While the Comey hearing into Russia was and remains a big story, CNN’s John King admitted Thursday afternoon that the media will not give much (if any) attention to Jim Comey stating that he was disturbed by then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch telling him in the midst of the Hillary Clinton e-mail scandal that he should refer to it as “a matter,” not “an investigation.”
“A number of significant things. One, this won't get much attention because it's in the rearview mirror but a pretty damning account from Jim Comey there about Loretta Lynch, the former Attorney General in the Obama administration and her handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation. It won’t get much attention, but that was pretty damning,” King admitted.
Host Wolf Blitzer briefly interjected before King put a button on this tidbit that he himself conceded would be glossed over:
WOLF BLITZER: He said that Loretta Lynch told him “don’t call it an investigation, call it a matter.”
KING: Call it a matter. Call it a matter and he said he was confused by that and concerned by that.
Obviously, this was not to say the Flynn, Russia, and Trump matters were less important than these Lynch revelations. This space certainly doesn’t believe that or deny the fact that those subjects were central.
However, the news media prides itself on being able to juggle a number of stories, so it’s not too much to ask of them to circle back to Lynch’s behavior and how Comey felt as a result during the Hillary Clinton e-mail case.
Also in the noon Eastern hour of CNN’s breathless, dithering coverage, CNN legal analyst Laura Coates conceded that Comey’s opened himself to “pretty fair criticism” because “he's so interested in being the last sign of defense for the credibility of the FBI and inherently himself that I think that, at times, it undermines his own arguments he's trying to make to show his object activity.”
That being said, Coates still touted Comey as a superhero wearing a cape:
Now, I think what he said was very important today. It illuminated a lot of issues. It did raise other issues, but that will be a criticism that he will continue to get, particularly because the obstruction issue cannot foreseeably go away. It is the beginning of an investigative inquiry. It's not the end of one, but he has positioned himself in a manner that he dons a cape to say, I alone — he started his argument talking about I was insulted and the FBI was defamed by what happened here and he goes on to talk about these things[.]
“It shows there an open door here and perhaps the President's efforts to deflect attention created road blocks that will now become insurmountable hurdles for his administration,” Coates eagerly stated.
Here’s the relevant portions of the transcript from CNN’s Comey coverage on June 8:
CNN’s Comey Senate Hearing coverage
June 8, 2017
12:47 p.m. Eastern
JOHN KING: And later on he said — he was asked specifically about his statements to the FBI and do you have any reason to believe he gave false statements to the FBI and he said that's one of the reasons he was under criminal investigation. A number of significant things. One, this won't get much attention because it's in the rearview mirror but a pretty damning account from Jim Comey there about Loretta Lynch, the former Attorney General in the Obama administration and her handling of the Clinton e-mail investigation. It won’t get much attention, but that was pretty damning. Number two —
WOLF BLITZER: He said that Loretta Lynch told him “don’t call it an investigation, call it a matter.”
KING: Call it a matter. Call it a matter and he said he was confused by that and concerned by that.
(....)
(....)12:58 p.m. Eastern
LAURA COATES: The open investigation if he wasn't aware of one at the time he was fired, certainly that raises the interest level of saying well, maybe that was part of the now investigation as to why Trump was so adamant about having him no longer in office. What this did thematically for Comey is reiterate, I think, what's going to raise some pretty fair criticism once again which is he's so interested in being the last sign of defense for the credibility of the FBI and inherently himself that I think that, at times, it undermines his own arguments he's trying to make to show his object activity. Now, I think what he said was very important today. It illuminated a lot of issues. It did raise other issues, but that will be a criticism that he will continue to get, particularly because the obstruction issue cannot foreseeably go away. It is the beginning of an investigative inquiry. It's not the end of one, but he has positioned himself in a manner that he dons a cape to say, I alone — he started his argument talking about I was insulted and the FBI was defamed by what happened here and he goes on to talk about these things, so I think he's going to get the perspective as a prosecutor, I thought to myself, well, that illuminates an issue and it shows there an open door here and perhaps the President's efforts to deflect attention created road blocks that will now become insurmountable hurdles for his administration.
