[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 87 (Friday, May 19, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H4383-H4387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE WEEK IN REVIEW

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Budd). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 3, 2017, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is 
recognized for the remainder of the hour as the designee of the 
majority leader.
  Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend from College Station for 
the profound tribute to a great man, great people.
  It has been an interesting week. Our President is headed for the 
Middle East, and it has gotten rather vitriolic, condemnation of our 
President for firing the FBI Director.
  The FBI Director is supposed to be more concerned with law 
enforcement than with press conferences. Since he is not elected, his 
job is not to go out and appear to be, politically, a substitute and, 
particularly, not to help one party over another.
  It seemed that under Director Comey's tenuous head of the FBI--I was 
thrilled when he replaced Mueller. Mueller did a lot of damage to the 
FBI with his 5-year up-or-out policy, where anyone in a supervisory 
position for 5 years anywhere outside of Washington, at the end of the 
5 years, had to either leave the FBI or come to Washington and be a 
minion up here for the Director.
  We lost thousands and thousands of years of valuable FBI experience 
under Director Mueller. In fact, no one has done more damage to the 
rank and file of our outstanding FBI agents than Director Mueller. I 
keep hearing all these glowing things. Well, he did a lot of damage.
  Plus, under his time as FBI Director, Mueller had the training 
material that would help FBI employees and agents understand more about 
radical Islam.
  The FBI, in the 1990s, had done an outstanding job of gathering 
information about radical Islam, of groups like the Holy Land 
Foundation, individuals associated with supporting terrorism. After the 
1993 attempt to bomb the World Trade Center, he did a good job 
gathering evidence for that trial. By the time Director Mueller came 
along under President George W. Bush, they had gotten pretty good at 
figuring out what radical Islam was.
  Kim Jensen, with the FBI, had a 700-page program to train FBI agents 
on what radical Islam was, how you go about spotting people that had 
been radicalized, the things they believe, understanding which 
scriptures in the Koran they focused on. It really helped FBI agents 
figure out how to stop radical Islam.
  But the reason the FBI took so much criticism after so many people 
across America have been killed needlessly from people who were on the 
FBI radar is because, under Bob Mueller, the FBI agents were not 
allowed to know how to spot radical Islam, and, in fact, they could 
hurt their career if they attempted to point out that someone had been 
radicalized.
  So that is why, when Russia told the United States twice--once, 
directly told the FBI, as I understand it--that the older Tsarnaev 
brother had been radicalized and where he had traveled and where he had 
been radicalized over in the former Soviet Union area, the FBI, the 
best we can find out from the public hearings we had, apparently, under 
Mueller, they sent somebody to ask Tsarnaev if he was a radical 
terrorist, and he assured them he wasn't. And they sent somebody to ask 
Tsarnaev's mother, and she, in essence, said, ``No, he is a good boy; 
he is not a terrorist,'' and that was their investigation.
  I challenged Mueller: You didn't even go to the mosques, the main 
Boston mosque where these guys attended to see and investigate whether 
they had been radicalized.

