Defending Clinton, Obama draws contrast with FBI’s Comey
ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Barack Obama boarded Air Force One, today, at Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Obama was headed back to North Carolina to help turn out the vote for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with a rally in Chapel Hill.
WASHINGTON » President Barack Obama staunchly defended Hillary Clinton’s use of private email as an “honest mistake,” suggesting today that voters should discount innuendo-filled revelations that the FBI is looking into more emails just ahead of Election Day.
Obama walked a careful line in his first public comments about FBI Director James Comey’s decision to publicly disclose the emails’ existence, which has roiled the campaign. Though he did not explicitly criticize Comey, Obama outlined a standard for how investigations should be conducted that contrasted sharply with the approach Comey has pursued.
“I do think that there is a norm that when there are investigations, we don’t operate on innuendo, we don’t operate on incomplete information, we don’t operate on leaks,” Obama said in an interview with online news outlet NowThis. “We operate based on concrete decisions that are made.”
Comey notified Congress in a brief and ambiguous letter last week that the FBI was examining whether newly uncovered emails might pertain to a dormant FBI probe into Clinton’s email practices. Comey’s letter shed no light on whether investigators were likely to actually turn up anything of note.
Meanwhile, a series of leaks by FBI and Justice Department officials about how the emails came to light have further muddied the waters for voters, who must decide whether to let the revelations affect their choice for president.
The White House insisted that Obama comments shouldn’t be construed as pertaining to Clinton’s case, even though they came in response to a direct question about Comey and the Clinton emails. White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Obama was merely pointing out that if facts are released before an investigation is completed, “that could lead to public speculation or innuendo.”
Don't miss out on what's happening!
Stay in touch with top news, as it happens, conveniently in your email inbox. It's FREE!
“The president believes that — generally speaking — that doesn’t serve our interests,” Schultz said.
Obama, in the interview, emphasized that he’s trying to avoid looking like he’s meddling in an independent process. At the same time, he pointed to the FBI’s earlier investigation of Clinton, which concluded she shouldn’t be charged with a crime, as evidence that the issue was much ado about nothing.
“Hillary Clinton, having been in the arena for 30 years, oftentimes gets knocked around, and people say crazy stuff about her, and when she makes a mistake — an honest mistake — it ends up being blown up as if it’s just some crazy thing,” Obama said.
How to handle the uproar over Comey and the emails has become a delicate balancing act for the White House. The principle of judicial independence dictates that the president shouldn’t risk the perception of influencing investigations by commenting about whether they are appropriate or how they are conducted.
On the other hand, White House aides and other Democrats are concerned that Clinton could be unfairly disadvantaged by the disclosure that the FBI is looking into her emails again, even it if ultimately amounts to nothing.
In the closing days of the race, there also has been speculation and contradictory reports about whether the FBI is investigating Donald Trump’s possible connections with Russia.
60 responses to “Defending Clinton, Obama draws contrast with FBI’s Comey”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
If any government worker with top secret clearance had done what hiLIARy had done, they would be fired and put in jail. My family member (retired) had a top secret rating and said what HiLIARy did would definitely face dire consequences.
Meanwhile, a decorated Marine officer Major Jason Brezler who has deployed four times faces being discharged because he used his personal email to send a single classified report as an urgent warning when lives were at stake. Three young Marines were shot to death as they worked out in a gym by an Afghan teen brought on the base by the same corrupt and double-dealing pedophile police chief whom Brezler had declared to be an immediate threat. Yet the only person to be investigated in connection with the killings is Brezler, the Marine who sought to prevent them.
Mother Of Marine In Prison For Doing What Hillary Did: Why Is My Son In Jail And She’s Running For President? (VIDEO)..http://americanlookout.com/jpb-mother-of-marine-whos-in-prison-for-doing-what-hillary-did-why-is-my-son-in-jail-and-shes-running-for-president-video/?tgp=1
WoW! just reported on FoxNews, Brett’s investigation hears of the Clinton Foundation is being investigated by the FBI! Big Time! most likely there will be an indictment even if elected President. They also found NEW clinton work related emails on Weiner’s laptop. Also the FBI now knows Clintons personal sever been hacked by 5 sources! BIG NEWS!
