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Perhaps no one in Washington has been so loved and so hated by so many in the political world than former FBI director James Comey.
Whether it was Republican scorn for closing the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server, or Democratic praise for his latest testimony before the Senate, Comey has been played by both sides.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) put it best during Thursday’s hearing, telling the former director, “I think you’ve been cast as a hero or a villain, depending on whose political ox is being gored.”
From the perspective of the White House, Comey took on both roles during his three-hour testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Comey the villain accused Donald Trump of lying about the reasons he fired him, demanding personal loyalty and trying to stop an FBI criminal probe of former national security adviser Mike Flynn.
Trump’s lawyer Marc Kasowitz rejected the claims in a Thursday night rebuttal, saying it was Comey who was not telling the truth. And Trump personally reacted to Comey’s testimony on Twitter referring vaguely to “so many false statements and lies.”
Yet in the same 140-character message, Trump said Comey’s testimony was a “total and complete vindication.”
Comey the hero did what Trump reportedly asked him to do repeatedly; he confirmed that the FBI was not investigating the president personally.
In the court of public opinion, the question now is who is lying and who is telling the truth?
Top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.) once criticized Comey for reopening the Clinton email probe, saying his behavior was not “fair, professional, or consistent” with FBI policies. On Thursday, Durbin spoke about the fired FBI director in the highest terms, telling reporters, “Jim Comey was one of the most credible witnesses I can remember.”
Comey was asked by a Democratic senator why they should believe his accounts of the facts and not the White House. He replied, “You can’t cherry-pick it. You can’t say, ‘I like these things he said, but on this, he’s a dirty, rotten liar.’ You’ve got to take it all together.”
Given his centrality in the most heated political scandals of the past two years and his ability to draw scorn from partisans on the left and right, taking Comey’s record as a totality will not be simple. And his credibility may be judged on which party he hurt the most or most recently.
Jason Easley, founder of the left-leaning news site PoliticusUSA, readily acknowledged that both Republicans and Democrats have plenty of reasons to be angry with Comey’s past decisions.
“The reason why Comey is so polarizing is that he doesn’t fit easily into the partisan categories that define our current political climate,” Easley explained. “Comey is a person who marches to the beat of his own drummer.”
That trait was cited by Comey’s critics who argued that he had overstepped the traditions and even the policy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, by offering public comments and confirmations of more than one high-profile investigation.
“One one thing you can say certifiably about the former FBI director is there was bipartisan support for him being considered someone that was unfit to serve,” said Paris Dennard, a conservative political commentator. “He inserted himself in a bipartisan fashion to be seen as someone who was acutely political.”
Beyond Comey’s handling of the Clinton email scandal, or the questionable reasons behind his decision to make the investigation public, Dennard argued that Comey’s performance in the Thursday hearing demonstrated his political bias.
“The fact that he admitted to leaking or overseeing the leaking of government documents … shows that he had a political ax to grind,” he stated, questioning whether that was the first or only time Comey oversaw a leak.
The memos Comey delivered to Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman to leak to the press appeared to contain only the most damaging information about his private meetings with the president. When the memos were reported, there was no mention of Comey’s confirmation that the president was not under FBI investigation.
“Comey showed his hand yesterday,” Dennard stated, “and he is more overtly political than he wants to claim to be.”
Even though he has left government, Comey has not stepped off the political stage. It may be that before he tells his full story, the partisans who are embracing the former FBI chief as a hero today, could be stung by him again tomorrow.
Below is recap of the changes in opinion about Comey from those most directly impacted by him during and after the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump and their supporters.
CLINTON ON COMEY
Hillary Clinton and her supporters’ love-hate relationship with Comey began warmly, when Comey called a press conference to announce that even though the Democratic candidate had been “extremely careless” in handling classified information, “no reasonable prosecutor” would charge her with criminal wrongdoing.
The exoneration, and the Clinton’s adoration for the director were short-lived, after Comey’s October 28 letter to Congress announced the FBI was reopening the email case after finding new emails “pertinent to the investigation” information.
Clinton supporters in Congress denounced the the letter as an act of political interference. Harry Reid, the top Democrat in the Senate at the time, said that through his “partisan actions,” the FBI director “may have broken the law.”
After November 8, Clinton herself would repeatedly argue that James Comey had cost her the election.
As recently as May, Clinton asserted, “I would be your president” if the election were held on October 27. “I was on the way to winning until the combination of Jim Comey’s letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me, but got scared off,” she told an audience in New York.
Now that President Trump’s actions are under scrutiny by Comey, former members of Clinton’s team have come around to appreciate the fired FBI director.
Adam Parkohmenko was a Clinton campaign aide and the founder of the Ready for Hillary super PAC. After Comey’s testimony on Thursday, he praised Comey, writing on Twitter, ” I believe Mr. Comey to be a patriot, despite the timing and adverse effect decisions had … Today showed me I’m partisan and Comey is not.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in November 2016 that he had lost confidence in Comey. On Thursday, he praised Comey’s “eye-opening testimony,” stating that “the cloud hanging over this administration has just gotten a whole lot darker.”
TRUMP ON COMEY:
There is no love-hate relationship quite so dramatic or complicated as the one between Trump and Comey, a relationship that ended with Comey’s surprise firing on May 9.
In his testimony, Comey described the one-on-one interactions with the president that led him to believe that his job was safe and he would serve out the remainder of his ten-year term.
“He had repeatedly told me I was doing a great job and he hoped I would stay … and had learned that I was doing a great job and that I was extremely well-liked by the FBI workforce,” Comey said. “So it confused me when I saw on television the president saying that he actually fired me because of the Russia investigation.”
After firing the director, Trump went on a tear, saying Comey was “a showboat” and reportedly described him as a “nut-job” during an Oval Office meeting with Russian government officials.
For much of his campaign, Trump was decidedly anti-Comey — up until the October 28 letter. At that time and after he spoke positively of the FBI director.
At an October 31, 2016 rally in Michigan, Trump praised his decision to announce the reopening of the Clinton case. “It took a lot of guts. I really disagreed with him. I was not his fan,” Trump said, adding, “I tell you what, what he did, he brought back his reputation.”
After taking office, the tenor changed again. Comey confirmed the investigation into possible collusion between his campaign and Russia and the Trump White House began leaking profusely.
Trump blamed Comey and the FBI for being “totally unable” to stop the leaks of classified information on Russia that were plaguing his administration, saying the organization “can’t even find the leakers within the FBI itself.”
Days before Trump fired Comey, he returned to the director’s role in the Clinton email scandal, tweeting that Comey “was the best thing that ever happened to Hillary Clinton.”
In preparation for Thursday’s testimony, the pro-Trump organization Great American Alliance, put out an ad titled “Showboat” accusing Comey of “putting politics over protecting America” and being “another D.C. insider.”
Republican National Committee dropped any pretense of affection for Comey after the Intelligence Committee hearing with a statement from RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
“Nobody thinks more of James Comey than James Comey,” she said, “and is testimony today was simply a last ditch attempt to save face with the American people.”
