Continuing the liberal media’s rush to tarnish the FBI’s reputation, MSNBC’s All In host Chris Hayes and American Urban Radio Networks correspondent April Ryan blasted Director James Comey’s letter about the Hillary Clinton e-mail investigation on Wednesday as a move that “raised serious questions about the FBI's integrity and impartiality” akin to the Bureau’s spying on Martin Luther King Jr.
Within his show’s first two minutes, Hayes admitted that while the full impact of Comey’s bombshell letter on the election remains unknown, he ruled “it's clear that his disclosure and the spate of now competing one might say warring FBI leaks that have followed have raised serious questions about the FBI's integrity and impartiality.”
Hayes added that the letter was such a same because “the Bureau, it should be clear, is just one of several key institutions arguably fundamental to American democracy that have come under intense stress during this campaign, stress that is only increasing in these final days.”
As liberal politicians like Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have been planting seeds of distrust and hints that he should be replaced, they were assisted by Hayes and Ryan as the pair did much the same later in the hour.
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“I mean, it's one thing the Comey letter, but just the string of leaks and I've got to say they’re in both directions politically. Oh, there's a preliminary inquiry into Manafort. Oh, we’re going after the Clint — I mean, they're clearly leaking a ton in ways that really call into question just the core integrity of the operation,” Hayes opined.
Ryan responded by acknowledging the flurry of distraught Republicans in July when Comey announced that he wouldn’t be recommending charges against Clinton, but then seemingly began to float the idea of a conspiracy because July came and passed “then once you get this letter and you hear about this letter rather to Congress, it makes you wonder.”
She also played the talking point of publicizing of the investigation setting “a bad precedent” and after agreeing with Hayes about the FBI’s “integrity” being soiled, she furthered the conspiracy theory linking the investigation of Hillary Clinton to the Bureau keep tabs on King:
And I just tell you, the integrity of Comey as well as the FBI is in question. It makes you wonder. You go back in history and think about some of the things we read in the history books about things that were happening to leaders like Dr. King and others. You know, you just wonder, you just wonder.
The phrase conspiracy theory has certainly come up a lot in the election to describe a litany of the opinions put forth by Donald Trump. Regardless of whether or not any of Trump’s points have or ever will have merit, it’s interesting and notable that any ideas on the left like this one have not been universally called out as such by the media.
The relevant portions of the transcript from MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes on November 2 can be found below.
MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes
November 2, 2016
8:02 p.m. Eastern
CHRIS HAYES: Whether or not Comey's intervention has affected the presidential race, it's clear that his disclosure and the spate of now competing one might say warring FBI leaks that have followed have raised serious questions about the FBI's integrity and impartiality and the Bureau, it should be clear, is just one of several key institutions arguably fundamental to American democracy that have come under intense stress during this campaign, stress that is only increasing in these final days. With his rhetoric about a rigged election, repeated refusals to commit to abiding by the results next week and the peaceful transfer of power, Donald Trump has sowed grave doubts about the electoral process among his supporters.
(....)
8:15 p.m. Eastern
HAYES: You’ve also have got — you’ve also got the FBI which now seems — I mean, it's one thing the Comey letter, but just the string of leaks and I've got to say they’re in both directions politically. Oh, there's a preliminary inquiry into Manafort. Oh, we’re going after the Clint — I mean, they're clearly leaking a ton in ways that really call into question just the core integrity of the operation.
APRIL RYAN: You know, after the July announcement from Comey, there were many people Republicans who were very upset and there were leaks all over the place and I'm talking — this is pre-letter, pre-a couple days ago, pre-FBI letter to Congress and there were a lot of people very upset and then once you get this letter and you hear about this letter rather to Congress, it makes you wonder. I mean, we’ve been hearing a lot — we were, again, going back to leaks, we were hearing a lot of consternation in that building in the inner circle of Comey and then all of a sudden this happens just days out. This breaks tradition.
HAYES: Yes.
RYAN: What does this do to an election a few days out? And it sets a precedent. It's a bad precedent. We've never seen this before.
HAYES: Nope.
RYAN: And I just tell you, the integrity of Comey as well as the FBI is in question. It makes you wonder. You go back in history and think about some of the things we read in the history books about things that were happening to leaders like Dr. King and others. You know, you just wonder, you just wonder.
HAYES: You are seeing the groundwork laid for this stress test on American institutions that this campaign has been in a way that has been fascinating as a political journalist and terrifying as a citizen.
RYAN: And it may break the way we do things. This could be —
HAYES: Well, it’s going to —
SAM SEDER: I think it has.
HAYES: — and it has and the point is that it could — there's a lot riding on what happens next week.
RYAN: Yes.
HAYES: But it's also going to continue after in some fashion.
SEDER: Oh, of course.
RYAN: Absolutely right.
SEDER: Indeed.
