James Comey needs to quit while he’s ahead
Former FBI Director James Comey has somehow managed to at least partially work his way back into the good graces of mainstream America, even after he screwed the country in a way that no one ever has. Even people who accurately blame Comey for this entire “President Donald Trump” mess are inclined to side with him, at least for now, if only out of necessity. Comey needs to understand that it’s not going to last.
Whether though malice or naivety, Comey misled the public into thinking that Hillary Clinton was under criminal investigation just days before they voted, after having spent the entire election misleading the public into believing that Donald Trump wasn’t under criminal investigation. Either he cared more about the good of the FBI than the good of the nation, or he was too painfully clueless to understand the fraudulent impact that his last-minute Hillary letter would have.
Either way, James Comey had no business holding the FBI Director job that he held. That said, Donald Trump of all people had no right to fire him, particularly in such a personally humiliating manner, and it’s made Comey into something of a sympathetic figure. In addition, Comey has since become a key witness who can help take Trump down for felony obstruction of justice. Throw in Trump’s increasingly inappropriate Twitter rants about Comey, and suddenly we all want to run out and buy Comey’s book just to find out all the ugly things he has to say about Trump. But now Comey is arguably taking it too far.
Comey deserves some credit for admitting in his book that he sent his second letter because he thought Hillary Clinton was going to win anyway. It’s an admission on his part that he blew it, and that Donald Trump’s illegitimate presidency is partly his fault. Most people wouldn’t admit this to themselves, let alone to the public. But Comey is also revealing that his wife and daughters were Hillary supporters. Who gives a damn? That just means he’s yet another insecure middle aged white man who couldn’t get behind a strong woman as president, even as the women in his life made clear to him that he had his head up his ass.
By bringing his family into it, James Comey is trying to paint himself as almost pro-Hillary. That’s not something that anyone is going to buy into. Comey is trying to incrementally rewrite history in his favor. What he doesn’t get is that mainstream America is only allowing him to rehabilitate himself a bit because we need him, for now at least. If Comey is lucky, history will ultimately forget that he ever existed. If he tries too hard to paint himself as some kind of tragically sympathetic figure, history will indeed remember his name, and not in the manner he’s hoping. Once Trump is taken down, Comey should do us all a favor and get out of history’s way entirely.
