During another awesome appearance on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time, former George W. Bush administration Attorney General Michael Mukasey took on hate-filled host Chris “Fredo” Cuomo and CNN’s alternate realities when it came to impeachment and FBI misconduct, and destroyed them.
Near the top of their conversation, Cuomo wanted to know “in terms of logic of thought and argument. Why this insistence [from Congressional Republicans] on denying what was pretty well established through the testimony by respectable people about what happened here and why it happened?”
In expert fashion, Mukasey argued that Republicans were making the right argument (which Cuomo also made) by pointing out that no quid pro quo took place. He also added that Hunter Biden’s shady dealings in Ukraine did deserve scrutiny:
Well, there is a lot more going on than just deny everything. Number one, they’re making the points that you made. Number two, there is still, I think, some legitimate question about whether what was happening at Burisma, which was a crooked operation as a great deal in the Ukraine is, didn't warrant some taking a look.
A short time later, Cuomo, who supports the radical and violent Antifa terrorist group, lashed out at President Trump for being “the person who uses hate and animus,” Republicans for acting in bad faith (click “expand”):
Except to keep it away from the absurd. The country is watching this right now. It’s about, what is the standard of behavior? You have the Republicans pointing the finger at the left and saying, “you guys are just purely political, you hate the president.” That’s gratuitous because the person who uses hate and animus is out President.
But, they haven't made any good-faith effort to do any oversight as the constitutional demands as a duty that they took an oath to uphold. They ‘ve just been his defense counsel. Bravo for him, but bad for the process. Why not at least own what's obvious?
“What is the proper standard? This is an impeachment proceeding,” Mukasey scoffed at Cuomo’s ignorance. “You don't remove somebody from office for not meeting the proper standard. For not displaying those qualities of mind, character, and temperament that are appropriate to a president.”
Cuomo’s next fact-free gripe was about how Attorney General William Barr was supposedly “going bad on his own inspector general” and was “in lockstep with protecting this President's interest…”
“First off, He’s not going bad on his own inspector general. Secondly, it's not, I mean, the inspector general is the inspector general. It's not his, it's not anybody's in particular. He’s not obligated to walk in lockstep with [the inspector general],” Mukasey schooled the former lawyer.
Continuing to rail against Barr, a far more accomplished attorney than he ever was, Cuomo decried how the current A.G. “accused his own agency of spying, we’ve never heard of that before.” Mukasey put a nail in that misnomer’s coffin by stating the facts: “Look, he characterized surveillance as spying. That's not an incorrect term.”
“But you know they don't like the term. They take it as something that is done in a nefarious fashion and they find that objectionable considering what they do to a citizen,” Cuomo whined in response. Mukasey countered by bringing it up the misconducted the FBI pulled against then-Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Cuomo interrupted and didn’t allow Mukasey to fully detail how the FBI lied and fabricated evidence they presented to the FISA court.
The former A.G. was shocked that the Department of Justice Inspector General found “no testimony and no documentary evidence showing of bias” when there were FBI text messages that showed they wanted to “terminate” the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation once Trump won the GOP nomination. Cuomo got upset that this guest was adding the appropriate “context” to the FBI’s misconduct (click “expand”):
MUKASEY: The return text was, ‘this raises the pressure to terminate MYE. MYE Stood for “mid-year exam” which was the code for the Hillary Clinton investigation. Now, you tell me how does the nomination of Donald Trump raise the pressure to terminate the Hillary Clinton investigation?
CUOMO: Mike, you’re taking one text between too lovers and adding context to it, when what do we know about the Hillary Clinton thing? You wind up getting Andrew McCabe jammed up because he wanted to investigate it more. You have Comey come out to say he was investigating it doing more damage to her campaign than anything else that happened during the campaign. Clearly, the FBI wasn't out to help her.
“The FBI was out to help the FBI and make sure that nobody criticized them for covering it up. The text said that this raises the pressure to terminate that investigation,” Mukasey posed. Cuomo really couldn’t make a fact-based argument against Mukasey’s, so the interview ended shortly thereafter.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time
December 12, 2019
9:08:12 p.m. Eastern(…)
CHRIS CUOMO: But just in terms of logic of thought and argument. Why this insistence on denying what was pretty well established through the testimony by respectable people about what happened here and why it happened? Why isn't the stronger argument for Republicans, “look, what he did was not textbook. Maybe that's because he's not a politician. It was even wrong in some ways. But they got the aid. He never got any dirt on the Bidens. The election is safe. How can this be worthy of impeachment or removal from office?” Why deny everything?
