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt was released on 7 February 2014 and is available on the BBC website. It offers a vivid glimpse into the process of imperial interference overseas—‘personality management’—as these functionaries plan the composition of the new Ukrainian government. Germany had been grooming the former boxer, Vitali Klitschko, with Merkel’s chief of staff, Ronald Pofalla, advising on his marital problems. [*] Nuland is determined to exclude him in favour of Arseniy Yatseniuk, former banker and head of the US-backed Open Ukraine foundation, who has ‘the economic experience’. Meanwhile UN officials are summoned to ‘help glue this thing’—Jeff Feltman, an American UN under-secretary-general, producing UN envoy and former Netherlands ambassador to Ukraine, Robert Serry. Events since the tape was released have corresponded closely to the scenario Nuland and Pyatt designed: on February 23, Yatseniuk was appointed Prime Minister of the provisional Ukrainian government; on March 29, Klitschko renounced his candidacy for the May presidential elections.

NULAND: What do you think?

PYATT: I think we’re in play. The Klitschko piece is obviously the complicated electron here. Especially the announcement of him as deputy prime minister, and you’ve seen some of my notes on the troubles in the marriage right now, so we’re trying to get a read really fast on where he is on this stuff. But I think your argument to him, which you’ll need to make, I think that’s the next phone call you want to set up, is exactly the one you made to Yats [Yatseniuk]. And I’m glad you sort of put him on the spot on where he fits in this scenario. And I’m very glad that he said what he said in response.

NULAND: Good. I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea.

PYATT: Yeah. I guess . . . in terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff. I’m just thinking in terms of the process moving ahead, we want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok and his guys, and I’m sure that’s part of what Yanukovych is calculating on all this.

NULAND: I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience. He’s the . . . what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in . . . he’s going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it’s just not going to work.

PYATT: Yeah, no, I think that’s right. OK. Good. Do you want us to set up a call with him as the next step?

NULAND: My understanding from that call—but you tell me—was that the big three were going into their own meeting and that Yats was going to offer in that context a . . . three-plus-one conversation or three-plus-two with you. Is that not how you understood it?

PYATT: No. I think . . . I mean that’s what he proposed but I think, just knowing the dynamic that’s been with them where Klitschko has been the top dog, he’s going to take a while to show up for whatever meeting they’ve got, and he’s probably talking to his guys at this point, so I think you reaching out directly to him helps with the personality management among the three, and it gives you also a chance to move fast on all this stuff and put us behind it before they all sit down and he explains why he doesn’t like it.

NULAND: OK, good. I’m happy. Why don’t you reach out to him and see if he wants to talk before or after.

PYATT: OK, will do. Thanks.

NULAND: OK. One more wrinkle for you Geoff. I can’t remember if I told you this, or if I only told Washington this, that when I talked to Jeff Feltman this morning, he had a new name for the UN, that guy Robert Serry. Did I write you that this morning?

Don’t stop reading:

https://newleftreview.org/II/86/susan-watkins-annexations; 4/14/18, 9:22 PM
SMURF said...: How is it possible to interpret this as anything but a confession of conspiracy and obstruction of justice and abuse of police powers for political purposes.Hatch Act, civil rights and national security crimes and he is conferring on national TV with a DNCMSM operative. What an @$$ho.; 4/14/18, 9:27 PM
tola'at sfarim said...: And maybe he didn't recommend charges as part of that same thought process....; 4/14/18, 9:47 PM
Comanche Voter said...: Like almost everything else that Comey does or did, he screwed this particular pooch.; 4/14/18, 9:53 PM
Wince said...: ...she’s going to be elected president and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out.

More likely, Comey feared without the public announcement his prior decision to not recommend indictment would make HIM look even more illegitimate.; 4/14/18, 10:26 PM
Achilles said...: Why did Cohen get raided and why are they illegally leaking the results of his raid?