                              {time}  1315

  He refuted that. He said we did go to those mosques, but then he 
added: ``In our outreach program.''
  It turns out, as he admitted, he did not even know that the Boston 
mosque where the Tsarnaev radicalization was heightened was started by 
a man named Alamoudi. Alamoudi helped the Clinton administration back 
before they started making so much money on who they were. But the 
Clinton administration used Alamoudi to help them find the perfect 
Muslims to be chaplains at prisons, the perfect Muslims to help advise 
the government, the perfect Muslims to plug in to help our United 
States Government.
  And it is what I have asked more than once and have gotten no answer: 
Who was it that encouraged or placed Huma Abedin Weiner next to Hillary 
Clinton as an intern in 1996? Who was it that put her in that position 
next to the First Lady, where she grew from being intern to being 
helper and ultimately her number one closest adviser as secretary of 
state?
  Had Hillary Clinton been elected President, she would have been the 
foremost closest adviser to the President of the United States with 
some strong direct ties from her family to the Muslim Brotherhood.
  In fact, Osama bin Laden had indicated that a couple of things that 
radicalized him, made him want to kill people like Americans for being 
infidels, was a booklet written by an Egyptian Muslim brother named 
Qutb--Q-u-t-b--called ``Milestones.'' He also gave great credit to a 
guy named Naseef, who was head of a number of Muslim activities--still 
is. But he had a journal that was a favorite publication of the Muslim 
Brotherhood.
  And come to find out that, gee, back when she was working for Hillary 
Clinton, Huma Abedin was listed on the masthead as being a part of that 
publication, contributing to being part of that publication, along 
with, at different times, one or two other family members. That is the 
journal that Naseef started for the Muslim group.
  Quite interesting, the ties that she had. Some of us asked for the 
inspector general--all we did was ask five different inspectors general 
and five different departments or agencies if they would investigate 
the extent of Muslim brother influence in their particular department 
or agency, and one was the State Department. There is not one single 
thing that we put in any of those five letters that was inaccurate. 
They were all factually correct. But there was a firestorm. John McCain 
rushed to the Senate floor to condemn us. We were right about 
everything we put in those letters. We are still right.
  Bob Mueller did a lot of damage to our ability--as one of our agents 
told me, we have been blinded of our ability to see who our enemy is.
  In recent days, since Director Comey was fired by the President--
which he totally has the authority to do for any reason or for no 
reason--there have been all these glowing comments by my Democratic 
friends in the House and Senate condemning the firing of Comey. 
President Trump has been vilified even for commenting today and 
yesterday that he thought when he fired Comey he would have wide 
bipartisan support. Because he had heard so many comments, he thought 
that would be widely appreciated on both sides of the aisle, because 
clearly the FBI had become about Comey and not about law enforcement.
  It certainly seemed inappropriate, what he said last summer, when 
basically he laid out the case of how Hillary Clinton had committed a 
Federal crime that did not require intent, but then he added an element 
to the offense that Congress didn't add, that is not part of the law, 
of specific intent. Didn't exist. Not necessary to prove. It hadn't 
been proved in other cases where we have got people that have been put 
in the penitentiary for a lot less than what Hillary Clinton did. But 
he exonerated her. No prosecutor in his right mind would prosecute this 
case, when, actually, there are a lot of prosecutors who would have 
prosecuted that case if they were not so politically attuned as Mr. 
Comey was and is.
  I thought it would be helpful, Mr. Speaker, to just go back and 
revisit comments from some of our friends across the aisle about the 
FBI Director Comey. In fact, nobody has been more vocal since Director 
Comey's firing than our friend down the hall, Senator Chuck Schumer, 
Democrat from New York.
  I am quoting from my friend Chuck Schumer. He came out bluntly on 
November 2, 2016: ``I do not have confidence in him any longer.''
  Published in Bloomberg. So being a man of his word, we know that as 
of November 2, Senator Schumer had no confidence in Director Comey any 
longer.

[[Page H4384]]

  Despite what he has said in recent days, beloved Senator Bernie 
Sanders from Vermont did an interview with ABC News in January of this 
year. The headline from the ABC News story: ``Sanders: `Would Not Be 
Bad Thing for the American People' if FBI Director Comey Steps Down.''
  Then the story went on to say: ``Asked by ABC News' George 
Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview on `This Week' if Comey should 
leave his post, Sanders responded, `I think he should take a hard look 
at what he has done and I think it would not be a bad thing for the 
American people if he did step down.'
  `` `I think that Comey acted in an outrageous way during the 
campaign,' Sanders said. `No one can say that this was decisive, or 
this is what elected Trump, but clearly his behavior during the 
campaign in terms of what he said during the week or two before the 
election was unacceptable.' ''
  Then we have former Senator Harry Reid. All those who know him to be 
a man of his word can take his comments seriously because as of October 
30, 2016, Senator Harry Reid from Nevada said in a letter to Director 
Comey: ``Dear Director Comey: Your actions in recent months have 
demonstrated a disturbing double standard for the treatment of 
sensitive information, with what appears to be a clear intent to aid 
one political party over another. I am writing to inform you that my 
office has determined that these actions may violate the Hatch Act, 
which bars FBI officials from using their official authority to 
influence an election. Through your partisan actions, you may have 
broken the law.''