FORMER A.G. MICHAEL MUKASEY: Well, there is a lot more going on than just deny everything. Number one, they’re making the points that you made. Number two, there is still, I think, some legitimate question about whether what was happening at Burisma, which was a crooked operation as a great deal in the Ukraine is, didn't warrant some taking a look.
(…)
9:11:27 p.m. Eastern
CUOMO: Except to keep it away from the absurd. The country is watching this right now. It’s about, what is the standard of behavior? You have the Republicans pointing the finger at the left and saying, “you guys are just purely political, you hate the president.” That’s gratuitous because the person who uses hate and animus is out President.
But, they haven't made any good-faith effort to do any oversight as the constitutional demands as a duty that they took an oath to uphold. They ‘ve just been his defense counsel. Bravo for him, but bad for the process. Why not at least own what's obvious?
MUKASEY: What is the proper standard? This is an impeachment proceeding.
CUOMO: Yes.
MUKASEY: You don't remove somebody from office for not meeting the proper standard. For not displaying those qualities of mind, character, and temperament that are appropriate to a president.
(…)
9:13:25 p.m. Eastern
CUOMO: That takes me to your area of expertise with the A.G. You know, you vouched for him when he wanted this job, Attorney General Barr and said this guy will not be pushed around by a White House. Help me understand how he may not be pushed around. But he seems in lockstep with protecting this President's interest even if it means going bad on his own inspector general.
MUKASEY: First off, He’s not going bad on his own inspector general. Secondly, it's not, I mean, the inspector general is the inspector general. It's not his, it's not anybody's in particular. He’s not obligated to walk in lockstep with the attorney general-- with the inspector general.
CUOMO: True. And a lot of people don't like their inspector generals because --
MUKASEY: You are looking at one.
CUOMO: Because they are digging in your own backyard.
MUKASEY: Right.
CUOMO: But to basically say he got it wrong--
MUKASEY: And they're also reporting to Congress -- Well, he got part of it wrong is what he said. And understand that the inspector general has a limited authority and limited tools of his-- that are available to him. He’s limited to investigating the Department of Justice and the FBI, which is part of it. He can't investigate the CIA. He can't investigate the Department of State. He can't investigate the NSA, all of which, by the way I think will be shown were involved with this.
CUOMO: Well, you were looking at what the FBI did and how they did it. He comes back and says no political animus. You have an attorney general who accused his own agency of spying, we’ve never heard of that before.
MUKASEY: Look, he characterized surveillance as spying. That's not an incorrect term.
CUOMO: But you know they don't like the term. They take it as something that is done in a nefarious fashion and they find that objectionable considering what they do to a citizen.
MUKASEY: If you take a look at what was done to Carter Page who was never charged with any crime, I don’t think that’s proper.
CUOMO: Well, you don't need to charge him with a crime to do a FISA. Right? It's a different probable cause standard.
But hey, let me stop. I am a journalist who's done a lot of investigative work. I’ve had lots of problems with how the FBI does its job over the years. I think these 17 recommendations, findings, allegations are pitiful and that the FBI should be ashamed of themselves for how they did the job.
MUKASEY: That's not the only finding though. You say he found no -- what he found was no testimony and no documentary evidence showing of bias. But he said -- and he said that in his first report too, which puzzles me because of the following exchange that he didn't discuss in his first report, didn't discuss in this one.
The night that Trump was nominated, Lisa Page texted Strzok I can't believe that that whatever, I don't know what she called him, that that bozo got the nomination.
CUOMO: So what? Mike, they found texts from people who said we like Clinton we don’t like--
MUKASEY: No, wait a second. It's the return text that counts. The return text was, ‘this raises the pressure to terminate MYE. MYE Stood for “mid-year exam” which was the code for the Hillary Clinton investigation. Now, you tell me how does the nomination of Donald Trump raise the pressure to terminate the Hillary Clinton investigation?
CUOMO: Mike, you’re taking one text between too lovers and adding context to it, when what do we know about the Hillary Clinton thing? You wind up getting Andrew McCabe jammed up because he wanted to investigate it more. You have Comey come out to say he was investigating it doing more damage to her campaign than anything else that happened during the campaign. Clearly, the FBI wasn't out to help her.
MUKASEY: The FBI was out to help the FBI and make sure that nobody criticized them for covering it up. The text said that this raises the pressure to terminate that investigation.
(…)
