Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson used his opening monologue to weigh in on President Donald Trump’s decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.
Carlson called the move by Trump “overdue” and pointed to criticisms from both Republicans and Democrat that the agency had become too involved in politics.
Transcript as follows:
It came unexpectedly and for a moment you could almost hear official Washington pause, wondering which talking points to use. And then the barking began. Several Democratic senators have already and productively called the firing Nixonian as if you’re watching something from during Watergate but you are not. This firing was overdue and everyone in Washington knows it. Comey recently went to Boston College and said this about his plans to run the FBI. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES COMEY, FBI DIRECTOR: Boston College is a leader in thinking and educating on these incredibly important issues. So this is a great place to have it. Hope you’ll do it many more times. You’re stuck with me for about another six and a half years and so I’d love to be invited back again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Not true as it turned out. Comey repeatedly injected himself into political matters as the country’s chief investigative figure should stay out of. In 2015 for example, he came out against police body cams right after President Obama endorsed them, effectively undermining the President. The last presidential campaign, of course he held that famous press conference about the investigation of Hillary Clinton even though he was simply announcing that the FBI lacked enough evidence to support a criminal case against her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMEY: Although the Department of Justice makes final decisions on matters like this, we are expressing to justice our view that no charges are appropriate in this case. I know there will be intense public debate in the wake of this recommendation as there was throughout the investigation. What I can assure the American people is that this investigation was done honestly, confidently, and independently.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: The spring Comey revealed that the FBI was conducting an investigation into alleged coordination between the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and the state of Russia. In the exact same hearing, he refused to say if the FBI was investigating illegal anti-Trump leaks in the federal government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you assure them that it is going to be investigated?
COMEY: I can’t, but I hope people watching you know how seriously we take leaks of classified information, but I don’t want to confirm it by saying that we are investigating it and I’m sorry I have to draw that line. I just think that is the right way to be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Just a few days ago meanwhile, Comey imputed Hillary Clinton Huma Abedin dramatically exaggerating the number of emails she forwarded to her laptop and that of her husband Anthony Weiner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COMEY: She forwarded hundreds of thousands of emails some of which contained classified information.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Now at times, both Republicans and Democrats in Washington seem to appreciate the help that Comey gave them but over time, his behavior was turning the Bureau of the FBI into a key political player and that is the one thing that is not supposed to be. By the end, it just got strange. Often and the course of a single conversation, you hear Democrats praise Comey for not indicting Hillary Clinton then blame him for her defeat in November and then turn around again and log him for his Russia investigation in the hopes that he be able to bring down the President.
Rarely has there been less principle on display in Washington. That’s not all Jim Comey’s fault but he definitely didn’t help. What this firing ought to remind us is that ultimately will power in a democracy resides with the voters. When unaccountable forces whether there at the CIA or Planned Parenthood or Exxon or the Department of Justice in this case start making our biggest public policy decisions, we risk losing our democracy.
Dictatorship by the unelected, that is the real threat to this country and our traditions. Let’s be honest. This firing of James Comey was overdue and everybody in Washington knows that. Comey was unfit for the office he held. The new President should have canned him the afternoon of the inauguration but he didn’t. Comey was too eccentric to run the FBI and too powerful for any of us to breathe easily while he was there.
Just how powerful was James Comey? Let’s put it this way. He was feared in a way that no appointed bureaucrat should ever be feared in a free society. Time and again elected lawmakers on both sides came on this show and expressed worry and concern about his behavior but they did so only during commercial breaks with the cameras off. Why? Because they were terrified of the prospect of criticizing him in public. They certainly don’t have that fear the sitting President of the United States and that tells you everything you need to know about Jim Comey.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor