The Commentariat -- October 30, 2016

Afternoon Update:

Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The FBI agents investigating Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server knew early this month that messages recovered in a separate probe might be germane to their case, but they waited weeks before briefing the FBI director, according to people familiar with the case.... It is unclear why investigators did not tell Comey sooner." -- CW

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump has slowly but surely improved his standing in state and national polls since the final presidential debate. A New York Times Upshot/Siena poll released Sunday is consistent with that trend: It gives Mr. Trump a four-point lead in Florida, 46 percent to 42 percent, in a four-way race. In our first poll of Florida a month ago, Mr. Trump trailed Hillary Clinton by a percentage point. The survey is Mr. Trump's best recent poll in Florida, and it should be interpreted with caution. In general, it is best to look at an average of polls. Mrs. Clinton still leads in an average of recent Florida surveys by nearly three points." -- CW ...

... Scott Clement & Emily Gustin of the Washington Post: "Republicans' growing unity behind ... Donald Trump has helped pull him just 1 percentage point behind Hillary Clinton and has placed GOP leaders who resist him in a vulnerable position, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Tracking Poll. A majority of all likely voters say they are unmoved by the FBI's announcement Friday that it may review additional emails from Clinton's time as secretary of state. Just more than 6 in 10 voters say the news will make no difference in their vote, while just more than 3 in 10 say it makes them less likely to support her; 2 percent say they are more likely to back her as a result." -- CW

Mallory Shelbourne of the Hill: "... Tim Kaine said Sunday that FBI Director James Comey's letter to lawmakers regarding the Hillary Clinton email server investigation is 'unprecedented.' 'I just have no way of understanding these actions. They're a completely unprecedented move,' the Virginia senator said during an appearance on ABC's 'This Week' with George Stephanopoulos. 'When you haven't even seen the material yourself 11 days before an election, why would you talk about an ongoing investigation?' Kaine asked." -- CW ...

... Mallory Shelbourne: "Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) said Sunday that FBI Director James Comey's email to lawmakers regarding the Hillary Clinton email server investigation was 'a terrible error in judgment.' 'I think this was a terrible error in judgment by the director, to release this kind of ambiguous letter. These may be pertinent; they may be significant; they may not be significant. They may not be pertinent,' Schiff, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC's 'This Week.'" -- CW ...

... ** Richard Painter, "the chief White House ethics lawyer from 2005 to 2007," in a New York Times op-ed: "... on Saturday, I filed a complaint against the F.B.I. with the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations, and with the Office of Government Ethics.... [James Comey's] letter was sent in violation of a longstanding Justice Department policy of not discussing specifics about pending investigations with others, including members of Congress. According to some news reports on Saturday, the letter was sent before the F.B.I. had even obtained the search warrant that it needed to look at the newly discovered emails. And it was sent days before the election, at a time when many Americans are already voting.... We cannot allow F.B.I. or Justice Department officials to unnecessarily publicize pending investigations concerning candidates of either party while an election is underway. That is an abuse of power." CW: Yeah, you read that right. A Bush II lawyer has filed formal complaints against Comey for abusing his office. ...

... Riley Roberts, former speechwriter for Eric Holder, in Politico Magazine: "... increasing numbers of critics believe [James Comey] has displayed a worrying disregard for the rules and norms that have constrained all but one of his predecessors, straying with blithe confidence -- and with increasing regularity -- across the fine line that separates independence from unaccountability.... Over the past three years, current and former Justice Department officials have watched with growing discomfort as his 'streak of self-righteousness,' now essentially unchecked, has made him the most isolated, outspoken and openly defiant FBI director since [J. Edgar] Hoover." CW: This is a long, scathing indictment of Comey. ...

... CW: What Comey should do Monday is apologize to Clinton, to the President & to the public for his egregious lapse of judgment. Then, since he's so fond of letter-writing, he should hand his letter of resignation to the POTUS, and Obama should accept it. Of course, that's not going to happen, because in Comey's mind, if the FBI director does it, it's A-Okay. Sound familiar?