Because the FBI screwed up and confused Cohen with someone else who went to Prague

Their SIGINT activities led them to make the claim he went there and he has proof he didn't. It will come out that the FBI went through the electronic communications of not only everyone in the Trump campaign, illegally, but people with the same names as people on the Trump team, illegally.

The FBI "counter-intelligence" team was spying on a lot of people illegally and everything from October on was an attempt to cover for this.

Obama was spying on people for years. They got caught.

Going to be some squealing very soon.; 4/14/18, 10:40 PM
narciso said...: So comey got himself on the men starr team didn't pan out was a junior prosecutor in Virginia who found sponsorship from Schumer went after public enemy #1,Martha Stewart was promoted to deputy atty gen.In short order he put himself in position to direct the special counsel even though he already knew the ostensible subject had been revealed.; 4/14/18, 11:07 PM
narciso said...: Oh there was also the travesty with hatfill and later ivins
Then the whole matter with stellar wind and the events of March 2004,; 4/14/18, 11:11 PM
narciso said...: Who was the note taker there Robert Muellers, goldsmith now with lawfare, Wray was one of the mutineers in reserve; 4/14/18, 11:16 PM
narciso said...: Now rosenstein having helmed red queens interrogation, moved into the justice department eventually head of the tax division according to ortel, between 2001-5, which was supposed to overseas the Clinton foundation; 4/14/18, 11:19 PM
narciso said...: Rosenstein takes comeys position, Wray takes mueller, Mueller takes fitz, Sally Yates is in goldsmiths slot and the ohrs full any slot left over.; 4/14/18, 11:24 PM
Yancey Ward said...: Comey would like you to forget an very important detail- the laptop and the Clinton e-mails were found by agents in late September of 2016, and they alerted the people at Quantico almost immediately. Comey is trying to make it sound like this was all discovered 11 days before the election, and that he, Comey, had a very tough decision to make in such a short time. This is a lie of omission. The FBI sat on the laptop and the e-mails, doing nothing at all with them for four weeks- and even after Comey's letter to Congress, they did nothing with them for almost another week after that. It was only the pressure from Clinton herself that got the nearly paralyzed Comey and DoJ to get the warrant required to actually read the e-mails. If Comey had only gotten the warrant in September, he and his agents could have finished the investigation in the same 3 days it actually took in November with not only the same exoneration, but likely never having to inform Congress about it because nothing had changed.

The question that Comey really needs to answer is this- why was nothing at all done for the 4 weeks prior to the letter to Congress? You can be sure Comey never agrees to be interviewed by anyone who might ask that question since apparently he was fired long before we actually learned this detail. I will offer my speculative reading of this that at least gives Comey the benefit of the doubt- his underlings who were in charge of the Clinton stuff in Virginia buried it for four weeks, and when Comey learned of it, he immediately wrote the letter to Congress in order that he not be the fall guy for the obstruction.; 4/15/18, 12:14 AM
Paul said...: So for Comey and others they use the excuse that 'Hillary was gonna win'? And they somehow thing that absolves them of their crimes?; 4/15/18, 12:27 AM
Breezy said...: Tommy Duncan...”It is revealing to understand "hiding" was an option on the table.”

Good point.; 4/15/18, 2:51 AM
Breezy said...: it becomes clearer every day now how correct it was to fire this guy. Would be impossible to claim obstruction of justice with all the injustice he was perpetuating.; 4/15/18, 2:57 AM
Darrell said...: the laptop and the Clinton e-mails were found by agents in late September of 2016. . .

They were found by NYC police going through Anthony Weiner's laptop in that sexting investigation. Leaks were starting to filter out of the porous local police department that was not in the bag for Hillary, like the FBI was. Comey stepped in to protect Hillary and slow-roll the actual examination of the emails, etc.--which included classified materials. That three-day vetting of all the material was a fucking hymn for the Hillary choir. It would takes weeks to do the job properly, maybe months.; 4/15/18, 3:52 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "OF COURSE everyone thought Hillary would win and they wanted to make sure they still had jobs or very high-paid sinecures after she was elected. They weren't going to do ANYTHING that would piss off that vindictive witch. You can take it to the bank that the Clinton inner circle reached out to all important players and made sure they knew what they had to do to kill any serious investigations into Hillary, her campaign, her state department or her foundation."

