Here’s what I really don’t understand… Director Comey found Hillary Clinton to have broken the law, plus lied. Why then is he not recommending prosecution? I believe he’s playing a longer game than folks understand. If he asked for or recommended prosecution, he knows Hillary Clintons lawyers would immediately seek a postponement of any proceedings until after the elections which would mean if Americans ignore that and vote for Hillary anyway, he would have no chance of getting re-appointed director and based on what he has, he would have lost in court to the kind of lawyers Hillary would have representing her.
I say he’s using the slow drip drip of continuous speculation to destroy her presidential aspirations.
Well… it’s kind of a fine point. While Comey said that Clinton didn’t lie to the FBI, his report of things she told the FBI directly contradicts her prior statements to the public.
Addressing the OP’s “slow drip” theory - what could Comey have said that wouldn’t result in Republican’s using a slow drip of criticism anyway? The Republicans have decided that Hillary is either guilty alone, or she’s guilty AND part of a Democratic conspiracy to protect her. They aren’t willing to acknowledge any other outcome and they’re sure as hell not going to let pesky little facts get in the way of their conclusion.
Someone decides to start prosecution. The defense drags Comey in, asks about the above statement. Asks court to throw out case. Even if the judge doesn’t toss, the prosecution is going to have one hard job ahead.
You mean pesky little facts Like “his report of things she told the FBI directly contradicts her prior statement”. Who is ignoring the pesky little facts.
The director’s statement also contained the fact that if someone else does this they may be prosecuted. That is another pesky little fact. Or did I miss hear what he said?
Which is why the State Dept is looking into whether anyone still at State should be sanctioned.
One of the things that has surprised me is that no Democrats have gone after Comey for his public statement, which he really didn’t have to make and which was damaging to Clinton. The FBI usually just issues a terse statement about whether or not they will prosecute. Comey actually held a press conference and took the time to refute Clinton’s lies one by one. PRetty harsh stuff. I guess they are so relieved she’s not being prosecuted that they decided not to push their luck.
As for her lies, she didn’t lie to the FBI, which is what matters legally. The lies she tells in her campaign are not against the law.
Yeah, but Comey would never do something like that. But his conscience also wouldn’t let her just move on like nothing had happened.
I think for Democrats, the fact that she’s facing Donald Trump means that anything short of an indictment means she wins. If she was in a tougher race they might have pushed back against Comey a little more. Because what he did with that press conference really was unusual. It was the right thing to do, IMO, but then I’m a conservative and I would have been enraged if all the FBI said was “no charges”.
My guess is that Democrats don’t want it to look like they wanted her exonerated for ideological reasons (which is not to say they didn’t), while Republicans aren’t as concerned with the appearance that they wanted her prosecuted for ideological reasons.
Or the Dems decided to take the win, which isn’t quite the same as not wanting to push their luck. It’s bad optics to complain about the way he decided to explain his decision to do what they wanted.
What would be the possible upside to going after him for that?
Best outcome for the Democratic side is that this now is considered a done to overdone issue and is left behind. “Wah wah, you called extra attention to the reality that she was extremely careless and minimally made some public statements that were less than completely truthful!” Really, that is a smart play? She deserved the beat down she got and most of us on this side know that. We still think that it is a relatively small ding and certainly not worth making even a metaphoric Federal case over, but it is a ding and oe that plays both into her perceived negatives and against her perceived strengths. Take the deserved hit and hope it get losts in the other news as people really are mostly sick and tired of this by now mostly. The downside of this level of ding is mostly already baked in, but don’t keep it going.
OTOH of course the GOP whining that the decision they fantasized about didn’t happen only plays into the perception that what Comey said was actually not as bad as it really was … if was that bad of a judgement of her why would they be whining about it? Accusing Comey of nefarious doings, of being part of “a fix”, in particular makes the public discussion more about the never ending tin foil hatted conspiracy theory based persecutions of all things Clinton, allowing more focus on how crazy and spittle flecked the GOP side gets and how they have been abusing control of Congress instead of using their control to actually do work for the country. They managed to take the best win they realistically could hope for, Comey blasting her in a press conference, despite having to conclude that what she did was not criminal, and turn it instead into a highlight of their dysfunctionality.
Never get in the way of your opponents shooting themselves in the foot instead of being satisfied with the win they had.
There’s been some columns written about it (not by Democratic politicians of course). But there’s really no benefit to trying to castigate Comey for the Democrats. Just keeps a spotlight on the affair that much longer and sounds petty. Bitch into your coffee and don’t send him a Christmas card this year.
I don’t know if “releaved” is the right word. No one seriously expected an indictment. I think they’re staying quite to just let the issue fade away and not keep it in the press longer than necessary. This will be forgotten by November.
It’s due to a great less cognitive dissonance among Democrats than Republicans. In general, this leads to Democrats being much less prolific than the GOP at scoring own goals.