Mallory Shelbourne: "... Donald Trump on Sunday accused the media of 'burying' the FBI's investigation into Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton's private email server. 'Wow, Twitter, Google and Facebook are burying the FBI criminal investigation of Clinton. Very dishonest media!' Trump tweeted." -- CW

*****

Presidential Race

Andy Borowitz: "In an unexpected televised address on Saturday, Queen Elizabeth II offered to restore British rule over the United States of America. Addressing the American people from her office in Buckingham Palace, the Queen said that she was making the offer 'in recognition of the desperate situation you now find yourselves in.'... Using the closing moments of her speech to tout her credentials, the Queen made it clear that she has never used e-mail and has only had sex with one person 'very occasionally.'" -- CW

Saturday in Union Square, NYC. By a Reader.

Spencer Ackerman of the Guardian: "The political pressure on FBI director James Comey intensified on Saturday night as four powerful Democratic senators demanded immediate answers about the bureau's announcement it is examining new material as part of its investigation about Hillary Clinton's email server. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Dianne Feinstein of California, Thomas Carper of Delaware and Benjamin Cardin of Maryland wrote to Comey and the attorney general, Loretta Lynch, to insist on a thorough briefing by Monday about Comey's decision to tell congressional officials about new material from an 'unrelated case' -- a decision that shook the campaigns with only 10 days to go.... The Clinton campaign called for Comey to provide 'public answers' to clarify what, if any, new information ... was pertinent to the Democratic presidential nominee. The Justice Department, meanwhile, distanced itself from Comey." -- CW ...

... Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "When FBI Director James Comey wrote his bombshell letter to Congress on Friday about newly discovered emails that were potentially 'pertinent' to the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server, agents had not been able to review any of the material, because the bureau had not yet gotten a search warrant to read them.... A Yahoo News review of Abedin's interview with FBI agents last April -- when the Clinton email probe was in full swing -- shows that the longtime Clinton aide hinted that there might be relevant material on her husband's personal devices. But agents do not appear to have followed up on the clues.... It is still far from clear which State Department emails might be on the devices that [Abedin's estranged husband Anthony] Weiner had access to. In a separate civil lawsuit brought by a conservative group, Judicial Watch, Abedin ... told Judicial Watch lawyers that she rarely used the personal Yahoo account, and that when she did, she only used it to forward State Department 'press clips' so she could print them." -- CW ...

... CW: That is, Jim Comey thought it would be a good idea to blow off obvious prudence, DOJ advice & direction, longstanding precedent & guidelines, to interfere in a presidential election -- because it's possible former Rep. Scumbag had access to some State Department press releases. However, Comey isn't sure about even that; for all he knows, the Abedin e-mails consist of a stream of cute kitten pictures. Of course, we don't know for sure -- since Comey won't say -- if the "possibly pertinent" information has anything to do with Abedin & Mr. Scumbag.

Matt Apuzzo, et al., of the New York Times: "The day before the F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, sent a letter to Congress announcing that new evidence had been discovered that may be related to the completed Hillary Clinton email investigation, the Justice Department strongly discouraged the step and told him that he would be breaking with longstanding policy, three law enforcement officials said on Saturday. Senior Justice Department officials did not move to stop him from sending the letter, officials said, but they did everything short of it, pointing to policies against talking about current criminal investigations or being seen as meddling in elections.... Justice Department officials were particularly puzzled about why Mr. Comey had alerted Congress -- and by extension, the public -- before agents even began reading the newly discovered emails to determine whether they contained classified information or added new facts to the case." -- CW ...