Pocho – None of this is true, but you certainly do enjoy your delusions.
hahaha, read an weap. Don’t blame the Messenger! Haven’t you learned.
There will be NOTHING found if the Clinton Foundation is investigated. It’s a well-run, good-doing organization.
People like Trump and Pence, who distort facts like saying “Only 5% of donations actually is given out in charitable grants” are liars and you should not vote for them for misleading you.
88% of donations go to help people, which earns it an A-rating on all the charity websites. 82% is used in its numerous projects, while 6% is given out in charitable grants. 82% + 6% = 88% going to help people. The Clintons get 0% as personal income.
Trump uses his foundation money to pay for bribes, fines, and a portrait of himself. Don’t vote for him.
MillionMonkeys – The Washington Post found that Trump had actually purchased TWO portraits of himself with foundation money. And an autographed football helmet he wanted. And also a $7 Cub Scout dues payment. This is all with charitable money donated by other people.
Disgraceful and illegal.
Yes, imagine if by some miracle he gets into the White House. He’d put up portaits of himself all over the place, removing other presidents’ portraits because they block the view of his Greatness. And he’d probably try to rename it the White Trump House. That is, until he’s impeached or the 2nd Amendment folks do something about it.
The FBI don’t investigate any entity unless they have more than an inkling somethings wrong being done! Your in denial. “smh” The taller Clinton’s noses grow the harder they fall!
no headlines of the FBI leak on the Clinton foundation as of yet. the Star Advertiser is in bed with Democrats!
Pocho – That’s probably because there was no FBI announcement, and you just made this up. Like you make up so many other things.
No matter how often you repeat a lie, it will not magically become true.
Klastri, I can’t wait to see you weep! lol
tears will flow in disbelieve, lol
etalavera- It would help if you didn’t lie about the problem facing Major Brezler. He was found to have more than 100 classified documents on a USB thumb drive, in violation of the UCMJ.
According to NCIS, he told people in his company (who testified against him) that he illegally took the classified documents to help with a book he intended to write about his experiences in Afghanistan.
You might read more into the case before posting something ridiculous about the Major. The charges had nothing whatever to do with an email he sent. It was all about the documents he stole.
In the federal service, possible penalties for mishandling sensitive information are quite explicit. Whether there was actual intent to commit harm to the U.S. and its interests is irrelevant. Good or naive intent or not, or ignorance of regulations or the law or not, does not matter one whit. Whether or not you did what you have been accused of doing is the last and final word.
The Department of State handles its own security clearances, not the “federal service” – whatever that means in your mind. Security clearances are ultimately governed by presidential executive order, which means that a President can decide who does and doesn’t get a security clearance, and can change the rules for any person at any time. Therefore, as a practical matter, a President Hillary Clinton could overrule any recommendations denying clearances to her trusted aides.
As President, Mrs. Clinton will not be subject to any security clearance requirements.
Klastri:
Assuming what you say is completely true, will you explicitly state here, now, and forever that Hillary Clinton violated no existing federal rules and regulations pertaining to the handling of any documents or telecommunication considered to be of a security interest to the United States? By “federal” let’s assume this question encompasses the business and purview of the United States government.
I’ll ask you too, Klastri, do you also assert that Hillary Clinton’s acts and actions pertaining to the handling of such sensitive material should be considered of no meaningful consequence? I am not asking if what she did can be ignored by a higher authority but, rather, should it be ignored?
Would you also regard private and privileged communication conveyed to your law firm or to any reputable attorney as responsibly managed if handled in the same way Hillary Clinton managed her own?
Klastri is no attorney, she’s a bitter illegal immigrant that failed Trump University, hence her newfound hatred for Trump as her student loan was not forgiven.
DeltaDag – Here, now & forever? You must have attended a lot of drama classes to have come up with that one!
Mrs. Clinton’s actions, obviously, were not ignored. How could you even write something like that? She was has umpteen congressional hours of testimony and the FBI pouring over what she did. She has apologized over and over again for her handling of those emails. Of course what she did should not have been ignored and was not ignored. I agree with Director Comey (a former Assistant Director of the Justice Department) that the case, such as it is, could not be prosecuted.
