In the aftermath of FBI Director James Comey’s decision not to recommend Hillary Clinton be prosecuted for her private server, there have been varied reactions from the media. Wednesday on Morning Joe, co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski condemned not only Clinton but the entire Obama Administration in their handling of the scandal. Even panelists Nicolle Wallace and Mark Halperin shared harsh words for the former Secretary of State. HuffPo’s Sam Stein, on the other hand, found Comey to have “been a little unfair” to Clinton.
Initially, Stein only went so far as to characterize Clinton’s actions as “carelessness” and “mistruths” that you “could call lies:”
SAM STEIN: …In the very narrow, narrow, narrow political sense, it's a very good day for Hillary that she wasn't indicted. But what James Comey did up there was give fodder for any capable Republican who wants to go after Clinton. And there was obviously carelessness, there was clearly mistruths, you could call them lies. Um. I do think Mark’s right—it was sort of an extraordinary moment--
JOE SCARBOROUGH: But, but, but, but, but, but
NICOLLE WALLACE: Wait why can’t you call them--
SCARBOROUGH: Hold on, Sam. Hold on. You, when Donald Trump lies, we call them lies.
STEIN: I’ll call them a lie. Sure.
SCARBOROUGH: Did Hillary Clinton lie?
STEIN: No I’ll call them a lie. I'm not, I'm not beating around the bush here. She lied.
SCARBOROUGH: Okay.
After he was visibly pressured into saying the words “she lied,” he suggested that FBI Director Comey “may have overstepped:”
STEIN: I thought it was extraordinary where James Comey got up there. There was one point though that I thought that James Comey may have overstepped or been a little unfair to Clinton which is when he said it was odd--he didn't find any evidence of her e-mails being hacked but then went on to announce it possibly could have happened. I thought that was a little bit getting over a ski so to speak because you shouldn't put out an accusation you couldn't find evidence of and just let it dangle out there. But by and large—
WALLACE: He was speaking to risk.
MARK HALPERIN: But he suggested, he suggested she used her account overseas in countries, he didn't name the countries.
STEIN: No, no, it was careless. But I don't think it was fair to say, we found no evidence of it, but it could have happened. I mean I just thought that was a little bit too much.
HALPERIN: It’s factually true.
Overstepped? Unfair? It’s a good thing Sam Stein wasn’t tasked with this investigation. As Mark Halperin pointed out, it is factually true that Clinton’s use of her account overseas jeopardized the integrity of classified information. The only thing that was “dangle[d] out there” was our national security, thanks to Clinton’s defective decision-making and systemic rule-bending.
View Full Transcript Here:
07-06-16 MSNBC Morning Joe
06:20:33 AM – 6:25:06 AMJOE SCARBOROUGH: And you have the president of the United States, again, we've gone down this litany of just how horribly this administration has handled this investigation and then you've got the president of the United States going out trying to cover up the news of the day and there were people actually stupid enough to lead with Barack Obama—
MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Live at five.
SCARBOROUGH: --and stupid enough to lead with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail together. Stupid enough to take their bait. Stupid enough to follow what the white house wanted them to follow. Nothing to see here, move along. The whole thing really is an unfortunate stain on the Obama administration, is it not?
MARK HALPERIN: Well look at the time the president said what he said, we discussed it at length on the program and it was either the case that somehow he knew the facts of the investigation and was, was sort of teasing them out, or he was saying it with no facts. It seemed like the wrong thing to do at the time and I think that’s was born out. ‘Cause he couldn't possibly have known then all the things that Comey listed yesterday. Comey did something extraordinary and in some ways--
SCARBOROUGH: So, so you’re saying, so you’re just saying, you’re right the president just made It up six months ago.
HALPERIN: He must have.
SCARBOROUGH: Eight months ago.
HALPERIN: There was no—he had no basis.
SCARBOROUGH: What Comey said, the president was dead wrong when he went on 60 Minutes in the fall, saying that she didn’t jeopardize national security. He was dead wrong and reckless while the FBI agents were investigating this case.
HALPERIN: No basis to say it and clearly an improper thing for a president to do in the midst of an ongoing investigation from which he’s got to keep some arm length distance. What Comey did was extraordinary and in some ways improper. It’s not really the role of the head of the FBI or a prosecutor to say here are all the facts we found, I mean he convicted her without giving her in some ways in the court of public opinion without giving her a chance to respond. I believe now, because he’s opened the door, we're going to eventually hear from FBI agents who worked on the case, would be interesting to see if they all agreed on his decision. The prosecutors who the FBI was working in tandem with. What do they think about this decision? And it will be debated quite a bit in the context of the campaign trail, the trump folks are looking at what Comey laid out, are looking at the discrepancies between what she said and the facts. The fact that they claimed they handed, they read every e-mail and meticulously handed over all the work-related ones has now by Comey’s account been proven to be wrong. So I think other people, as Comey has extraordinarily weighed, I think other people with knowledge of the case are likely on the record and in other ways to weigh in, as well.
JOE SCARBOROUGH: Sam Stein, can, can you imagine what a Jeb Bush campaign or a Marco Rubio or a Ted Cruz campaign would do with this opening?
SAM STEIN: They would do a lot with it. [Laughter] That's quite the opening.
SCARBOROUGH: Effectively.
STEIN: You know, yeah no I mean obviously, as John said, it's in the very narrow, narrow, narrow political sense, it's a very good day for Hillary that she wasn't indicted. But what James Comey did up there was give fodder for any capable Republican who wants to go after Clinton. There was obviously carelessness, there was clearly mistruths, you could call them lies. Um. I do think Mark’s right—it was sort of an extraordinary moment--
SCARBOROUGH: But, but, but, but, but, but
WALLACE: Wait why can’t you call them--
SCARBOROUGH: Hold on, Sam. Hold on. You, when Donald Trump lies, we call them lies.
STEIN: I’ll call them a lie. Sure.
SCARBOROUGH: Did Hillary Clinton lie?
STEIN: No I’ll call them a lie. I'm not, I'm not beating around the bush here. She lied.
SCARBOROUGH: Okay.
STEIN: I thought it was extraordinary where James Comey got up there. There was one point though that I thought that James Comey may have overstepped or been a little unfair to Clinton which is when he said it was odd--he didn't find any evidence of her e-mails being hacked but then went on to announce it possibly could have happened. I thought that was a little bit getting over a ski so to speak because you shouldn't put out an accusation you couldn't find evidence of and just let it dangle out there. But by and large—
WALLACE: He was speaking to risk.
HALPERIN: But he suggested, he suggested she used her account overseas in countries, he didn't name the countries.
STEIN: No, no, it was careless. But I don't think it was fair to say, we found no evidence of it, but it could have happened. I mean I just thought that was a little bit too much.
HALPERIN: It’s factually true.
WALLACE: But his point, Sam, his point Sam, was about the risks she took as secretary of state with classified information. I thought it was entirely appropriate and the public's right to know the kind of risks that our leaders take with their information that they don't have access to. This was classified--his point was that she used these devices.
STEIN: But they found no evidence of it. That’s the only thing--
WALLACE: But she found, he found evidence--
STEIN: I’m saying is that it’s weird to throw out an accusation without having any evidence of it.
SCARBOROUGH: Wait, what he said was, John he said we found no evidence of it, but we wouldn't find evidence of it but it's reasonable to believe that.
JOHN HEILEMANN: Right and that the security that she used was, as you said before, substandard. Not just substandard by a classified standard. But by Gmail standard.
SCARBOROUGH: Can you believe substandard even by Gmail standard?
WALLACE: By Gmail! That’s worse--I feel so great about my Gmail now.