... Sari Horwitz, et al., of the Washington Post: Justice Department "officials told the FBI the department's position 'that we don't comment on an ongoing investigation. And we don't take steps that will be viewed as influencing an election,' said one Justice Department official.... 'Director Comey understood our position. He heard it from Justice leadership,' the official said. 'It was conveyed to the FBI, and Comey made an independent decision to alert the Hill. He is operating independently of the Justice Department. And he knows it.'... Comey's decision to ignore the advice of Justice leadership is 'stunning,' said Matt Miller, who served as Justice Department spokesman under then-Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. 'Jim Comey forgets that he works for the attorney general. I think he has a lot of regard for his own integrity. And he lets that regard cross lines into self-righteousness,' Miller said." -- CW ...

... Evan Perez & Pamela Brown of CNN: "Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates disagreed with FBI Director James Comey's decision to notify Congress about his bureau's review of emails potentially related to Hillary Clinton's personal server, law enforcement officials familiar with the discussion said. There was no direct confrontation between Lynch or Yates and Comey. Instead, the disagreements were conveyed to Comey by Justice Department staff, who advised the FBI chief his letter would be against department policy to not comment on investigations close to an election, the officials said. They added it was contrary to department policies and procedures, one law enforcement source said. Comey decided to disregard their concerns and sent the letter Friday anyway...." -- CW ...

... Kurt Eichenwald of Newsweek: "The disclosure by the Federal Bureau of Investigation late on Friday, October 28 ... has virtually nothing to do with any actions taken by [Hillary Clinton], according to government records and an official with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke to Newsweek on condition of anonymity.... There is no indication the emails in question were withheld by Clinton during the investigation, the law enforcement official told Newsweek, nor does the discovery suggest she did anything illegal. Also, none of the emails were to or from Clinton, the official said. Moreover, despite the widespread claims in the media that this development had prompted the FBI to 'reopen' the case, it did not; such investigations are never actually closed, and it is common for law enforcement to discover new information that needs to be examined." -- CW ...

... Daniel Marans of the Huffington Post: "Julie Werner-Simon, a former federal prosecutor who retired from DOJ in August 2015 after 29 years of service, argues that Comey's decision to make public an incremental development in the investigation with little clear significance is a breach of the protocol outlined in the [U.S. Attorneys'] manual. 'It is shocking and disheartening that someone I admired would do this,' she said. 'If I did what he did, I would be censured. My view is that there should be an investigation' into Comey's behavior, she added. 'Under the rules that he violated, that investigation [of Abedin's e-mails] should be secret. That's the point.'" -- CW ...

     ... See also Jane Mayer's story, linked yesterday. ...

... Matthew Miller in a Washington Post op-ed: "FBI Director James B. Comey's stunning announcement that he has directed investigators to begin reviewing new evidence in the Clinton email investigation was yet another troubling violation of long-standing Justice Department rules or precedent, conduct that raises serious questions about his judgment and ability to serve as the nation's chief investigative official.... This letter not only violated Justice rules on commenting on ongoing investigations but also flew in the face of years of precedent about how to handle sensitive cases as Election Day nears.... With [the] independence [accorded FBI directors] comes a responsibility to adhere to the rules that protect the rights of those whom the FBI investigates. Comey has failed that standard repeatedly in his handling of the Clinton investigation." Read the whole piece. -- CW ...

... Jeff Toobin of the New Yorker points out that everything we think we know about the "new evidence" comes from leaks to the press, some of them conflicting. "Even if Comey did not specifically make or authorize the leaks himself, he had to know that they would take place -- and he must take responsibility for them.... Comey says that he didn't 'want to create a misleading impression,' but that's precisely what he did. He had to know that his vague letter to Congress virtually demanded elaboration from 'senior government officials,' who would apply their own gloss, in the form of leaks.... If the outcome of the Presidential election turns on Comey's action, that's his burden, and the nation's, too." CW: As Healy & Martin point out in a NYT story linked below, it isn't only the presidential race that Comey's Surprise will affect: the news is "more likely to help the party's candidates for the House and Senate." ...

