ABC's The View gave almost their entire hour on Wednesday to an interview with James Comey...on top of the hour of publicity (minus commercials) he was granted by ABC in his primetime book-selling special on Sunday night. The toughest questions came from Meghan McCain, who quickly turned to accusing Comey of going on a book tour for money and attention.
MEGHAN McCAIN: You're not naive to the criticism you’ve gotten from Republicans and Democrats, and I think it’s worth noting that David Axelrod, a big Democrat, a former chief stratetgist to President Obama, said ‘I have no doubt about its brilliance when it comes to book sales. Maybe he should have called it Higher Royalties.' What do you say to people like him and people like me that think you're doing this for money and attention?
COMEY: Yeah, the first thing I’d do is ask him to read the book, and I'm not saying he should agree with me, but if he reads the book, he will see I'm trying to make choices between bad options and doing it in a way that I think you would want someone as director of the FBI to do it. So even if you leave the book still thinking I'm an idiot, you realize I'm actually kind of an honest idiot and I'm not on anybody's side. [Applause]
McCain then asserted longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover would be "rolling over in his grave" at Comey's book. Comey repeated his line about he's trying to be "open and honest." McCain then asked if "transparency" was most important. Comey said "It's a huge part of the FBI. It's a bedrock." Then McCain brought up his deputy, Andrew McCabe:
McCAIN: Even if your second in command was fired for lying four times. So this is where I think the confusion comes from. McCabe was fired for lying multiple times within the FBI. You defended his character on Twitter. That's okay?. Lying is okay internally?
COMEY: No, it's definitely not. In fact, the McCabe case illustrates what an organization that's committed to the truth looks like. We investigate -- I ordered that investigation. We investigate and hold people accountable. Good people lie. I lay out, I think I'm a good person, where I have lied. I still believe Andrew McCabe is a good person, but the inspector general found that he lied, and there are severe consequences as there should be throughout the government.
McCain was cut off a few minutes later when she said "people like Alan Dershowitz said you didn't have the courage" to tell Trump he was wrong to ask for loyalty. Whoopi Goldberg cut to the commercials. Later, she asserted that Comey sounds like a political commentator: "You write in your book about you went to President Obama and you were on the verge of tears, saying you were going to miss him. You also said you were dreading the next four years with Trump....I don’t want to know your politics. And a lot of the things you’re saying and doing are highly political."
