In his much anticipated testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, former FBI Director, James Comey, on Thursday, showed that he was a credible and competent patriot that told the truth, unvarnished, and with a folksy, patriotic air that made the most of an unenviable moment in American political history.
The 56 year old Yonkers, NY native gave a detailed testimony, in a mostly unhesitant manner, without notes, and with great candor, the detail of his meetings and dealings with President Donald Trump before his unexpected firing.
The most revelatory questions came early on, as ranking members of the SIC began their questioning. Perhaps the most startling came from Comey, in response to a question from the committee's Democratic co-chair, Sen. Mark Warner, of Virginia, who queried why he had taken the time to write memoranda of the meetings with the president.
The response: “Circumstances, first, I was alone with the President of the United States, or the president-elect, soon to be president. The subject matter I was talking about matters that touch on the FBI's core responsibility, and that relate to the president, president-elect personally, and then the nature of the person. I was honestly concerned he might lie about the nature of our meeting so I thought it important to document. That combination of things I had never experienced before, but had led me to believe I got to write it down and write it down in a very detailed way.”
Just in case anyone was in doubt the former FBI head said that he took notes, with the implication, that due to Trump’s personality, he was deemed to be a liar. Tough and strong words, from a no-nonsense, or, what was known to a previous generation, a “straight shooter.” Or, as women from that same generation would have acknowledged “a man’s man.” And, at 6 feet, 8 inches tall, he looked the part, and far from Trump’s characterization of him as “crazy, a real nut job.”
That set the tone of the testimony, early on, and made even the most somnolent of watchers, wake up and take notice. Perhaps,not since Watergate, has a controversy embracing an American president, been so compelling, to watch.
At issue, also, was that Comey felt that the president was attempting to instigate, rather, “build a personal relationship,” in order to manipulate him into dropping the investigation into former National Security Advisor, Mike Flynn, because it was a “cloud” over his administration, with the words, ”I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
For most listening, or watching, this was political theater at its best, but it also showed a deep level of patriotism, and an understanding of the American political process, and made Comey unassailable in his testimony.
With a total of nine meetings, on the whole, Comey, further elaborated, again when questioned by Warner, on the need to keep the memos. He said, “ I knew there might come a day when I would need a record of what had happened, not just to defend myself, but to defend the FBI and our integrity as an institution and the Independence of our investigative function. That's what made this so difficult is it was a combination of circumstances, subject matter and the particular person.”
With a bit of pressure, perhaps, Trump, at the infamous dinner a deux, in the Green Room of the White House, felt compelled to give the implication, that his job depended on a quid pro quo - maybe by dropping the Flynn investigation, something that confused Comey, “so I'm sitting there thinking wait a minute three times we've already met, you've already asked me to stay or talked about me staying. My common sense, again I could be wrong but my common sense told me what's going on here is, he's looking to get something in exchange for granting my request to stay in the job.”
Taking it one step further and educating those watching, Comey went on to explain, that “The reason that Congress created a 10-year term is so that the director is not feeling as if they're serving at, with political loyalty owed to any particular person. The statue of justice has a blindfolds on. You're not supposed to peek out to see there your patron was pleased with what you're doing. That's why I became FBI director to be in of that position. That's why I was uneasy.”
This does not bode well for Trump and it also says much of his ignorance of the political process and the branches of the government, and how they work, and interact. With a myriad of opportunities for interaction, a president that can’t, or refuses, to grasp the process, suggest that the future is ripe for abuse.
Comey, on several occasions, citing confidentiality, could not comment, in an open forum, but these were genuine responses, showing respect for the FBI, and not simply evasions.
Questioned by Sen, DIanne Feinstein, of California, why he didn’t simply tell the president that his line of questioning was wrong, he replied, simply, and with true humility, “Maybe if I were stronger, I would have. I was so stunned by the conversation that I just took in. The only thing I could think to say, because I was playing in my mind -- because I could remember every word he said -- I was playing in my mind, what should my response be? That's why I carefully chose the words. Look, I've seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes. I remember saying, “I agree he is a good guy,” as a way of saying, I'm not agreeing with what you asked me to do. Again, maybe other people would be stronger in that circumstance.”
As most would understand, who have lived in Washington, for any length of time this candor is rare, indeed, some would say non-existent.” Even when faced with the decision on what to do when Trump called him to seal the deal, he felt compelled to protect his team, as he noted, “Our primary concern was, we can't infect the investigative team. We don't want the agents and analysts working on this to know the president of the United States has asked, and when it comes from the president, I took it as a direction, to get rid of this investigation because we're not going to follow that request. So we decided, we have to keep it away from our troops.”
Reaction from the White House has been a mixed bag: no tweets from POTUS, an unusual occurrence,(some are saying Ivanka had a hand in this) and Sarah Sanders, a spokesperson, said, defensively, “The President is not a liar.”
Meanwhile the president's attorney, Marc Kasowitz has stated, in a written statement, saying in part, “In attacking Comey's testimony — as Trump surrogates did throughout the day — the ex-director "admitted that he unilaterally and surreptitiously made unauthorized disclosures to the press of privileged communications with the president."
The right-leaning USA Today reported that the president said, “we are under siege,” but “We will come out larger, and better and stronger than ever.”
If there is any damage to the White House, from implosion, then the Comey statements tell us, once again, that we need to fear, as a nation, the things from within rather than without.
No comments:
Post a Comment