Before Trump fired Comey, these Democrats wanted him out
Here is a brief timeline of Democrats expressing frustration over Comey’s decision to publicly announce the re-opening of the investigation into Clinton’s emails 11 days before the election. Some questioned his judgment, others called for him to step down, and still others said his credibility was damaged.
Editorial: Time for President Trump to really put America first
Oct. 30, 2016: Then-Senate Majority Leader
Harry Reid, D-Nevada,
accused the FBI director of breaking the Hatch Act, a federal law, by publicly disclosing new information about the Clinton investigation 11 days ahead of the presidential election.
“I am writing to inform you that my office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to influence an election,” Reid wrote in the
letter. “Through your partisan actions, you may have broken the law.”
Oct. 31, 2016: The next day, Rep.
Steve Cohen, D-Tennessee, echoed concerns similar to Reid’s and called for Comey to resign his FBI post. Cohen reiterated that call in a Nov. 3 opinion column
published in The Hill.
Nov. 2, 2016: Days later, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-New York,
told Bloomberg News that he had lost confidence in Comey for his handling of Clinton’s email investigation.
“I do not have confidence in him any longer,” Schumer said at the time. “To restore my faith, I am going to have to sit down and talk to him and get an explanation for why he did this.”
Related: Team Trump defends firing of FBI Director James Comey
That same day, House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, shared similar feelings
with CNN and suggested Comey may lose his job.
"Maybe he's not in the right job," Pelosi said. "I think that we have to just get through this election and just see what the casualties are along the way."
Jan. 13, 2017: Two months after Clinton lost to Trump, Democrats
blasted Comey after a briefing on the agency’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the election.
One of them was Rep.
Hank Johnson, D-Georgia, who at the time said, “My confidence in the FBI director’s ability to lead this agency has been shaken.”
Rep.
Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, put it more bluntly: “The FBI director has no credibility.”
Jan. 24, 2017: The fading confidence in Comey continued toward the end of January when Rep.
G.K. Butterfield, D-North Carolina, said “
I think that James Comey needs to fade away into oblivion.”
“He embarrassed this nation, he possibly influenced the outcome of a presidential election, and he should not hold any position of trust, whatsoever, in our government.”
And that’s just a list of Democratic lawmakers who spoke up about Comey. Others made similar calls for the FBI director to step down last year.
On Oct. 30, 2016, the
New York Daily News editorial board called on Comey to resign:
FBI Director James Comey’s democracy-bending decision to inform America, 11 days before its presidential election, that the bureau is digging into a trove of additional emails demands the highest condemnation. And he must resign.
On Oct. 31, 2016,
ThinkProgress justice editor Ian Millhiser wrote a post making “the case for firing James Comey”:
We also know that Comey violated longstanding Justice Department protocol when he decided to disclose the very few facts that he actually did disclose in his letter to the Republican chairs. And we know that he wrote the letter over the explicit objections of Attorney General Loretta Lynch.Taken together, these actions constitute a fireable offense.
On Nov. 7, 2016,
Newsweek columnist Kurt Eichenwald didn’t just call for the FBI director’s firing — he said Comey was unfit for public service:
James Comey should not simply be fired as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He must be barred forever from any form of public service.