The text messages between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page ("Special Counsel" in the recent OIG report) show this dynamic clearly. Page advises Strzok to go easy on Crooked Hillary in his interview of her for her illegal email server, because she is expected to win and they don't want to be remembered by her as having gone hard on her. Probably alluding to her reputation as being extremely vendictive. And thus, of course, the ridiculously soft FBI interview of her that led to Comey's equally ridiculous exoneration letter/memo for her (that Strzok helped craft).

Below Comey, I don't think that there was a lot of love lost for Clinton. Rather, she was feared. She is known for having a long memory for slights, and you had better not be in a position to be remembered by her for such. When she was living in the White House, she reportedly had long term staff fired for simply making eye contact, and the turnover on her Secret Service detail was epic. A completely despicable, vendictive, piece of work. And fear of that from her, assuming that she would soon be in a position to destroy anyone who had slighted her, should not be underestimated in understanding everything that happened in the run up to the election.; 4/15/18, 6:53 AM
glenn said...: You guys all realize Comey is barmy as crumpet, right?; 4/15/18, 7:23 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: As I just noted, pretty much everyone below Comey at the top of the FBI, as well as the top of the DoJ, under Lynch, who owed personal loyalty to the Clintons for her first appointed post (EDNY USA), and who, no doubt, would be reappointed as AG, in trade for making the scandals go away, had fallen in line behind Crooked Hillary, by maybe June of 2016. But Comey, I think, thought that he was in a safer position. He was supposed to only be removable for cause, and otherwise had a 10 year term. This was aimed at giving the FBI Director political independence across Administrations. Reading between the lines, in that exoneration letter/memo, AG Lynch was not going to provide him with prosecutors to prosecute Crooked Hillary. She could have committed treason on national TV before millions, standing on the steps of the capital, and Lynch wasn't going to allow Clinton to be prosecuted. She legally controlled every criminal prosecution in the federal govt, by controlling all the prosecutors, and was using that power for political ends. When Lynch (and Obama) said no prosecution of Clinton, there was not going to be a prosecution of Clinton. Period. The fix was in. Comey knew it. And, I think that much of what he did, and didn't do, after being made aware of that political reality, was try to salvage as much personal and bureau reputation as he could, by appearing to play both sides of the issues. And, yes, I do think that he believed that he was the Boy Scout there, trying to keep his uniform, and that of his troop, clean, amidst the dirt and slime of the DC swamp. Most everyone below him appears to have known that it was a fools errand, and that their uniforms were already filthy.; 4/15/18, 7:25 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: "That three-day vetting of all the material was a fucking hymn for the Hillary choir. It would takes weeks to do the job properly, maybe months."

Maybe. Maybe not. Emails have signatures, and to the extent that they don't, can be easily calculated using an appropriate has function. You can then just sort the email signatures of the old list and the new list of emails, compare the two lists, and just look at the emails that are on the new list, and not the old one. Of course, the Crooked Hillary defense team made this more difficult by supplying printed, and not electronic, emails to the FBI. But I would expect that the FBI had scanned and OCRed the original emails, if, for no other reason, than to control duplicates. And that just meant that they would have to lake sure that the new emails were in a similar for, generate the signatures, then do the sort and match. Even I, with nowhere near the level of competence that the FBI has available, could have accomplished the signature generation, sort, and match, in well under a day. No rocket science there; 4/15/18, 7:39 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Whoops: "Emails have signatures, and to the extent that they don't, can be easily calculated using an appropriate HASH function".; 4/15/18, 7:40 AM
Unknown said...: Saint D'Comius...

He is there to do God's work

By getting out in front of an election result which seems obvious to him; 4/15/18, 8:05 AM