Arizona Senator John McCain appeared confused during the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with former FBI Director James Comey. At one point, the 80-year-old McCain referred to President Donald Trump as “Mr. Comey” and even said “President Comey.”
McCain was asking Comey about his handling of Trump compared to his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server for official Secretary of State business. McCain’s questions were often incomplete thoughts. He began his time during the hearing by appearing to condemn Comey’s decision not to recommend criminal charges against Clinton even though he called her actions “careless.” McCain tried to ask Comey why he could reach a conclusion in the Clinton case, but not in the Trump case.
Comey explained that the Clinton investigation was completed, while the Trump investigation has not been. The former FBI director said that the cases are not comparable at this point and he couldn’t do the comparison because he was fired while it was still ongoing.
My favorite part of this was watching James Comey's face while he tried to make sense of what McCain was trying to ask.
It appeared to me that McCain got the two investigations, one being directed at Hillary and one directed at the Trump campaign, confused as being about the same topic, and could not figure out why one subject was found innocent months ago and the other was still under investigation.
It was so bizarre that I literally stared at my TV slack jawed while trying to figure out what kinds of medications McCain either had just taken, or just forgotten to take.
Here was how Rachel Maddow reported on the questioning.
I guess that's a good a guess as any.I think what Sen McCain is saying is that FBI should investigate if Hillary Clinton colluded with the Russians to hurt her own campaign. OK.— Rachel Maddow MSNBC (@maddow) June 8, 2017
However just a little while ago McCain did release a statement in an attempt to explain himself:
U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) released the following statement today on his questions at today’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing with former FBI Director James Comey:
“I get the sense from Twitter that my line of questioning today went over people’s heads. Maybe going forward I shouldn’t stay up late watching the Diamondbacks night games.
“What I was trying to get at was whether Mr. Comey believes that any of his interactions with the President rise to the level of obstruction of justice. In the case of Secretary Clinton’s emails, Mr. Comey was willing to step beyond his role as an investigator and state his belief about what ‘no reasonable prosecutor’ would conclude about the evidence. I wanted Mr. Comey to apply the same approach to the key question surrounding his interactions with President Trump—whether or not the President’s conduct constitutes obstruction of justice. While I missed an opportunity in today’s hearing, I still believe this question is important, and I intend to submit it in writing to Mr. Comey for the record.”
Yeah sure Grandpa, THAT'S what you were trying to ask.
Better go back to yelling at kids walking on your lawn,
Regarding McCains excuse for sounding so confused and bumbling... if that's what he was trying to say, why didn't he say it? That's not what he was doing. Either he's suffering from old timers disease, or he was extremely inept trying to link Hillary to the Russians or was trying to muddy the waters somehow. Republicans always revert to "but Hillary or Obama" when they want to change the subject. McCain tried to do the same thing, and got hopelessly lost. He needs to retire.
ReplyDeleteIt was obviously a GOP tactic to change the subject and swing it back to the inane and ridiculous Hillary Clinton email issue. I guess McCain either volunteered or got volunteered to lead the counterattack. I'm glad he was in such a dither; what he was trying to do was absolutely absurd but totally unsurprising from the GOP.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
McCain came off half cocked! That is not unusual to Alaskans. Remember, he's the one that picked the idiot Sarah Palin from Alaska to run with him in the second position. Thank God they lost to President Obama! A man that is loved and respected today - way and above Donald Trump or Palin!
ReplyDeleteRepublicans are a sick bunch and many will be voted out of office next election cycle.
Trump especially needs to be 'deported' to a country where he'll be frightened to death! Remember that the majority despise his sorry fat-white, stupid ass!
Fuck John McCain! Another old, white, over weight Republican in the U.S. Congress that needs to go to sleep forever. He will not be missed! Don't forget, he's the idiot that loved Sarah Palin! Holy shit!
ReplyDeleteHoly crap. That was painful.
ReplyDeleteYes...bigly SAD! Another shining moment for the GOP.
DeleteI don't know which was more painful: his questioning, or his explanation of his questioning...
ReplyDeleteHis explanation still doesn't make sense-- Comet said one was closed, so he could make a statement, and one is open with facts still being found. Two different people, two different, unrelated investigations. Why. Why did he double down on this stupidity??
DeleteHey! My autocorrect makes "comet" out of "comey," too.
DeleteI think a Russian hooker sucked his brain cells out or he got hold of one of Sarah's "energy" pills.
ReplyDeleteAnd they invited him to the hearing as a show of respect, I heard yesterday, although today some have said he asked to be there. Either way, what a waste. Well, except for how well Comey handled grandpa--it made Comey look even better.
ReplyDeleteHas the cancer gone to his brain or was he sleeping during the previous questions?
ReplyDeleteEven after he repeated the same verbal vomit, he still wasn’t clear and I had the feeling that he thought Comey was trying to be evasive.
If he had been awake during the questioning, he would have known the question about obstruction of justice had already been asked and answered.
As for his explanation, good try at damage control by his staff, but you still lose.
My feeling was McCain’s goal was to raise the doubts about the investigation into Hillary’s emails. This is the first time I have heard it called a “criminal “ investigation.
Too bad Comey didn’t answer, we weren’t investigating Hillary in relation to russia because we didn’t have any proof of contact like we did with the trump campaign.
His excuse is that he stayed up late the night before watching a sports event. Hmmm. Doesn't wash with me.
DeleteBeaglemom
The best argument Senator McCain made today was for term limits
ReplyDeleteI totally agree!
Deletehttp://www.politicususa.com/2017/06/08/adam-schiff-terrify-trump-comey-testimony.html
ReplyDelete"In my view, this testimony constitutes evidence of an intention to interfere or potentially obstruct at least a portion of the Russia investigation, if not more." if Adam Schiff is throwing around words like evidence and obstruction, Donald Trump has a world of problems."
k.o.
ReplyDeletehttp://video.gq.com/watch/the-closer-with-keith-olbermann-what-we-now-know-from-james-comey?c=series
I was like, what has he been doing?! Smoking crack?
ReplyDeleteMcinsane all you did was waste! Tax payer money. What a huuge fool!
Oh, goody.
ReplyDeleteWhile we were all distracted by that senile blowhard, Ryan and the House just dismantled Dodd-Frank.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/house-republicans-working-key-bill-struggle-escape-comeys-shadow-204218775.html
"On Thursday, House Republicans passed the crown jewel of their regulatory reform package: the Financial Choice Act, which undoes many of the regulations in the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that was intended to reform Wall Street after the financial crisis. The bill, which guts one of President Barack Obama’s legislative legacies, will soon head over to the Senate for consideration."
Here we go again. I guess we all should stuff our life savings into our mattresses. How can many of us, already retired in 2008, withstand another GOP attack on our life savings? We have not recouped what we lost then.
DeleteOh, how great the GOP is for the American economy. Will our fellow Americans ever learn that the economy really does do best when the Democrats are in charge in Washington?
Beaglemom
Pathetic. How this disgusting POS keeps getting reelected is beyond me. Just pathetic.
ReplyDeleteIt only took 9 years for McCain to finally catch that dreaded, contagious disease called "Word Salad Syndrome"!
ReplyDeleteMore under the radar while we are distracted by shiny things.
ReplyDeleteThe King of Voter Suppression wants to be governor of Kansas.
"Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a Republican nationally known for championing strict voter ID laws, launched a 2018 gubernatorial campaign Thursday."
"His announcement came just two days after the state legislature voted to override Republican Gov. Sam Brownback’s veto of legislation rolling back drastic tax cuts the state implemented in 2012. Kobach criticized the vote, tweeting that “it is time to drain the swamp in Topeka,” the state’s capital."
"During his first year in his current post, his office drafted the Secure and Fair Elections Act, later adopted by the state legislature. It requires voters to present a photo ID when casting a ballot in person and submit proof of citizenship when registering to vote, making it one of the nation’s toughest such laws.
The act was met with strong opposition from voting rights advocates, and has faced legal challenges since its adoption. Last year, a federal judge ruled that that the proof-of-citizenship requirement likely violates the National Voter Registration Act and ordered the state to re-register thousands of voters. The state has appealed the ruling."
"In May, President Donald Trump named Kobach vice chairman of a commission to investigate voter fraud in the 2016 election. No evidence has surfaced to back up Trump’s claim that between three million and five million people voted illegally in the election.
Kobach has also advised Trump on immigration issues, such as the proposed construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and the creation of a national registry of Muslim immigrants. "
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kris-kobach-kansas-governor_us_59399d2be4b0c5a35c9d6c3b?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
And he'll win too. Because Democrats have no plan or strategy to prevent it. They just keep repeating the same past failed strategies.
You know what happens when you take a failed strategy and you "improve" it to make it more efficient? You get a more efficient failure.
ASSuming that Obama voters or Hillary voters will simply vote Democrat is ASSinine.
Just because they hate Trump isn't going to make them Democrats.
The DCCC has enough money to support all candidates. By only supporting those that they think can win is a LOSING strategy. It's lost them for the last decade; local, state and now Federal.
Ossoff could have won the George special election outright except the DCCC ignored it until the last minute. So now he's in a runoff with Karen "Susan Coman" Handel. You know, Miss I don't support a livable wage. And you know what? Now SHE'LL WIN. Yes, after saying that she'll still win.
Ossoff got 48% of the field. If the DCCC had supported him early on he would have won outright.
Now he'll lose.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/karen-handel-livable-wage_us_59382d0ae4b00610547e6d3e?section=us_politics
They did the same thing in Montana. They pissed away the chance to put a Democrat in D.C. and now we have that press pummeling fuck Gianforte in Congress.
That just emboldens more fascist Trump behavior.
The party that continues to fail to win will continue to be trounced by the party that can't govern.
No wonder they won't impeach Trump. They know that despite everything, they'll still win. If Gianforte and Handel can get elected, they have no fear they'll be re-elected too despite being tied to Trump, no matter what he does.
Just wait until Governor Kobach starts spreading his voter suppression tricks to all of the other red governors. All 31 of them.
How many states does it take to pass a constitutional amendment? 38. They are that close. Once they have the House, the Senate and 38 state governors and legislatures, they can do whatever the fuck they want.
Hell, yes, we should be very scared.
And we should be angry that the Democrats are so fucking inept.
I have the impression of Bill Hader as Clint Eastwood, pants up to his nipples, talking to a chair (in an empty Senate hearing room), saying "get off of my damn lawn!"
ReplyDelete