comey can leak and lie and make loads of money from a third rate book that never should have been written. is that really the way life in america is supposed to work? i don t think so. so, josh, the president s tweet this morning aside, what did you make as you comb there you some of these comey memos? a lot of which we heard about in his public testimony last year. i don t think there was anything we were particularly shocked by. i think just the texture and graphic detail does put you inside the room with the president of the united states when he is talking to the fbi director. i think it only adds to the kind of concern that we have. traditionally there s been such a clear divide to prevent even the appearance of a politicized department of justice. and that divide has just been trampled on by president trump essentially leading the charge in trampling those norms even as the rest of his white house has followed. again, it is everybody depth from the memos that are admittedly wri
start with the stephanopoulos interview and go through. a lot of criticism, lots of obsession about what he did in the 2016 campaign naturally, then there is this focus on trump period which we are now really focused on because of the release of the memo. as we come to the end of comey week one, where does jim comey stand? well, look. the goal of this week nor jim comey was to sell books. he had no trouble putting himself in the headlines. i m sure that s been very good for book sales. i m sure his agent and his publisher are very happy about that. i think that s probably his number one goal. that s the reason you write a book, to go out and convince people so they ll read your story. the second thing is, any time a public official wants to put their credibility up against donald trump s they ll look pretty good. i think he s benefited from that. the third thing that i think hasn t been so good for him, he did have this strictly non-partisan by-the-book law man reputation, and some o
people expect one thing from an fbi director. they are getting something different from jim comey. he is a private citizen now so he shouldn t be held to the same rules you would expect of a sitting official. but to this point about going back over the 2016 election, i think there were a lot of people that were ready to listen to an explanation from him about that. at least people on the left. i know i was ready to and i have been very critical of him. but i don t think we got the explanation we were hoping for. one thing that came through for me in the book he treated loretta lynch very unfairly in making that decision by not going and briefing her about this classified information that he brings up in the book. so what i think has happened this week, there s no question that he is the credibility figure in this dispute over who s telling the truth about his interactions with the president. but i think when you go back and look at him, he is a man of great integrity. but the thing tha
thing he mentions flynn. it is the case that donald trump is on twitter this morning yet again defending michael flynn who s a convicted he copped a plea. he took a plea deal, he is an admitted criminal. i can t strikes me as shocking that still these many months later that he is a critic of jim comey not surprising. we know all about that. but the notion he is still defending michael flynn just kind of blows my mind. ben, what is it about the mike flynn relationship that donald trump can t seem to let go, even as the man has copped to a federal crime? well, i feel like the thing about mike flynn that people forget, he is a professional loyalist. before he went down in flames for donald trump, he went down in flames for stanley mcchrystal. and for all his whatever his flaws, he is a guy who is was incredibly loyal. i think trump is somebody who rewards loyalty. he is also in a situation where it is very important that he signal he rewards loyalty. i think it is very important