... digby: "It's clear to me that Comey has been successfully mau-maued by the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump and Jason Chaffetz for his unwillingness to indict Hillary Clinton on spurious nonsense back in July and he was more concerned about looking bad with them than he was about trashing the integrity of the FBI and inappropriately influencing a presidential election. That's pretty shocking." -- CW ...

... digby: "Kurt Eichenwald suggests that these were all actually emails sent to Abedin which she printed out at home to give to Clinton.... It's possible they were the secret directives from the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS that Huma gave to Hillary to carry out her treason but at the moment we have no idea what's in them because the FBI hasn't looked at them and can't do that until after the election. Just finding emails on Huma Abedin's computer without having any idea what was in them was enough to for Comey to violate all protocols, rules and norms 10 days from a presidential election." -- CW ...

... Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Barack Obama, for reasons I've never understood, chose a Republican to be head of the FBI. His reward? James Comey -- truly a hack in full — going over the heads of his bosses to send an letter to his Republican friends in Congress he had no obligation to send and contained no actual information but was worded in a way that insinuated that Hillary Clinton might have engaged in wrongdoing. I don't know if Comey was consciously trying to influence the election in favor of Trump, but either he was in on it or he was too dumb to know he was being set up by Jason Chaffetz. It's hard to overstate how disgraceful this conduct is.... I do hope that, at least, Hillary Clinton takes this as a long overdue hint that Democratic presidents should stop putting Republicans in important administration jobs." -- CW ...

... CW: In case you forgot, Comey first became well-known for his dramatic hospital-room intervention in March 2004 of an attempt by Dubya's chief-of-staff Andrew Card & White House counsel Alberto Gonzales (later AG) to browbeat a severely-ill AG, John Ashcroft, into signing off on re-authorization of Dubya's (unconstitutional) domestic spying program. According to Comey's own testimony, "he ordered his security detail to turn the car toward the hospital, careening down Constitution Avenue. Comey said he raced up the stairs of the hospital with his staff, beating Card and Gonzales to Ashcroft's room." That was Comey's claim to fame, and Blab Letter, written in defiance of long precedent and another AG's advice, is his way of reasserting the cowboy heroism that made him famous.

... CW: At least in the major media, and on the left, the "New Clinton E-Mail Scandal" is turning away from Clinton into a front-page story about Comey, the Lone Gunman. That's a good thing. I wish there were more along the lines of "There's no there there." ...

... CW, Ctd: In a personal letter to me (hey, he signed it "John"!) John Podesta wrote, "It's an unprecedented intrusion into a close presidential election with 10 days until Election Day. But by being vague and obfuscating, Comey opened the door to conspiracy theories, Republican attacks against Hillary, and a surge of fundraising for Trump and his team. So this bears repeating: There is no evidence of wrongdoing, no charge of wrongdoing, and no indication that any of this even involves Hillary." (Emphasis original.) P.S. I realize now that I'm reminded that "John" corresponds with me, you all will soon have access, via Wikileaks, to all my own scintillating personal e-mails.

... Patrick Healy & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton and her allies sprang onto a war footing on Saturday, opening a ferocious attack on the F.B.I.'s director a day after he disclosed that his agency was looking into a potential new batch of messages from her private email server. 'It is pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election,' Mrs. Clinton said at a rally in Daytona Beach, Fla. 'In fact, it's not just strange; it is unprecedented and it is deeply troubling.'... Her campaign waged a coordinated offensive on Saturday, accusing Mr. Comey of smearing Mrs. Clinton with innuendo late in the race and of violating Justice Department rules.... Several Republican pollsters and strategists said the F.B.I. inquiry was more likely to help the party's candidates for the House and Senate than to transform the political fortunes of Mr. Trump." -- CW ...

