While token View conservative Meghan McCain on Wednesday attacked James Comey as a greedy attention seeker, fellow co-host Sunny Hostin cheered the “unassailable” ex-FBI Director as a paragon of integrity. Hostin prefaced her question by fawning: “And I have said this on the show before, when I was with the Justice Department — and I think it continues — your character was unassailable, and I consider you a patriot.”
After audience cheers, she wondered, “Why do you believe you were fired?” Liberal co-host Joy Behar openly encouraged Comey to be partisan and analyze Trump supporters: “He seems to say the crazy things, and keeps the same base following him and liking him. What is that?”
In March, Hostin seemed to threaten Comey wondering why someone hasn’t taken Trump “out back” and “kicked his butt.”
In contrast, actual journalists like CBS’s John Dickerson on Tuesday pointed out:
The problem is there are bars that he fell short of that people criticize him about.... Having the press conference when he announced the Hillary Clinton news and then ten days before the election talking about that and influencing, possibly influencing the election. So he's not totally clean.
A partial transcript is below. Click "expand" for more:
The View
4/18/18
11:18
SUNNY HOSTIN: And I have said this on the show before, when I was with the Justice Department — and I think it continues — your character was unassailable, and I consider you a patriot. [ Applause ]
JAMES COMEY: Thank you very much. And I think you lost your job because of it. So President Trump actually told Lester Holt that he had the Russia thing on his mind in making the decision to fire you. He recently tweeted this morning that actually the Russia thing wasn't a factor. “Slippery James Comey, the worst FBI director in history, was not fired because of the phony Russia investigation.”
JOY BEHAR: He said it. We have it on tape.
HOSTIN: Which person do you believe? Why do you believe you were fired?
JAMES COMEY: I don't know. I took him at his word when he told that to Lester Holt and I read in media he said privately to the Russians the next day in the Oval Office, so I took him at his word. I don't know. Today's tweet, which I see — I don't follow him on Twitter, be you both can't be true. I think that illustrates part of the problem I'm trying to bring up that it matters that the President is not committed to the truth as a Central American value, but so I don't know what to make of it.
BEHAR: Do you believe him now that he didn't mean that or he didn’t say that? He seems to say the crazy things, and keeps the same base following him and liking him. What is that?
COMEY: I don't know, and look. I get and appreciate people’s passion on the policy front, but what I hope people take the time to realize is, as I said about the Republican Party, there is something that matters first and above that, and there is a danger. Look, when he tweets I should be in jail, my honest reaction is a shrug. Like, “There is another one of those.” There is danger in my shrug because that means I'm becoming number to the fact that the President of the United States of America is saying that a private citizen should be in jail. That's not okay. All right? That is not normal.
SARAH HAINES: In the book, you say that Trump sought for loyalty like a mafia boss. People like me found comfort in knowing there were career people like you around him to help, even though that might not be in your job description. When he sought loyalty, is it possible that he didn't think that was wrong and you could have said, “Hey, this isn't how that works”?
