Former FBI Director Comey and his testimony to Congressional Intelligence Committees
June 8, 2017
James Comey, the recently fired Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation gave, from most accounts, a riveting dose of testimony regarding his conversations with President Trump investigations. It revolved around the multiple investigations of Trump campaign staffers, and the campaign itself, interactions and alleged collusion with Vladimir Putin's government. President Trump has been very adamant in getting Mr. Comey to provide proof to the American public that he is not under investigation. Although in the letter President Trump wrote to fire James Comey, he wrote that Mr. Comey conveyed to him that (three times!) that Mr. Trump was not under investigation. That did nothing to stifle assumptions, rumors, and gossip amongst the political class in Washington, D.C. watching the hearings on televisions throughout the District.
After watching the hearings, and listening to both liberal and conservative viewpoints on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, I have come to the sad realization that Comey and his testimony are the "No Man's Land" of the trench warfare that Democrats and Republicans are fighting over. Both groups take away from his testimony what they want to hear, and get their party machinery to repeat over and over. Democrats continue to shill for the idea that Donald Trump worked with the Russian government to subvert the democratic process to choose an American president. The Republicans, who control all three branches of power in America, carefully parse Comey's testimony to see if they can avoid any difficult discussions about Trump's culpability. Congressman Darrel Issa feels that the "non-issue" has been put to rest (he is referring of course, to additional and broad-reaching investigations into the Trump Administration's Russia issue). The Democrats, to no one's surprise, want to investigate everyone and anyone associated with the Trump Administration.
Comey is just another pawn in this constant war of politics between two out-of-touch political parties. Neither the Republican party or the Democratic party have shown any real desire to work on behalf of the people who pay taxes (they do, but those are bipartisan mega-donors, who provide the lion's share of campaign cash), and those voters have watched certain industries (Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, etc) do well, and see successful people do even better while the majority of the country has stagnated wages and many lose their jobs.
President Trump was supposed to be a sacrificial ham sandwich for Hillary Clinton to break the Glass Ceiling. Instead, he used his savvy ability to listen to and argue for the mood of the rejected American voter, who is financially in trouble. As a result of his shocking win, Democrats are trying to exercise their anger into proving the Trump Administration is guilty of collusion with a foreign power. I am not defending Trump per se from any alleged act or accusation. I truly feel that a thorough investigation of the election, the hacking of the DNC, and interactions between Trump campaign staffers and the Russian government needs to be researched and presented to Congress and the American people. Comey's experience should be part of this investigation, but sadly nothing will come of it. Because the Republicans and Democrats and constantly using people and events to fight over control of the government, mainly to reward those aforementioned mega-donors, and their friends, there will be no great lesson learned from the 2016 election.
James Comey is a decent and dedicated public servant, whose testimony should be used to improve the methods Americans use to choose their elected officials to administer their country. The sad part, Mr. Comey's testimony to Congress will be dissected and disseminated to the various echo chambers of the Republican and Democratic parties. It will not be taken for what it is, a public servant's observations about a troubled year in American history regarding our elections, and how to correct mistakes and errors in cyber security. It is another nail in the war between to extreme political ideologies, and which will eventually help the true enemy of our country, Vladimir Putin. No wonder he smiles so often.
AK
After watching the hearings, and listening to both liberal and conservative viewpoints on CNN, MSNBC and Fox News, I have come to the sad realization that Comey and his testimony are the "No Man's Land" of the trench warfare that Democrats and Republicans are fighting over. Both groups take away from his testimony what they want to hear, and get their party machinery to repeat over and over. Democrats continue to shill for the idea that Donald Trump worked with the Russian government to subvert the democratic process to choose an American president. The Republicans, who control all three branches of power in America, carefully parse Comey's testimony to see if they can avoid any difficult discussions about Trump's culpability. Congressman Darrel Issa feels that the "non-issue" has been put to rest (he is referring of course, to additional and broad-reaching investigations into the Trump Administration's Russia issue). The Democrats, to no one's surprise, want to investigate everyone and anyone associated with the Trump Administration.
Comey is just another pawn in this constant war of politics between two out-of-touch political parties. Neither the Republican party or the Democratic party have shown any real desire to work on behalf of the people who pay taxes (they do, but those are bipartisan mega-donors, who provide the lion's share of campaign cash), and those voters have watched certain industries (Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, etc) do well, and see successful people do even better while the majority of the country has stagnated wages and many lose their jobs.
President Trump was supposed to be a sacrificial ham sandwich for Hillary Clinton to break the Glass Ceiling. Instead, he used his savvy ability to listen to and argue for the mood of the rejected American voter, who is financially in trouble. As a result of his shocking win, Democrats are trying to exercise their anger into proving the Trump Administration is guilty of collusion with a foreign power. I am not defending Trump per se from any alleged act or accusation. I truly feel that a thorough investigation of the election, the hacking of the DNC, and interactions between Trump campaign staffers and the Russian government needs to be researched and presented to Congress and the American people. Comey's experience should be part of this investigation, but sadly nothing will come of it. Because the Republicans and Democrats and constantly using people and events to fight over control of the government, mainly to reward those aforementioned mega-donors, and their friends, there will be no great lesson learned from the 2016 election.
James Comey is a decent and dedicated public servant, whose testimony should be used to improve the methods Americans use to choose their elected officials to administer their country. The sad part, Mr. Comey's testimony to Congress will be dissected and disseminated to the various echo chambers of the Republican and Democratic parties. It will not be taken for what it is, a public servant's observations about a troubled year in American history regarding our elections, and how to correct mistakes and errors in cyber security. It is another nail in the war between to extreme political ideologies, and which will eventually help the true enemy of our country, Vladimir Putin. No wonder he smiles so often.
AK
You have correctly analyzed the imbroglio in the current state of affairs. The innumerable investigations that result, all of which is likely to lead to nothing much is done at the expense of good governance. Talking heads in the media seem to keep these issues alive and active, with the ever changing scenario on "Breaking News". In reality and sadly, the Republican priority is to undo what President Obama achieved and the Democrats seem to have lost focus-the end result is that the needs of American people are forgotten.
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