... John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Clinton stopped just short of accusing Comey, once a registered Republican, of partisan interference in the Nov. 8 election she is favored to win. She did not attempt to conceal her anger, although she went on to urge unity and optimism. Other Democrats went much further, issuing scathing assessments of Comey's motives and timing, as the potential for new legal jeopardy involving the Democratic nominee roiled an already tumultuous campaign.... The congressional black and Hispanic caucuses organized a news conference to denounce Comey, at least three Democratic senators drafted a letter of complaint Saturday and the Democratic National Committee issued a tartly worded statement. 'By releasing a letter within sixty days of the presidential election, FBI Director James Comey broke with long-standing department tradition that is meant to prevent any influence on the electoral process,' the DNC statement said." -- CW ...

... Ruby Cramer of BuzzFeed: Friday, just another normal day on the campaign trail with Hillary Clinton. -- CW ...

... Chris Megerian of the Los Angeles Times on how he broke the news to the Clinton campaign about Comey's Hallowe'en Trick. -- CW ...

... Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "Top Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin has told people she is unsure how her emails could have ended up on a device she viewed as her husband's computer, the seizure of which has reignited the Clinton email investigation, according to a person familiar with the investigation.... The person ... said Abedin was not a regular user of the computer, and even when she agreed to turn over emails to the State Department for federal records purposes, her lawyers did not search it for materials, not believing any of her messages to be there. That could be a significant oversight if Abedin's work messages were indeed on the computer of her estranged husband...." CW: Blame it on OneDrive! ...

... Nick Penzenstadler of USA Today: "Vice President Biden looked incredulous in an interview that aired Saturday when asked about Anthony Weiner.... 'Well, oh God, Anthony Weiner,' Biden said in the interview with CNN that was taped Friday at a stop in St. Louis for Democratic Senate candidate Jason Kander. 'I should not comment on Anthony Weiner. I'm not a big fan; I wasn't before he got in trouble. So I shouldn't comment,' Biden told CNN's Michael Smerconish." -- CW

... Sam Stein & Sam Levine of the Huffington Post: "Less than 24 hours after Comey tried to calm nerves at the FBI..., Donald Trump proved his fears to be justified and raised additional questions about why he went public in the first place.... It started with Trump's blanket claim that the newly discovered emails ... proved his Democratic rival was 'guilty' of ... something.... Trump also insisted that because the FBI had announced that investigators were looking into the emails, it had to be that the material they'd discovered was massive in scope and scandal.... 'Trump again says the Weiner emails are part of the 30k lost emails.'" Trump also said the DOJ advised Comey against writing to Congress because 'The Department of Justice is trying so hard to protect Hillary."-- CW ...

This is bigger than Watergate. This is bigger than Watergate. In my opinion. This is bigger than Watergate. -- Donald Trump, at a campaign rally, Oct. 28

... there is not enough information available right now to know whether these emails will make a difference in the case.... So far, there have been no criminal charges, and therefore no convictions or guilty pleas in the Clinton email scandal. That makes the Clinton emails fundamentally different from Watergate, where 48 people were found guilty. Trump earns Four more Pinocchios for this absurd comparison. -- Michelle Lee of the Washington Post

Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump has found a new reason to question the legitimacy of the 2016 election -- ballots -- and he wasted little time [at a rally in Golden, Colo.,] on Saturday before taking issue with the voting system in this largely vote-by-mail state. 'I have real problems with ballots being sent,' Mr. Trump said, pantomiming a ballot collector sifting envelops and tossing some over his shoulder while counting others.'... Mr. Trump's repetitive accusations of a 'rigged' election and a slanted electoral system are grounded in the belief that fraudulent behavior would only help his opponent. Yet it was a Trump supporter in Des Moines who was charged on Thursday with a Class D felony in Iowa, having sent in two absentee ballots, both supporting Mr. Trump." See also today's Election News, below. -- CW

The Phony Philanthropist. David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "For as long as he has been rich and famous, Donald Trump has also wanted people to believe he is generous. He spent years constructing an image as a philanthropist by appearing at charity events and by making very public -- even nationally televised -- promises to give his own money away. It was, in large part, a facade. A months-long investigation by The Washington Post has not been able to verify many of Trump's boasts about his philanthropy. Instead, throughout his life in the spotlight, whether as a businessman, television star or presidential candidate, The Post found that Trump had sought credit for charity he had not given -- or had claimed other people's giving as his own." -- CW