  Again, this is Harry Reid to Director Comey. Harry Reid goes on: 
``The double standard established by your actions is clear. In my 
communications with you and other top officials in the national 
security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive 
information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his 
top advisers, and the Russian Government, a foreign interest openly 
hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every 
opportunity.''
  And I will insert here parenthetically, we now know that the FBI did 
not possess explosive information about close ties and coordination 
between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian Government. In 
fact, the Obama administration, intelligence, law enforcement officials 
have repeatedly testified that despite all their inferences, despite 
all the things they wanted to find, they could not point to any 
evidence of the Russian Government affecting our election, of the 
Russian Government colluding with the Trump administration or with 
Donald Trump's campaign to affect the election. No evidence.
  Anyway, we know more now than we did at the time that Harry Reid 
wrote this letter.
  Senator Reid went on: ``The public has a right to know this 
information. I wrote to you months ago calling for this information to 
be released to the public. There is no danger to American interests 
from releasing it. And yet, you continue to resist calls to inform the 
public of this critical information.
  ``By contrast, as soon as you came into possession of the slightest 
innuendo related to Secretary Clinton, you rushed to publicize it in 
the most negative light possible.
  ``Moreover, in tarring Secretary Clinton with thin innuendo, you 
overruled longstanding tradition and the explicit guidance of your own 
department. You rushed to take this step 11 days before a Presidential 
election, despite the fact that for all you know, the information you 
possess could be entirely duplicative of the information you already 
examined which exonerated Secretary Clinton.''
  Well, again parenthetically, we know now it actually condemned 
Secretary Clinton, showed she committed a crime. She may not have had 
the intent to violate the law, but had the certain intent to do what 
she did, and that was a violation of the law.
  He goes on. This is Harry Reid talking to and about Comey. He says: 
``As you know, a memo authored by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates 
on March 10, 2016, makes clear that all Justice Department employees, 
including you, are subject to the Hatch Act. The memo defines political 
activity prohibited under the Hatch Act as, `activity directed toward 
the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan 
political office, or partisan political group.'
  ``The clear double standard established by your actions strongly 
suggests that your highly selective approach to publicizing 
information, along with your timing, was intended for the success or 
failure of a partisan candidate or political group.
  ``Please keep in mind that I have been a supporter of yours in the 
past. When Republicans filibustered your nomination and delayed your 
confirmation longer than any previous nominee to your position, I led 
the fight to get you confirmed because I believed you to be a 
principled public servant.
  ``With deepest regret, I now see that I was wrong.
  ``Sincerely,
  ``Senator Harry Reid.''
  So as of last October 30, Reid believed Comey was not fit for being 
Director of the FBI.
  On May 5: ``Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia told CNN's Alisyn Camerota 
on Friday that the letter FBI Director James Comey sent to Congress 
days before the 2016 election notifying lawmakers of the reopened 
investigation into Hillary Clinton's email practices was `probably the 
lowest moment in the history of the FBI' next to wiretapping Martin 
Luther King Jr.''