I have no idea how the private server was managed and know nothing about its security systems. You don’t either. Our partners may use private servers (I have one myself) if they meet our published security standards.
Barry Hussein. Once a two-bit street agitator, always a two-bit street agitator. Does anybody on the planet believe Waldo’s use of a private server was an “honest mistake”?
Do you believe anything that has come out of the Clintons mouths?
The Clinton Gang are political thugs.
You all should hire a tutor to help you with reading and listening comprehension. No need to get a whole college degree. Fox News and other hillbilly sources run a full-time propaganda program, twisting every bit of non-information into the most derogatory interpretation possible. Your Republican “leaders” keep raising conspiracy theories for partisan reasons. They’ve been accusing Clinton of “criminal” acts for years when the reality is that she was only extremely careless (in retrospect, it is bothersome that she and all her staff were so ignorant, but still no criminal intent).
The Justice Department and the FBI and mainstream media all acknowledge the carelessness, but no intelligent person believes that she was up to no good. Even the lying Trumps and Pences don’t say anything specific and realistic what they think she was doing with the emails.
If you think the Justice Dept and FBI are actually letting a “felon” free for political reasons, you should put down your tin hats, grab your rifle, and move to the mountains. Or move to Russia or North Korea, where they have leaders you’d respect. Have a good life! 😀
Cowabunga. The day of reckoning has come. Drain the swamp.
Add Barry to the list of low life politicians headed to jail.
So vote for Trump.
Really Obammy? “Discount innuendo filled relevations.” How do you know for sure what is in Hellary’s emails? Let the Feds do their job and let the media play with the new found information. How does it feel when you cannot control them and make them abide by your political agenda? Are you going to sanction them with trade embargo like the rest of the world? Now veiled insults at Comey? Your word has lost a lot of credibility.
‘honest mistake’???
It was extremely careless, as FBI Director Comey said. Apparently Hillary, all her staff, and predecessor Colin Powell were all ignorant. Probably the IT people at the State Dept didn’t educate them enough about safety and hackers, etc.
But after all these years of partisan attacks (irresponsible Republicans pushing their agenda), NO criminal activity has been found.
Trump, who makes an extremely ignorant mistake every 3 minutes, continues to make false, meaningless accusations. He’s toying with the undereducated who don’t know how to cross-check news sources. He’s running only for his own ego, doesn’t care about anyone else. He’s bad for you, bad for America. He wants to Make America Colonial Again.
Don’t vote for Trump.
The right wing nut case echo chamber is so entertaining today.
Mrs. Clinton is going to be the President. Get used to it.
Another Gruber voter like Boots who rejoices in the “rain” as Obama & Clinton pees on them.
HiLIARy will end up in jail.
No, she won’t. But you do enjoy your fantasies.
Only one enjoying their fantasies is Weiner and his D!@k pics floating around all over the internet. Every “D” around him seems upset that he followed Bill’s footsteps and ruined it for HitLIARy.
And if not what will you do. Bye bye.
Would be fun to see the expression of the sheeple should there be an upset on election day. Priceless!
We would need to take them to the airport. LOL
He can’t even deliver this crap without going “gansta” with the shades on….
All the alleged act committed by Hillary happened on his watch including the clandestine meeting of his AG with Bill prior to Comey’s announcement that there were no findings. Now the re-opening just sound too fishy and it stinks to high heaven. Say what may, but too many coincidences of sinister activities with foreign nationals be it the Chinese or the Saudis. Probably the 1st for a first lady campaigning for a party member while husband is a lame-duck. Legacy to protect? What legacy, in theater parlance a farce.
to bad we can’t read what was in those 33,000 e- mails she deleted, but I would not be surprise what’s in them, lets see there is the so called death of justice Scalia who was found dead with a pillow over his face and yet no autopsy was done on him like they do when they find homeless bodies laying around dead, probably murdered, heard about Tom Clancy and 2 other people who were found dead years ago because he was working on another spy novel maybe to close to home so he got taken out, and the worse of all was the murder of at least 20 members of seal team 6 with 20 other people were killed flying in one helicopter on a mission in the Afgan. war when you talk to navy seals and ex navy seals they never fly in one chopper there is always 2 or 3 choppers when that many seal teams go on a mission, they were set up to be murdered by someone high in this government because we took out Bin Laden so to please these Muslims we had to sacrifice these seal team members. corruption is very high with nerobama and Hillary. WAKE UP AMERICA and see the crimes these two are doing.