Emily Crockett of Vox on how a newly-surfaced video of Donald Trump's humiliating a former Miss Universe, on stage, in front of thousands of people, explains rape culture. CW: I plead guilty. I saw the video yesterday, and thought, "Gee, men have done things like that to me at least a hundred times, and I put up with it. This isn't like, you know, some bigshot in your workplace slamming you up against the wall & forcing his tongue down your throat (yeah, that's happened, too, and it's way worse). But Crockett gets it right: "... the terrible truth about Trump's alleged crimes is that sexual misconduct is so common -- so routine -- that a lot of people don't even know it when they see it."

Meet Your Trump Supporters. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "At a Saturday afternoon [Trump] rally [in Phoenix, Az.], one man confronted the media on his own -- with an anti-Semitic chant and a hand gesture that some on social media suggested resembled hate symbols.... As the rest of the crowd broke into a chant of 'USA! USA!' the man chanted, 'Jew-S-A!'... In recent weeks, Trump has intensified his anti-media rhetoric at his rallies. His crowds have followed his lead, booing and taunting reporters when the GOP presidential nominee complains about the press." ...

     ... CW: This kind of attack gives me actual chills every time I read about it. By carelessly voting for Donald Trump, millions of otherwise-decent Americans are willing to allow their country to descend into a vast white-supremacist swamp. It's the great lingering stain of our national origins -- slavery and the genocide of the first Americans. Apparently we will never recover.

Election News

How a Trumpbot Responded to Trump's "Polls Are Rigged" Message. Sarah Boden of Iowa Public Radio: "A Des Moines woman has been charged with Election Misconduct, a Class D felony, after allegedly voting twice for GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Terri Rote says she was afraid her first ballot for Trump would be changed to a vote for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton. 'I wasn't planning on doing it twice, it was spur of the moment,' says Rote. 'The polls are rigged.'" See related story linked yesterday. -- CW

Senate Race

Chad Griffin, President of HRC, in Medium: "On Thursday night, Senator [Mark] Kirk's [R-Ill.] comments about his opponent's heritage were deeply offensive and racist. His attempt to use Congresswoman Tammy Duckworth's race as a means to undermine her family's American heritage and patriotism is beyond reprehensible. Yesterday, Senator Kirk tweeted an apology that failed to adequately address the real harm and magnitude of his words. So today, following a vote by our board's committee, the Human Rights Campaign withdrew our support of Senator Kirk." -- CW

Other News & Views

And They're Worried about "The E-Mails"?? Scott Shane & Jo Becker of the New York Times: "Harold T. Martin III..., whose arrest in August was disclosed by The New York Times this month..., put to the test the government's costly system for protecting secrets. And year after year, the system failed. Mr. Martin got and kept a top-secret security clearance despite a record that included drinking problems, a drunken-driving arrest, two divorces, unpaid tax bills, a charge of computer harassment and a bizarre episode in which he posed as a police officer in a traffic dispute. Under clearance rules, such events should have triggered closer scrutiny by the security agencies where he worked as a contractor. Yet even after extensive leaks by Pfc. Bradley Manning in 2010 and Edward Snowden in 2013 prompted new layers of safeguards, Mr. Martin was able to walk out of the N.S.A. with highly classified material, adding it to the jumbled piles in his house, shed and car." -- CW