                              {time}  1330

  Tim Kaine, Senator Kaine, went on: `` `It will go down as probably 
the lowest moment in the history of the FBI, probably next to the 
decision of J. Edgar Hoover to wiretap Martin Luther King. And it was 
unfortunate,' Kaine said.'' That was from the Free Beacon.
  Senator Dianne Feinstein from California, November 6, 2016, had this 
to say about Director Comey of the FBI: `` `The FBI has a history of 
extreme caution near election day so as not to influence the results. 
Today's break from that tradition is appalling.' ''
  Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut, said this on May 10 
on MSNBC: `` `It is absolutely true the Democrats have been very 
critical of James Comey, and many of us did call for his resignation.' 
''
  Senator Cory Booker from New Jersey, back on November 6 of 2016, 
said: ``Hillary Clinton was sharply critical of the FBI in the wake of 
the surprise announcement that investigators were examining newly 
discovered emails that could be related to her former private server, 
but she has avoided the issue more recently.
  ``So it was striking that Senator Cory Booker took a swipe at the law 
enforcement agency on Sunday when he introduced Clinton at a black 
church here.''
  This actually is a story from the LA Times.
  ``Without mentioning the email probe specifically, Booker said there 
have been `reruns' in this election.
  `` `We saw what the FBI did in MLK's day,' he said, a reference to 
how it targeted the civil rights leader decades ago.
  ``FBI Director James B. Comey has faced withering criticism from 
Democrats and even some Republicans for notifying Congress so close to 
the election that the agency was examining additional emails.
  ``But Booker's reference to the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was 
also interesting in light of how Comey has required FBI trainees to 
study the lessons from the `shameful' investigations of the civil 
rights leader.''
  In an interview with NPR back on November 8, 2016, Senator Cory 
Booker of New Jersey had an interviewer say this to him: ``Now, earlier 
today, we had House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi calling the FBI 
Director James Comey's recent announcements a Molotov cocktail. And she 
was saying it might have affected down-ballot races for House and 
Senate, saying it might have made things more of an obstacle for 
Democrats. What concerns do you have about that in the Senate?''
  Senator Booker, again this is November 8, 2016, said: ``Well, I 
really think that it was a big impact on the election. I don't have 
any, obviously, data to back that up, and hopefully through an analysis 
we will see. But clearly our Senate candidates and our Presidential 
candidates were surging--or at the time that news came, it sucked the 
momentum out a lot of those races. And we think it could likely affect 
the outcome of some very

[[Page H4385]]

tight Senate races as well. It's unfortunate that he would break with 
precedent. It's--to me, it showed a grave lack of judgment, to put 
something like that into an election days before it would come to pass. 
And I think he did a disservice to the United States of America.'' That 
was from NPR on condemning the actions of Director Comey.
  Just so that we know what the theme is we are talking about here, 
basically Farewell to Director Comey as FBI Director, and I am just 
giving quotes that our friends across the aisle, Democrats, have made 
about Director Comey.
  Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said this November 2, 2016: `` `Maybe 
he's not in the right job,'. . . .
  `` `I think that we have to just get through this election and just 
see what the casualties are along the way.' ''
  Our friend, Representative G.K. Butterfield, Democrat here in the 
House, serving nobly, former head of the Congressional Black Caucus, he 
said this year, January 24: `` `I can't speak for Democrats, but I can 
speak for myself, and I think that James Comey needs to fade away into 
oblivion.'
  `` `He embarrassed this Nation, he possibly influenced the outcome of 
a presidential election, and he should not hold any position of trust, 
whatsoever, in our government.' ''
  And my friend, Representative Steve Cohen from Tennessee, we serve 
together on the Committee on the Judiciary. This was his press release 
October 30, 2016. The press release his office sent out said: 
``Congressman Steve Cohen, ranking member of the House Judiciary 
Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, today called on 
James Comey to resign as Director of the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation.''
  Then it has a quote in the Cohen press release: `` `FBI Director 
James Comey's recent public comments on former Secretary of State 
Hillary Clinton and her emails, apparently before seeing any evidence, 
and against the advice of the Justice Department according to press 
reports, and even, some have suggested, in violation of the Hatch Act, 
make it clear that for the good of the FBI and the Justice Department, 
he should resign his position effective immediately,' said Congressman 
Cohen. `In the past, even quite recently, I have expressed my 
appreciation for Director Comey. I appreciated his courage as Deputy 
Attorney General when he stood up to President Bush's Chief of Staff 
Andrew Card and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales when they 
attempted to persuade hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to 
reauthorize Bush's domestic surveillance program, which the Justice 
Department had just determined was illegal. When, in July of this year, 
Director Comey recommended no criminal charges against Hillary Clinton 
for her handling of classified information while she was Secretary of 
State but added his own sidebar of opinions to the announcement, I gave 
Director Comey the benefit of the doubt, despite the fact that his 
making such highly unusual remarks was called into question by many.'
  ``Congressman Cohen elaborated, `While I cannot know Director Comey's 
reasoning for his recent letter to House Members notifying them about 
the FBI's review of emails that he deemed ``potentially related'' to 
Hillary Clinton's personal server, it was plainly premature, careless 
and unprecedented in its potential impact upon a Presidential election 
without a speck of information regarding the emails in question, their 
validity, substance or relevance. Director Comey stated in the letter 
that he had no idea of ``the significance of this newly discovered 
collection of emails,'' which makes his decision all the more 
disturbing.