You cannot actually think like this. It’s just not possible.
its not thinking, it was all over news a few years ago you were not paying attention, wake up my friend.
Klastri, getting paid by each post again, huh? With only $0.02 cents per post, you might post enough comments today to get a bus pass from tent-city in Kakaako to Krook Caldwell’s historic home.
I know you try to be clever and sarcastic, but you aren’t smart enough to pull it off. Maybe you have a brighter family member who can post for you?
Join the sane world!
“Clancy died on October 1, 2013, of an undisclosed illness, at Johns Hopkins Hospital, …”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Clancy
Obama is doing and will do anything to save his legacy, including lying. When he was asked months ago about when he learned about her private email server and he said, “when everyone else found out on the news”. Clearly a blatant lie. Say what you want about him, HRC and anything else to do with her use of a private server but no one can factually say he wasn’t lying. Both of these liars, HRC and Obama, are now in a mutual support situation.
Obama said that “… we don’t operate on innuendo, we don’t operate on incomplete information, we don’t operate on leaks,” What does he mean. That’s how he usually operates.
Watch out Barry. Everybody who gets close to the Clintons gets some of the filth on them. And lord knows you have enough of your own filth. Better leave yourself an out so you can say I told you so when they finally fall from grace.
Hillary is so desperate because she is losing lets see if they come out with another sexual assault story like trump sexually assaulted a 13 year old girl back in the ninety’s and now they come forward with all there lies.
Well, Barry is toast at the end of the year. He has nothing to lose. His “D” party if forcing him to desperately endorse her despite the likely hood that he might personally hate her guts after HitLIARy’s nasty campaign against Barry when they both ran.
Here’s a link down memory lane of what HitLIARy really thinks of Obama…
http://rare.us/story/never-forget-the-shameless-race-baiting-hillary-clinton-used-against-barack-obama/
You read that correctly, the “D” party is “forcing” the President endorse her and probably against his will and better judgement. Just like you Klastri, a desperately commenting to protect the queen at every negative comment about HitLIARy. Pretty desperate given that you’re of no importance to her but a paid boiler room political pump and dump scam artist stealing retainers from other poor illegals by falsely claiming to be an attorney.
dragoninwater – Let’s all luxuriate in your writing, shall we? “a desperately commenting to protect the queen at every negative comment about HitLIARy. (SIC).
Your first grade teacher would be terribly disappointed.
I stand by my opinion.
I use voice to text dictation on my smartphone. It’s not perfect as there are typos that I overlook. So that’s the only comment you have? Only critiquing the typos? pffft, haaa, good thing I don’t waste valuable time actually typing, which takes longer, to debate with an imbecile.
dragoninwater – You can’t even come up with your own word to insult me, so you use imbecile? That’s almost as lazy as dictation without bothering to correct it. Come on … try to come up with something clever and new. You’ve used the “Trump University law school graduate” thing for a while, and the “illegal Mexican” thing too – whatever that means in your mind. Work a little bit!
You are definitely a Trump supporter!
“Never wrestle with a pig, you’ll both get dirty and the pig will enjoy it.”
“She’s not coming over to your house!. You don’t have to like her.” Oprah Winfrey found a novel way to sell Hillary Clinton to voters. Politico
(From the On the Trail section of the Economist).
just today unconfirmed report from true pundit.com, heads up, NYPD blows whistle on new Hillary e-mails, when NYPD got a judges search warrant to go into Weiner’s computer to check out his sex stuff on a 15 year old girl, they came across the Hillary e-mails that they turned over to the FBI, a high ranking detective and high ranking chief in the NYPD states that they told Comey if the FBI does not release this story they will do it themselves against the FBI an bring charges against an individual for, money laundering, sex crimes with children, child exploitation, pay to play and perjury, that is why Comey of the FBI had to write that letter to congress on Friday, NYPD not taking any s__t from the FBI. will see if anything breaks this weekend.