Did you know that one of the nation's most momentous historical events is about to take place on June 8? No? Then you missed Meet The Press host Chuck Todd on June 4 hilariously hype or rather, over-hype, the upcoming testimony by former FBI Director James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee.
It is impossible to exaggerate the amount of over the top significance that Todd lent to this testimony so watch the following video to see Chuck go into Comey testimony hype overdrive.
CHUCK TODD: Former FBI Director James Comey is set to testify this week on the Russia investigation. His testimony may well join those rare historic moments when frankly the whole country stops to watch. Think Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954. Watergate hearings in 1973. Oliver North's testimony in the Iran-Contra hearings in 1987. And of course Anita Hill at the Clarence Thomas hearings in 1991. It feels like that big of a moment...
Todd then went around to his panel who confirmed his liberal fantasy about the Comey testimony including this from Stephanie Cutter who echoed Todd's exaggerated hype:
I think that this testimony will be the most watched testimony at least in my lifetime... And it has the potential to shake this country.
Yes, everything was going smoothly for Chuck Todd as he received support from the rest of the liberal bubble panel about his Comey fantasy...until he got to conservative talk radio host Hugh Hewitt.
TODD: Hugh, will President Trump one day realize that the biggest mistake he made in his presidency was firing James Comey?
HUGH HEWITT: No. In fact it might be that he didn't fire him on the first day. Director Comey testified ten days before his firing so I am going watch on Thursday for the consistency with that declaration that there had been no interference with his investigation. There has to be consistency and...
NO! How dare you toss cold water upon poor Chuck's fantasy. Of course, Todd desperately jumped in at this point with an incredibly lame caveat.
TODD: By the way though. I heard a lot people misinterpret that answer. He was answering a question specifically about the Justice Department. He was not asked about that.
HEWITT: It's possible that that's how he'll distinguish his conversation as note taking but that will be very tricky waters for him.
Yes very tricky waters because if you watch Comey on May 3 answering Senator Mazie Hirono's question on this topic, he makes it clear that being asked from the Justice Department or from anywhere else to halt an investigation had not happened in his experience:
SENATOR MAZIE HIRONO: And so speaking of the independence of not just the judiciary but I'd like you to clarify the FBI's independence from the DOJ apparatus. Can the FBI conduct an investigation independent from the department of Justice. Or does the FBI have to disclose all it's investigations to the DOJ? And does it have to get the Attorney General's consent?
DIRECTOR JAMES COMEY: Well we work with the Department of Justice, whether that's main justice or U.S. attorney's offices on all of our investigations. And so we work with them and so in a legal sense we're not independent of the department of justice. We are spiritually, culturally pretty independent group and that's the way you would want it. But yes, we work with the Department of Justice on all of our investigations.
HIRONO: So if the Attorney General or senior officials at the Department of Justice opposes a specific investigation, can they halt that FBI investigation?
COMEY: In theory yes.
HIRONO: Has it happened?
COMEY: Not in my experience. Because it would be a big deal to tell the FBI to stop doing something that -- without an appropriate purpose. I mean where oftentimes they give us opinions that we don't see a case there and so you ought to stop investing resources in it. But I'm talking about a situation where we were told to stop something for a political reason, that would be a very big deal. It's not happened in my experience.
Got that, Chuck? Comey stated that being told to stop an investigation had "not happened in my experience" because it "would be a very big deal." That experience covers everything including conversations with the President. However, if you want to indulge your fantasy for the next few days until Comey testifies for the sake of mental tranquillity, be our guest.