  `` `There is a reason that FBI investigations are not usually made 
public until they are completed. To do so gives an impression of guilt 
before all the facts have been determined. That was the case during the 
FBI's investigation of Secretary Clinton's emails that led Director 
Comey to state that there was no evidence that Secretary Clinton 
intentionally transmitted or willfully mishandled classified 
information and that ``no reasonable prosecutor'' would bring a case 
against her. In light of that finding and the Department of Justice's 
prohibition and practice against influencing elections, it is clear 
that Director Comey's actions, no matter his motivations, have called 
into question his judgment and ethics. That is unacceptable as the FBI 
Director must, like Caesar's wife, be above suspicion. I agree with 
CNN's Paul Callan who, in calling for Director Comey to resign wrote 
`Trashing the Justice and FBI rule books in the interest of `openness' 
is likely to put the FBI front and center in one of the most 
contentious Presidential races in recent U.S. history.' ''
  ``Congressman Cohen continued, `Additionally revelatory is The New 
York Times opinion written by Richard Painter, chief White House ethics 
lawyer for President George W. Bush, in which he states: Absent 
extraordinary circumstances that might justify it, a public 
communication about a pending FBI investigation involving a candidate 
that is made on the eve of an election is thus very likely to be a 
violation of the Hatch Act and a misuse of an official position. 
Serious questions also arise under lawyers' professional conduct rules 
that require prosecutors to avoid excessive publicity and unnecessary 
statements that could cause public condemnation even of people who have 
been accused of a crime, not to mention people like Mrs. Clinton, who 
have never been charged with a crime.'
  ``Congressman Cohen concluded, `The fairness of our electoral system 
is like the fairness of a trial, and no justice official should act in 
such a way to potentially influence an election whether intended to or 
not. Standards must be upheld and an FBI Director needs to investigate, 
not inject issues into a Presidential election when no investigation 
dictates action or basis for action. At a minimum, Director Comey's 
actions are, to use his own verbiage, ``extremely careless'' this close 
to the election and without any apparent substance. If Director Comey 
cares about the Bureau and the rule of law, as I have felt he has in 
the past, I'm sure upon reflection of this action, he will submit his 
letter of resignation for the Nation's good.' ''
  So that is my friend, Congressman Steve Cohen from Tennessee, saying, 
for the good of the country basically, Comey ought to submit his letter 
of resignation back last October.
  Also, when Congressman Cohen appeared on MSNBC, he said: `` `What 
he's done'--talking about Comey--`is put the FBI in a position that it 
has never been in. The FBI Director is supposed to investigate and keep 
his judgments quiet and not get involved in elections . . . and while 
he's made the right decision, even though he went too far, this summer 
in not indicting the Secretary, what he did here was just wrong, and 
something the FBI Director needs to exert extreme control over 
themselves not to get involved, and he just made a mistake, and I think 
he should resign, because he's damaged the FBI's reputation.'
  `` `. . . in fact, he's been excessively careless now. I gave him the 
benefit of the doubt I guess based on the result but I didn't like the 
way he had cut to the process in which he got to the substance of the 
decision.' ''
  October 31, 2016, also Congressman Cohen from Tennessee appeared on 
CNN, and the CNN reporter said: `` `Congressman, up until the last few 
days, you didn't just think the FBI Director was doing a good job--you 
thought he was doing a great job. You told him last month in a hearing, 
you said ``You are a credit to the FBI, you are a credit to government 
service.'' How do you explain you're . . .' ''
  And then Congressman Cohen said: `` `Because he went too far with 
this one.' ''
  November 3, 2016, The Hill said this: ``As a nearly ten-year veteran 
of the House Judiciary Committee--the committee responsible for 
oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of 
Justice--and ranking member of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the 
Constitution and Civil Justice, earlier this week I called on FBI 
Director James Comey to resign his position after his recent 
communication with Members of Congress regarding the Bureau's review of 
emails potentially related to Hillary Clinton's personal email 
server.''
  Anyway, it goes on--it is a long story--but again feeding Congressman 
Cohen's call for FBI Director Comey to resign.

