MSNBC quickly dispatched with Thursday’s four-hour-plus House Oversight Committee hearing featuring FBI Director James Comey on Hillary Clinton’s e-mail scandal in favor of covering the police shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota, but not before political analyst and former Bush official Nicolle Wallace could decry the hearing as a “sad situation and state of affairs.”
Dubbing Comey “the only hero” that stood out to her, Wallace opined that Comey ensured that “[a]nyone who thinks that the FBI is rigged or that the entire government is rigged was proven wrong today.”
Breaking news anchor and disgraced ex-NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams led into Wallace’s analysis by snidely wondering “who were the heroes and today, especially in how you think this will be viewed from the Beltway on west through what we like to call America.”
Wallace prefaced her comments by stating that she watched the hearing by making notes of good moments for Democrats, Republicans, and Director Comey and she found that “by the far, the one that took up the most pages was the list of good moments for James Comey and the FBI.”
“Anyone who thinks that the FBI is rigged or that the entire government is rigged was proven wrong today. There was a moment that gave me chills. James Comey said, there are two things I care about, the love of my family and my integrity,” she proclaimed.
Arguing the Comey made clear to everyone that the FBI and Justice system were not rigged, Wallace began winding down her thoughts by admitting that “what the Republicans got out of today was wall-to-wall coverage of a hearing where it was not in dispute whether or not Hillary Clinton lied to the public every time she's been asked over the last year about her e-mail practices.”
With Democrats having gained Comey maintaining that “there was no intent” by Clinton “to commit a crime,” the infamous 2008 McCain-Palin adviser spun that Comey “stood out to me as the only hero in what was only otherwise a sad situation and state of affairs.”
The relevant portion of the transcript from the 2:00 p.m. Eastern hour of MSNBC Live on July 7 can be found below.
MSNBC Live
July 7, 2016
2:53 p.m. Eastern
BRIAN WILLIAMS: And from the legal side to the inevitable political side of all of this, because after all, this was a national audience watching across the board on the cable news networks, let's go to Nicole Wallace who's been here with us in New York, watching and look as well. Former communications director in the Bush White House, former senior adviser to the McCain/Palin campaign. Nicole, I know we have political news going on at the same time, which we will get to but who were the heroes and villains today, especially in how you think this will be viewed from the Beltway on west through what we like to call America?
NICOLLE WALLACE: Well, you know, I started keeping three lists. One was the good moments for the Democrats. The other was the good moments for the Republicans, and the third was the list of good moments for James Comey and the FBI and by far, the one that took up the most pages was the list of good moments for James Comey and the FBI. Anyone who thinks that the FBI is rigged or that the entire government is rigged was proven wrong today. There was a moment that gave me chills. James Comey said, there are two things I care about, the love of my family and my integrity. The second moment that made my cheesy I love the good guys in government heart just swell was when he said, look me in the eye. Look me in the eye. He said it twice under questioning from Republican, and he said, there was no influence. So if you're a Democrat or a Republican, a Sanders supporter or a Trump supporter who thinks everyone in the government is rigged, I think James Comey made a pretty good case that the FBI is not and was not. I think what the Republicans got out of today was wall-to-wall coverage of a hearing where it was not in dispute whether or not Hillary Clinton lied to the public every time she's been asked over the last year about her e-mail practices. The FBI Director Comey made perfectly clear she did, but what Democrats got was that in no uncertain terms, James Comey is standing by his decision that there was no intent to commit a crime. So, there was something for partisans on both sides of the aisle, but the FBI director stood out to me as the only hero in what was only otherwise a sad situation and state of affairs.
