Friday on PBS’s “NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks was asked if former FBI Director James Comey had come out of last week’s hearing Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, in which he testified about his interactions with President Donald Trump, with his credibility intact.
According to Brooks, Comey did come out with his credibility and that what we were witnessing was a “clash of cultures” between Comey, who has an appreciate for the “norms” of government and Trump, who Brooks said tramples on those rules “as a matter of policy.”
Partial transcript as follows:
I think what we saw in the Comey testimony was really a clash of cultures. James Comey is an institutional man. He serves the FBI. He believes in a government of laws. He believes in following the procedures and norms that really govern any organization.
We are a nation of laws. Donald Trump lives in an entirely different cultural universe. He is more clannist, believing in clan, believing in family, believing in loyalty, not recognizing objective law, not recognizing the procedures that is really how modern government operates.
So when Paul Ryan and other Republicans say, well, Donald Trump just didn’t know the rules because he’s an innocent at this, he’s a newbie at this, that’s insufficient. It’s not only that he doesn’t know the rules, but at all along and throughout his presidency, he has sort of trampled on the rules almost as a matter of policy, as a matter of character, because he doesn’t believe in that kind of relationships.
It’s all personal loyalty, not about laws and norms and standards. And I do think, eventually, down the road, that is going to be a continual source of problem for him, that he’s continually violating the way we do our government.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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