Bryan Fischer
For Comey, it's reputation; for Obama, it's payback
By Bryan Fischer
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Host of "Focal Point" on American Family Radio, 1-3pm CT, M-F www.afr.net
My theory on this weekend's bombshell revelation that the FBI is reopening its investigation into Hillary's emails: James Comey is trying to salvage what's left of his shredded reputation, and Barack Obama is trying to keep Hillary out of White House as payback for 2008.
Comey has been blistered by everybody in the world, including FBI agents, for not doing his duty and recommending an indictment of Hillary in the first place for breaking the law and endangering our national security in her handling of classified information. Word is circulating throughout D.C. this morning that FBI agents were in virtual full revolt over Comey's feckless cowardice in the summer, and were prepared to start leaking information to the public. A stack of resignation letters was apparently piling up on Comey's desk from frustrated and furious agents. It may be that Comey had little choice but to try to get out in front of that wave by going public as he did on Friday.
He'd had a sterling, impeccable reputation prior to that July press conference, for being a man of Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity (FBI), until he blew all that out of the tub by cravenly letting Hillary off the hook in a gross display of favoritism and injustice. Last Friday's letter was an opportunity – feeble at best – to present himself as a man who is what people used to think he was, a lawman who follows the evidence wherever it leads in the principled pursuit of justice.
He can do so with some limited plausibility, on the ground that he now has "new evidence" he didn't have in July, in the form of the 650,000 emails which have been found on the server shared by Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner. It's impossible to imagine that this new evidence could possibly make Hillary look any worse than the evidence he had at his disposal in July, but there it is.
To make matters worse for Hillary, Huma is apparently fully cooperating with the FBI, and Weiner is singing like a popinjay. The bottom line here: Huma is in hiding, Carlos is in danger, and Clinton is collapsing.
I likewise would say with virtual certainty that Comey did not do this without a sign-off from people who are higher up the food chain than he is, of which there are just two: Loretta Lynch and President Obama. Lynch has indicated publicly that she is furious at Comey for going over her head on this one. So it wasn't her.
The president, on the other hand, has been notably and curiously silent, even ignoring shouted questions over the weekend from the press. He said he found out about all this pretty much in the same way he finds out about everything, by hearing it on the news.
But of course that's what he said back in the day about Hillary's private server. The Wikileaks revelations have demonstrated conclusively that he was lying when he said that, and so it's possible – I would say likely – that he's lying now.
He had to know about the letter. Nothing of this magnitude could possibly happen in his administration without his awareness and authorization. A bombshell of this tonnage this late in the game is too devastating to Hillary to be a chance thing. It seems almost deliberately timed to do maximum damage to her campaign. It's like a submarine-fired torpedo designed to blow a hole in the middle of Hillary's boat.
There is simply no reason this announcement could not have been postponed until after the election, other than public outcry. But it's too late for Comey to redeem himself by doing that, and Obama simply doesn't care.
My educated speculation is that the president – who has a thin skin and knows how to carry a grudge (he's been carrying a bitter grudge against the United States his entire adult life) – saw this as a golden opportunity for payback. To Hillary Clinton.
He has carried resentment against the Clintons since the 2008 campaign, especially since the moment Bill contemptuously told Ted Kennedy, "A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee." That's not the kind of thing Barack Obama forgets. Ever.
I have believed since the beginning of this campaign that the president does not want Hillary to win and would do what was in his power to sabotage her without leaving his fingerprints on the IED. I frankly had been surprised, up until Friday, that I had seen no apparent attempt on his part to reduce her campaign to rubble.
In fact, I do not believe Obama wanted any Democrat to win. He is staying in D.C. after he leaves office, unlike virtually every president before him, in the hopes he can hang around and ceaselessly carp, condemn, and criticize a Republican president and blame him for fouling up the paradise he claims to have created as president.
Everything that goes wrong in the next four to eight years he wants to blame on a Republican president, just as he has blamed everything for the last eight years on the Republican president who preceded him.
It's a two-fer for him: he keeps Hillary from her grand prize, and gets to start whacking away at the next Republican pinata.
Bottom line: if the weekend's Chernobyl-like implosion puts Trump in the White House, we may in the end have Obama and his pettiness to thank for saving the Republic from Hillary Clinton.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
October 31, 2016
Follow me on Twitter: @BryanJFischer, on Facebook at "Focal Point"
Host of "Focal Point" on American Family Radio, 1-3pm CT, M-F www.afr.net
My theory on this weekend's bombshell revelation that the FBI is reopening its investigation into Hillary's emails: James Comey is trying to salvage what's left of his shredded reputation, and Barack Obama is trying to keep Hillary out of White House as payback for 2008.
Comey has been blistered by everybody in the world, including FBI agents, for not doing his duty and recommending an indictment of Hillary in the first place for breaking the law and endangering our national security in her handling of classified information. Word is circulating throughout D.C. this morning that FBI agents were in virtual full revolt over Comey's feckless cowardice in the summer, and were prepared to start leaking information to the public. A stack of resignation letters was apparently piling up on Comey's desk from frustrated and furious agents. It may be that Comey had little choice but to try to get out in front of that wave by going public as he did on Friday.
He'd had a sterling, impeccable reputation prior to that July press conference, for being a man of Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity (FBI), until he blew all that out of the tub by cravenly letting Hillary off the hook in a gross display of favoritism and injustice. Last Friday's letter was an opportunity – feeble at best – to present himself as a man who is what people used to think he was, a lawman who follows the evidence wherever it leads in the principled pursuit of justice.
He can do so with some limited plausibility, on the ground that he now has "new evidence" he didn't have in July, in the form of the 650,000 emails which have been found on the server shared by Huma Abedin and her estranged husband Anthony Weiner. It's impossible to imagine that this new evidence could possibly make Hillary look any worse than the evidence he had at his disposal in July, but there it is.
To make matters worse for Hillary, Huma is apparently fully cooperating with the FBI, and Weiner is singing like a popinjay. The bottom line here: Huma is in hiding, Carlos is in danger, and Clinton is collapsing.
I likewise would say with virtual certainty that Comey did not do this without a sign-off from people who are higher up the food chain than he is, of which there are just two: Loretta Lynch and President Obama. Lynch has indicated publicly that she is furious at Comey for going over her head on this one. So it wasn't her.
The president, on the other hand, has been notably and curiously silent, even ignoring shouted questions over the weekend from the press. He said he found out about all this pretty much in the same way he finds out about everything, by hearing it on the news.
But of course that's what he said back in the day about Hillary's private server. The Wikileaks revelations have demonstrated conclusively that he was lying when he said that, and so it's possible – I would say likely – that he's lying now.
He had to know about the letter. Nothing of this magnitude could possibly happen in his administration without his awareness and authorization. A bombshell of this tonnage this late in the game is too devastating to Hillary to be a chance thing. It seems almost deliberately timed to do maximum damage to her campaign. It's like a submarine-fired torpedo designed to blow a hole in the middle of Hillary's boat.
There is simply no reason this announcement could not have been postponed until after the election, other than public outcry. But it's too late for Comey to redeem himself by doing that, and Obama simply doesn't care.
My educated speculation is that the president – who has a thin skin and knows how to carry a grudge (he's been carrying a bitter grudge against the United States his entire adult life) – saw this as a golden opportunity for payback. To Hillary Clinton.
He has carried resentment against the Clintons since the 2008 campaign, especially since the moment Bill contemptuously told Ted Kennedy, "A few years ago, this guy would have been getting us coffee." That's not the kind of thing Barack Obama forgets. Ever.
I have believed since the beginning of this campaign that the president does not want Hillary to win and would do what was in his power to sabotage her without leaving his fingerprints on the IED. I frankly had been surprised, up until Friday, that I had seen no apparent attempt on his part to reduce her campaign to rubble.
In fact, I do not believe Obama wanted any Democrat to win. He is staying in D.C. after he leaves office, unlike virtually every president before him, in the hopes he can hang around and ceaselessly carp, condemn, and criticize a Republican president and blame him for fouling up the paradise he claims to have created as president.
Everything that goes wrong in the next four to eight years he wants to blame on a Republican president, just as he has blamed everything for the last eight years on the Republican president who preceded him.
It's a two-fer for him: he keeps Hillary from her grand prize, and gets to start whacking away at the next Republican pinata.
Bottom line: if the weekend's Chernobyl-like implosion puts Trump in the White House, we may in the end have Obama and his pettiness to thank for saving the Republic from Hillary Clinton.
(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)
© Bryan Fischer
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