[[Page H4386]]

  December 16, 2016, in a tweet attributed to Congressman Cohen of 
Tennessee: `` `#Comey was wrong to hide hacking of #DNC #DCCC, but he 
should not resign. Trump would appoint worse. #FBI & Senators bulwark 
for next admin.' ''
  So by December he was already thinking differently.
  But December 10, in a statement, he said: `` `I applaud Senate 
Minority Leader Harry Reid for also calling on FBI Director James Comey 
to resign after new information came to light that Director Comey may 
have known the CIA had secretly concluded that the Russians were trying 
to help Donald Trump win the Presidency. . . .' ''
  So, anyway, back and forth. But our friend, Representative Keith 
Ellison, Democrat from Minnesota, November 6, 2016, from Twitter said: 
``I'm not surprised at all `Comey says latest emails don't change 
decision.' ''

                              {time}  1345

  Representative Elijah Cummings from Maryland, my friend, a Democrat, 
January 13 of this year, said: ``I was willing to give him the benefit 
of the doubt. Today, I must tell you, when I left the hearing, I felt a 
great sense of disappointment.''
  My friend, Ruben Gallego, a Congressman from Arizona, a Democrat, 
said: ``What I heard in the briefing made me not trust him, that's 
all.''
  My friend, Hank Johnson, a Democrat from Georgia, said: ``My 
confidence in the FBI Director's ability to lead this agency has been 
shaken.''
  On January 13, Hank Johnson also said: ``He should pack his things 
and go.''
  He was talking about Comey.
  Johnson said: ``I don't have confidence in this man to lead the FBI 
in the coming weeks and months ahead, with all the work that must be 
done to get to the bottom of Russian hacking into our electoral 
process.''
  Then my friend, Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York, November 14, 
2016, said: ``The President can fire him for cause and ought to. He 
violated all the guidelines and put his thumb on the scale of an 
election. Whether it was decisive or not is a different question.''
  House Democratic Caucus vice Chairwoman Linda Sanchez, my friend from 
California, said: ``I don't believe that Director Comey conducted 
himself during the election in a way that was impartial. I have 
concerns about that. But I also have concerns about who would the 
replacement be.''
  Also, my friend, Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz from 
Florida, said: ``I think Director Comey has taken enough actions that 
call into question his ability to continue to serve credibly. I would 
lean in the direction that he no longer is able to serve in a neutral 
and credible way.''
  My friend, Representative Mark Takano from California, said: ``I'm 
extremely concerned--extremely. I'll just--I'm very angry.''
  He was talking about Comey as FBI Director.
  Representative Tim Walz, my friend from Minnesota, said on January 
13: ``I was nonjudgmental until the last 15 minutes. I no longer have 
that confidence in him.''
  And then so many of the media have been condemning President Trump 
for firing the FBI Director. Yet, if we just go back a little bit, 
those same people in the media--Paul Callan from CNN, on October 30, 
2016, said: ``Perhaps it's time for the embattled FBI Director who 
seems to have forgotten how to conduct a proper investigation to 
resign.''
  Kurt Eichenwald said on November 7, 2016: ``James Comey should not 
simply be fired as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He 
must be barred forever from any form of public service.
  ``He has done more damage to the reputation of the FBI than any 
Director since the Nixon administration. Comey will, without doubt, be 
listed as second only to Hoover as the worst Director to ever hold the 
office because of his willingness to abuse his power.''
  Ian Millhiser, on October 31, 2016, said: ``We also know that Comey 
violated longstanding Justice Department protocol when he decided to 
disclose the very few facts that he actually did disclose in his letter 
to the Republican chairs. And we know that he wrote the letter over the 
explicit objections of Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Taken together, 
these actions constitute a fireable offense.''
  The New York Daily News editorial board called on Comey to resign, 
and said: ``FBI Director James Comey's democracy-bending decision to 
inform America, 11 days before its Presidential election, that the 
Bureau is digging into a trove of additional emails demands the highest 
condemnation. And he must resign.''
  The Wall Street Journal editorial board said: ``But if the FBI 
Director has demonstrated anything in the last year, it is that he has 
lost the trust of nearly everyone in Washington, along with every 
American who believes the FBI must maintain its reputation as a 
politically impartial Federal agency.
  ``The best service Mr. Comey can render his country now is to resign. 
Failing that, Jeff Sessions should invite him in for a meeting after he 
is confirmed as attorney general and ask him to resign. If Mr. Comey 
declines, Donald Trump can and should fire him in the best interests of 
the Nation's most important law enforcement agency.''
  Keith Olbermann with GQ tweeted out: ``Very simple: FBI Director 
Comey needs to clarify--today--that these are not emails from, or 
withheld by, Clinton or resign immediately.''
  The Washington Post said on October 29, 2016: ``James Comey is 
damaging our democracy.''
  Michael Cohen with The Boston Globe on October 21, 2016, said: ``FBI 
Director James Comey should resign. James Comey really messed up. The 
FBI Director did not commit some garden-variety mistake. This is not an 
`oops' moment. For reasons that have more to do with protecting himself 
from dishonest Republican attacks, Comey committed an overly egregious 
and political act that roiled the Nation's politics 11 days before 
election day--and undermined public trust in the Nation's criminal 
justice institution. And he needs to go.''
  That is The Boston Globe.
  Anyway, Mortimer B. Zuckerman, chairman and editor of U.S. News and 
World Report, on November 4, 2016, said: ``Time to resign--FBI Director 
James Comey needs to step down over his handling of the Clinton email 
investigation.''
  This is what they said.
  ``The self-righteous James Comey has served his country badly. Comey 
seems oblivious of the effect of handing Trump a piece of dynamite.''
  And he goes on condemning Comey over and over.
  Jeff Jarvis from Buzzfeed said on November 6, 2016, in a tweet: ``Now 
resign, Comey, resign.''
  On October 31, 2016, a tweet from Bret Stephens of The New York 
Times, said: ``FBI Director James Comey needs to resign now, while he 
can salvage his honor. My Wall Street Journal column explains.''
  You have the Clinton campaign on May 10--it was republished on May 
10, but it first went out on October 30, 2016, and it talks about 
having worked with Director Comey: ``But his unprecedented decision to 
publicly comment on evidence in what may be an ongoing inquiry just 11 
days before a Presidential election leaves us both astonished and 
perplexed.''

