Taking a shot a 70-year-old President Donald Trump, 47-year-old House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) took liberty saying he disagreed with Trump calling former FBI Director James Comey a “nut-job.” When Comey reopened former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s email investigation Oct. 28, 2016, only 11 days before the election, Democrats called Comey a lot worse than “nut-job.” Comey was accused of politicizing the FBI, interfering with a presidential election, tipping the election to Trump. Hillary said May 2 she would have won the election if it were held Oct. 27, 2016, the day before Comey sabotaged her campaign. Democrats were so furious with Comey they were ready to string him up. Yet after Trump fired Comey May 9, anti-Trump Democrats and Republicans accuse Trump of obstructing the FBI’s Michael Flynn investigation.
After Trump won the Indiana primary May 4, 2016 becoming the presumptive GOP nominee, Ryan said he wasn’t ready to support him. “To be perfectly candid with you, Jake, I’m not ready to do that at this point,” Ryan told CNN’s Jake Tapper May 5, 2016. “I’m not there yet,” showing the same ambivalence that plagues Ryan’s relationship with Trump today. “Yeah, I don’t agree with that. And he’s not,” Ryan told the New York Times, referring to Trump calling Comey a “nut-job” for his inept handling of Hillary’s email investigation. Trump called Comey a nut-job for his unhinged testimony May 3 in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Comey ranted about not trusting former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch after she met with former President Bill Clinton June 29, 2016 on the tarmac of Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. Comey 100% excused his handling of Hillary’s email investigation.
Many anti-Trump Democrats and Republicans defend Comey’s handling now over his Hillary email investigation, despite condemning him after he reopened the investigation less than two weeks before the election. Speaking to anti-Trump conservative Mike Allen, Ryan refused to say whether Trump obstructed justice, allegedly telling Comey “he hoped” he couldn’t let go of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s investigation. Anti-Trump Democrats and Republicans have already impeached Trump for high-crimes and misdemeanors. Hillary supporter Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz told Fox News Tucker Carlson May 19 that there’s zero evidence Trump committed any crimes, let alone “high-crimes-and-misdemeanors.” Yet the anti-Trump crowd led by CNN and other liberal news outlets finds everything Trump says and does reprehensible.
Trump’s detractors, like Ryan and Sen. John McCain (R-Az), take any specious news story of Trump’s alleged malfeasance as proof of guilt. “I like Jim Comey. I know that there are people who are on both sides of the aisle concerned about decisions he made. It think he was put into an impossible situation,” said Ryan, repeating Comey’s arguments May 3 to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Comey insisted he had to go public with new email evidence Oct. 28, 2016, or conceal it and risk the public’s wrath. Comey divulged openly he could no longer trust Lynch, deciding not to consult with the Department of Justice before going public with Congress about reopening the Hillary email investigation. Comey had other options than bypassing the AG’s office. He could have shared his concerns with key members of the House and Senate Intelligence and Judiciary Committees.
Ryan needs to re-read Deputy Atty. Gen Rod Rosenstein’s May 10 three-page letter explaining the reasons for Comey’s termination. “I think the guy was forced into nearly an impossible decision. Understandably, he was going to get criticized, but I think he served the country ably,” said Ryan, ignoring Comey’s breach of protocol, taking the law into his own hands. Comey’s action to bypass the Department of Justice would be the same for Ryan if he decided to bypass the State Department and set foreign policy for the U.S. government. Comey didn’t make a small booboo, he usurped the Justice Department under whom he worked. Whether or not he trusted Loretta Lynch, it wasn’t Comey’s call last July to let Hillary off the hook. That decision should have been left to the DOJ’s career prosecutors. Comey decided on his own July 5 to end the Hillary email investigation.
Ryan wasn’t unwilling to say whether or not Trump obstructed justice in the FBI’s Michael Flynn probe. Yet when it came to Hillary deleting some 33,000 emails off her private server, Ryan had no opinion whether or not Hillary obstructed justice. Deleting or destroying paper or electronics files during an investigation defines obstruction of justice. Anti-Trump Democrats and Republicans are ready to accuse Trump of obstruction of justice without any evidence but when Hillary deletes 33,000 private emails that doesn’t warrant Comey’s second look. “He’s a very strong man. He’s a very principled man,” anti-Trump Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) told host John Dickerson May 21 on CBS’s “Face The Nation.” “I happen to believe he mad a couple of mistakes. I suspect he thinks he’s made a couple of mistakes,” Feisntein said but nothing warranting his termination.
