Former FBI Director James Comey is making the media rounds in advance of tomorrow's publication of his book, "A Higher Loyalty." In the first interview for the book, Comey sat down last night with ABC News and from that interview emerged some interesting quotes (full transcript here), two of which were on Trump's refusal to criticize Putin:
1) "I don't know what's behind that. I mean, that's-- that mystified me even after President Trump became president 'cause I discovered that he wouldn't criticize him even in private, which-- I can understand a president making a geopolitical decision that, 'I ought not to criticize an adversary country's leader for some reason publicly.' But I discovered President Trump wouldn't even do it privately, and I don't know why that is."
2) "I'm struck by it and I'm struck by it both in public and in private. Because I can understand the arguments why the president of the United States might not want to criticize the leader of another country because there's always good reasons to try and build better relationships, I suppose, even when that other leader is someone who is killing his own citizens and engaging in-- in attacks against our country. But you would think that in private-- talking to the F.B.I. director, whose job it is to thwart Russian attacks, you might acknowledge that this enemy of ours is an enemy of ours. But I never saw. And so I don't know the reason. I really don't."He may say he doesn't know, but it's certain that he has some pretty ideas of what the Russian kompromat could be: evidence of fraud/money laundering, sexual escapades, loans and lines of credit extended by Kremlin-connected oligarchs, etc. With Robert Mueller's investigation in high gear, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York looking at Michael Cohen's records, etc., we'll know before long.