Bill McKibben, in a New York Times op-ed: "The Native Americans who have spent the last months in peaceful protest against an oil pipeline along the banks of the Missouri are standing up for tribal rights. They're also standing up for clean water, environmental justice and a working climate. And it's time that everyone else joined in. The shocking images of the National Guard destroying tepees and sweat lodges and arresting elders this week remind us that the battle over the Dakota Access Pipeline is part of the longest-running drama in American history -- the United States Army versus Native Americans.... Those heroes on the Standing Rock reservation, sometimes on horseback, have peacefully stood up to police dogs, pepper spray and the bizarre-looking militarized tanks and SWAT teams that are the stuff of modern policing.... There are at least two grounds for demanding a full environmental review of this pipeline, instead of the fast-track approvals it has received so far. The first is the obvious environmental racism of the whole project.... The second is that this is precisely the kind of project that climate science tells us can no longer be tolerated." -- CW

News Lede

Guardian: "Italy has been rocked by a magnitude 6.6 earthquake, hitting the central Italian region already reeling from a series of large quakes. The epicentre of the quake, according to initial reports, was about 40 miles (68km) south-west of Perugia and close to the town of Norcia, which had been hit by two successive quakes on Wednesday night that caused extensive damage." -- CW

Comments

[Marvin Schwalb]

The Trompbot that voted twice to deal with election rigging tells everything about the brain of Trump supporters. Apparently the word 'delusional' is not a word for mental health. It is just a common human trait for people with Trump sized brains.

[Marvin Schwalb]

OK, let's see Comey's emails for the last year,!! And Trump's!!!

[Gloria]

I hope Comey's disregard of Justice Department guidelines and his general impropriety immunise Dems against any warm, fuzzy feelings they might have to "reach out" or appoint Confederates to government positions, just to prove how inclusive they are. Just. Don't. Dems get no kudos for bipartisanship, it only comes back to bite them. There is no upside. They can take a lesson from trump, talk big about philanthropy but don't actually do it.

[Gloria]

I concur with Crocket in the Vox article linked above. I test myself by turning these events over. Put an ugly, obese, elderly woman on stage humiliating a handsome, personable young man, grabbing him and kissing him in front of a large audience. Is that an amusing and unremarkable act? Should he be required by form to remain friendly and good humoured? Or would we be shocked?

[Diane]

Although the Trump/Hawkins video had no profanity, it did have a clearer picture of sexual intimidation and dominance through dialogue and visuals. He used his oft seen techniques of humiliation and sexual dominance: getting her onstage was like calling your dog; in another statement, he repeated "she came, she came, she came" making the comment more explicit by tagging the audience with "dirty minds", to make sure the intent was clear; never looking at her and pushing her away while he was belittling her; aggressively grabbing and kissing her to seal his dominance; then dismissing her from the stage. Trump also used a technique we've seen many times when he credits himself for holding back his "real" statements in favor of some moral stance. Immediately after, he says what he was holding back. Hawkins was "not too bright", but not really.

I think this video might get as much traction on a loop as the Acess Hollywood video. Its an actual visual of Trump obviously humiliating a young woman as he tries to assert his sexual dominance, because she failed to show proper subservience.

Wouldn't you like to see a woman grab his crotch and tell him she was just looking for his little twinkie (thank-you Victoria Gotti)

[carlyle]

"From today's UK edition of the Guardian on line:
For a respected, ostensibly independent figure like the FBI director to tip his hand at this extraordinarily sensitive moment amounts to an overtly political, partisan act."
Assuming the director is not an idiot, he must have known that he was giving aid to the wing nuts. He protests too much. He should slink of to one of those right wing "think tanks" now instead of later.

[Diane]

There is widespread agreement that Comey acted in error, from a violation of the Hatch Act to milder stances. I can only hope that his actions will dominate the reporting rather than the Humedin/ Weiner e-mails. It really doesn't matter right now if his actions were purposeful in order to influence the election, because he was afraid of leaks in an agency in which he has lost control, in service of his ego or in defiance to the US Attorney General. Any remedy will come much later. The letter cannot be put back in the bottle.

I sincerely hope Clinton is correct, that the e-mails have already been cooked into the equation. There is a tremendous amount of work to do between now and the midterms in 2018. We are in for a very rough ride to preserve democracy.