i think this demonstrated today why we need an independent commission. anyone watching today s hearing saw something, it was certainly contentious, personable, arguably out of control. was anything actually accomplished today? no. actually, for the 2,000 children who would like to be with their parents tonight, nothing was accomplished as far as connecting them. this is the committee that has jurisdiction to reconnect and reunite those families, that s why this was such a shame. however, i do think you have now seen director comey, he came to congress, raised his right hand went under oath with respect to russia. peter stzok has done the same thing, two individuals the president continues to attack. the question, mr. president, are you willing to go to bob mueller and raise your right hand and go under oath and answer questions as it relates to your involvement with the russians. is what we saw today really that much different than what we ve seen in past years?
conduct of the investigation, and of all things, despite his personal irresponsible, and his undermining of the investigation or certainly the appearance that he gave by his own actions, what we learned today, there were safeguards in that investigation, that he had the ability in fact to hurt donald trump, as did the investigators and the leadership of the fbi. they did not take that shot. what we learned today, between the lines, is this was an investigation of objectivity, some difficult calls, some not very competent moves made, particularly by comey, as we know, and at the same time, reason to believe that there was integrity despite the recklessness of mr. stzok. josh, stzok said in the testimony the fbi had information alleging a russian offer of assistance to a member of the trump campaign. why could he answer that
he gave it to them when they tried to say to him, you know, this is a false investigation. and he took great umbrage at it. obviously, he has done the fbi a lot of damage in the public eye. that s why he was taken off the mueller investigation. but if the object of this was to prove that the russia investigation is false because it started in a wrong way and should never have begun, i do not think the republicans achieved their goal. josh, as a former fbi agent, former special assistant to director comey, how did you view the hearing and stzok s handling of himself. we have to start with what the purpose of this hearing was, the opportunity for america s elected representatives to ask tough questions of a public servant that made mistakes and that peter stzok used bad judgment. the question, would they allow
would agree to the request to bring bannon back to the committee? remember, when steve bannon refused to answer questions he just said i m not answering them. we had a vote to compel him to come back and answer questions. that vote went down because the republicans opposed it. peter stzok s situation, the fbi rules and he cannot answer questions that involve an ongoing criminal or counter intelligence investigation. the 500 page report from the ig criticized directors comey for doing just that in violation of doj rules. republicans know that. they read that report and know the fbi protocols. this was about asking questions they know mr. stzok is not permitted to answer and shouldn t. it would be dangerous to the investigation, would endanger our national security if current investigations or people talked about them in this middle of it.
truth. saying that he has shannon: let s get back to the inspector general who was appointed under president obama and head of the opr office praised by then attorney general eric holder. those are the people who found mccabe lied multiple times, and they found his firing was appropriate. they made that recommendation. this is what mccabe s attorney had to say when the report came out. he chose to exercise the authority and at to share information with reporter with the knowledge of directors comey and senior members that management. his purpose was to protect the institutional reputation of the fbi against false claims, including that a sensitive investigation was being shut down for political reasons. gianno, that s not the story comey is telling. when it came down to it, the inspector general chose to believe the fbi director, former fbi director s version of event events. overall, the inspector general found this was done by mccabe, in his estimation, for personal