  It went on to say that they were ``moved'' to speak out publicly 
because Comey's action violated ``settled'' DOJ tenets.
  And Hillary Clinton herself said: ``It's pretty strange to put 
something like that out with such little information, right before an 
election. In fact, it's not just strange, it's unprecedented and it's 
deeply troubling. I was on the way to winning until the combination of 
Jim Comey's letter on October 28 and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in 
the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me but got scared 
off. If the election was on October 27, I would be your President.''
  John Podesta, it turns out, is on the board of directors of one or 
more companies and had dealings with Russia. He said: ``It's 
extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out 
from a Presidential election.
  ``Light on facts, heavy on innuendo, knowing full what Republicans 
would do with it. It is not up to him who owes the public answers to 
questions that are now on the table.''
  He also said that he has ``not been forthcoming with the facts.''
  Anyway, Mr. Speaker, I just thought it would be interesting to 
understand

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why President Donald Trump would have said in the last 2 days he 
thought that firing Comey would be applauded in a bipartisan fashion, 
because he knew all of these quotes from Democratic leaders, mainstream 
leaders that are mainstream media-leading publications weighed in 
demanding Comey's resignation. President Trump demands his resignation 
or fires him.
  So it seems to me President Trump is in a situation where it is 
understandable he would think the Democrats would appreciate him firing 
Comey, just like Republicans.
  I know President Trump is relatively new to politics, but hopefully 
this is a lesson to President Trump. Just because Democratic leaders 
and the mainstream media say one thing in righteous indignation one day 
does not mean they are not going to turn around and say exactly the 
opposite the very next day or the next month.
  The President, I know he is learning--he is a quick learner--but he 
is bound to learning as he goes. You can't always trust what a 
Democratic leader says one moment, because they may turn around and 
completely contradict themselves immediately thereafter.
  So I think if the President just relies on what our Democratic 
Senators and House Members said, he will be in good stead. And I think 
the country is better off, depending on who is appointed, but I have 
faith it will be an improvement.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

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