Poor Comey: ABC interview falls flat for members of the press

Eddie Scarry
Washington Examiner
Mon, 16 Apr 2018 15:17 UTC

© Ralph Alswang/AP

Former FBI Director James Comey's highly anticipated weekend TV interview fell flat for key members of the press.

The one-hour interview, which aired Sunday on ABC ahead of the publication of Comey's book "A Higher Loyalty," received extensive coverage in the national press for Comey's sharp rebukes of President Trump, but there were almost no revelations in his answers, and some critics said Comey came across as self-serving.

"I didn't like that interview," CNN political analyst David Gregory said Monday morning. "I don't think Jim Comey came off well at all. I think yet again he is obsessed with his standing, his media standing, his kind of political standing."

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said Comey's book "does not appear to contain a ton of news in terms of revelations," and she described the ABC interview as "much lower grade burn than I thought it would be, certainly, and than I think [Trump's] advisers thought it would be."

Washington Post politics blogger Aaron Blake said Comey "presented himself as too imperfect a figure - one overly concerned with appearances, politics and ego..." He added that there were times Comey seemed "vindictive and even petty" and that "if he was looking to prosecute the case against Trump in the court of public opinion, he has chosen a strange way in which to do it."

"Maybe it's just me... the more I hear from Comey, the more conflicted I feel," CNN political commentator Ana Navarro, a fierce critic of Trump, said Monday on Twitter. "I want to believe him that this is all about loyalty to country and inviolable respect for the truth. But damn, the guy has a big ego, is selectively inconsistent. I find him obnoxiously self-righteous."

In the interview, Comey recounted his brief tenure as head of the FBI under Trump, who he said was "morally unfit" to be president. He admitted he didn't know whether Russians had compromising information on Trump, an allegation that special counsel Robert Mueller is investigating. He also defended his actions during the 2016 campaign, when he publicly criticized Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton for her private email server, yet declined to recommend prosecuting her for any crimes.

Early in the program, he remarked on Trump's skin color, the length of his tie ("too long") and recalled thinking Trump was shorter than he expected upon first meeting him.

Richard Haas, a frequent guest on MSNBC and president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said the interview likely didn't move the needle in Comey's favor.

"He did nothing to persuade us that his various interventions in the run up to the election were justified," he said. "This seems to be a guy who was talking to himself, was intellectually unmoored. Almost without a compass."

Trump himself sent out a series of tweets over the weekend attacking Comey ahead of the program.

"Slippery James Comey," he said in one tweet, "a man who always ends up badly and out of whack (he is not smart!), will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!"

Comment: FBI agents aren't very pleased either:

Current and former FBI agents are furious after former Director James Comey gave his first interview since President Trump fired him last year to ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday night, reports the Daily Beast - which was privy to a play-by-play flurry of text messages and other communications detailing their reactions.

Seven current or former FBI agents and officials spoke throughout and immediately after the broadcast. There was a lot of anger, frustration, and even more emojis - featuring the thumbs-down, frowny face, middle finger, and a whole lot of green vomit faces.

One former FBI official sent a bourbon emoji as it began; another sent the beers cheers-ing emoji. The responses became increasingly angry and despondent as the hourlong interview played out. -Daily Beast

"Hoover is spinning in his grave," said a former FBI official. "Making money from total failure," in reference to Comey plugging his book, A Higher Loyalty.

Jana Winter of The Beast adds that when a promo aired between segments advertising Comey's upcoming appearance with The View, the official "grew angrier."

"Good lord, what a self-serving self-centered jackass," the official said. "True to form he thinks he's the smartest guy around."

A current official with the FBI said it was strange how Comey seemed so pleased with how things played out. "It's how happy he looked on TV while cashing in on the biggest mistake in history. His mistake," they said. "Jim Comey made that mistake. We all just wonder what could have been and what we could've done to change it."

Not all the current and former FBI officials had problems with the interview, however - as one official who spoke out in support of Comey said "I thought he was highly trustworthy and very transparent, like watching someone in confession," the former official said. "It seems like he's still wrestling with it."

The majority, however, were all negative on the former Director's interview - with one even souring as the interview progressed:

One longtime Team Comey source-who is still an FBI agent-sent thumbs-up emojis repeatedly during the first half hour, but even this loyalist began to lose patience by the halfway mark-sending a frowny face. A few minutes later there was a nauseous emoji, and then a poop emoji after the final segment. -DB

Sources confirm to ZeroHedge that a frowny face emoji is indeed very bad. In a stunning development, Comey's interview even encouraged a former FBI official to start using emojis.

Another former FBI official not historically known for their use of emojis, sent a bowing emjoi which-they explained in a follow up message-they believed to mean "slamming my head into something, obviously."

Another source who works frequently with the FBI said they wouldn't watch the extended cut of the interview.

"Didn't watch it - I don't care, he's basically a scumbag. I don't know how they're letting him write a book in the middle of an investigation that he's part of. I wonder if he had his book cleared by the intelligence community? He's supposed to but I bet he didn't."