Reacting to FBI Director James Comey’s announcement on Tuesday that he has not recommended charges against Hillary Clinton for her private e-mail servers scandal, MSNBC and NBC News senior political editor Beth Fouhy decried the idea that anyone should still be arguing that “the system is rigged” now that Comey revealed Clinton won’t face charges.
Fouhy was speaking live on MSNBC to host Tamron Hall when she prefaced one of many comments she made during the hour about how she doesn’t think “Bernie Sanders supporters are going to make a big issue of this, but Republicans certainly will” because “[l]egally, yes, she's out of the woods, she is not out of the woods politically on this at all.”
While what Comey told the world “calls into question her judgment and Republicans, if they're smart, will make that be the point of their ads and criticism,” she took a few moments to call out anyone who she viewed as unfairly stating that the American legal system is rigged in favor of the powerful (e.g. the Clintons):
This sort of notion that the system is rigged — hard for anybody to agree to that after you see what James Comey just did and how clearly and non-partisan he took this matter. He’s — nobody knew he was going to speak. Nobody from the campaign, we’re told, certainly not the Department of Justice as he told us. He went through all the steps in a clear way. It's just really hard to argue that the system is rigged.
Finishing that thought, Fouhy ruled that “Donald Trump appears to be going down that route now,” but expressed hope that the “more sophisticated people in the party are going to make more of the issue that she used very bad judgment.”
Earlier on MSNBC, NBC News correspondent Kristen Welker touted the announcement as “game-changer” for the Hillary Clinton campaign while ABC News fomented praise for the “momentous day” in the election as a “cloud is lifted” over Clinton’s candidacy for good.
The relevant portion of the transcript from the 11:00 a.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC Live on July 5 can be found below.
MSNBC Live
July 5, 2016
11:51 a.m. Eastern
BETH FOUHY: Exactly. I don't expect Bernie Sanders supporters are going to make a big issue of this, but Republicans certainly will. Legally, yes, she's out of the woods, she is not out of the woods politically on this at all. It calls into question her judgment and Republicans, if they're smart, will make that be the point of their ads and criticism. This sort of notion that the system is rigged — hard for anybody to agree to that after you see what James Comey just did and how clearly and non-partisan he took this matter. He’s — nobody knew he was going to speak. Nobody from the campaign, we’re told, certainly not the Department of Justice as he told us. He went through all the steps in a clear way. It's just really hard to argue that the system is rigged. Donald Trump appears to be going down that route now. It remains unclear if he continues that way, but more sophisticated people in the party are going to make more of the issue that she used very bad judgment.
