You make it sound like Comey was an apolitical actor with innocent motives who happened to learn after the conversations with the "corrupt" president that others from his community were good citizens just like him and shared his innocuous concern and sense of civic duties in the face of unspeakable evil and corruption.
The reality was best described by Goom:
http://forums.d2jsp.org/topic.php?t=81787808&f=119&p=549626525The IG report leaves no doubt that Comey, McCabe and others were biased, political actors from the get go. What was happening was not, as you put it, "a corrupt president trying to put his thumb on the scale of justice". What was really happening is that a group of disloyal, politically biased members of the intelligence community tried to tip the scales of democracy. They tried to "politically snipe" the president without having nearly enough evidence to justify such a drastic step. It was a shitty attempt at pulling off some sort of coup. And as it turned out in the end, this president might be a somewhat corrupt and shady figure, but he was never compromised by foreign powers.
Referring specifically to this part:
Trump is a president who quite cleary was not well versed in the protocols/proper handling of such delicate issues; someone who was used to being the unchecked decider of his own little empire; someone who's unfamiliar with the separation of powers and not even realizing how inappropriate some of the things he was saying to Comey actually were. Hillary, on the other hand, is an experienced, shrewd career politician. There is simply more reason to give Trump the benefit of the doubt when it comes to "rookie mistakes" like these.
Would it really have been too much to ask of Comey, after Trump was probing him about Flynn, to say something like: "I'm sorry mister President, but that's not possible. I understand your loyalty to your former confidant and that you want to help him, but please understand that Flynn is a suspect accused of a very serious crime that we cannot possibly ignore. Please also understand that it is not usual for the President, as the head of the Administration, to personally interfere in FBI investigations. Despite good intentions, such behavior is a violation of the separation of powers and could easily get you in hot water with Congress or the media."
Instead, Comey apparently assumed that Trump was some sort of Manchurian candidate, a puppet of Putin compromised by a piss hooker video, and acted like a poor man's James Bond during his futile attempts at setting Trump up.
I'm not going into whatever Goom posted... I didn't read it. The plain reality is that Trump asked his FBI Director for a loyalty pledge and requested his former NSA be "let go" from the consequences of an investigation. It's completely reasonable for Comey to be troubled by those actions, and to record them immediately afterwards. It's also reasonable for him to sound the alarm bells in some way after he gets abruptly fired.
I understand that Trump supporters want to minimize and deflect from those corrupt actions by the president. Why not just own it? Don't hide behind weak excuses like "Trump was new at this". That same excuse wouldn't fly if it was Obama. Trump is a man of poor character who was acting corruptly when he asked that Comey let Flynn off. That doesn't mean Comey was a completely unbiased actor in other ways. Two things can be true at once.
Oh, and if I remember correctly from the report, Bannon and/or Priebus told the president that meeting with the FBI Director alone was improper(before the loyalty pledge dinner, I think).
Guests cannot view or vote in polls. Please register or login.