Eric Trump, the son of the President of the United States, says Democrats aren't even people.
How Republicans are trying to tarnish Comey's credibility before he even speaks.
A group criticized as a scam PAC in the campaign is trying to show its ahead on tarring Comey pre-testimonyWASHINGTON — President Trump’s allies launched a concerted effort to tarnish James Comey’s credibility this week, as the White House and Republicans in Congress brace for the former FBI director’s highly anticipated testimony Thursday about events leading up to his sudden firing.
Using media appearances, e-mail, and even a political TV ad that will be timed to coincide with Comey’s appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee, some in the GOP suggested that Comey’s reported assertions — that Trump asked him to drop an investigation into ties between Russians and a former White House aide — cannot be trusted.
“FBI Director Comey needs to answer a simple question about his conversations with President Trump: If you were so concerned, why didn’t you act on it or notify Congress?’’ Republican National Committee operative Michael Ahrens said in an e-mail blast Monday.
The e-mail included a compilation of skeptical quotes in the media about Comey’s account of events from several congressional Republicans and one Democrat, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
The proactive volley from conservatives reveals the high stakes of Comey’s testimony, and the degree to which Republicans are attempting to inoculate the president from what could be a damaging performance. The Senate hearing Thursday is expected to be broadcast live on all three television networks.
Eric L. Beach is a Republican political strategist and consultant based out of Costa Mesa, California. Beach currently serves as the co-chair for the pro-Donald Trump Great America PAC, along wth Ed RollinsWASHINGTON (AP) — A nonprofit issues group is labeling James Comey a political “showboat” in a television ad set to air Thursday, the day the former FBI director testifies on Capitol Hill.
Comey “put politics over protecting America,” a narrator says in the 30-second spot, titled “Showboat,” which was shared with The Associated Press. It accuses him of being “consumed with election meddling” even as “terror attacks were on the rise.”
Great America Alliance has paid for the ad, which is slated to run digitally Wednesday and appear the next day on CNN and Fox News. The group, formed after President Donald Trump’s election to advocate for his administration, is not required to disclose its donors.
The message of the ad reflects a strategy by Trump and his advocates to erode Comey’s credibility.
Comey will testify Thursday before the Senate intelligence committee and is expected to be grilled about his interactions with Trump ahead of his own firing. He will also be questioned about the agency’s underlying investigation into whether Trump’s campaign had anything to do with Russian meddling in the election the New York billionaire into office.
The ad highlights that Comey’s previous congressional testimony about Hillary Clinton’s emails was inaccurate and needed to be corrected. After Comey said Clinton’s campaign aide “forwarded hundreds and thousands” of emails to her husband, a potential security breach, the FBI sent a letter to Congress saying he’d misspoken.
“James Comey: just another DC insider only in it for himself,” the ad concludes.
Eric Beach, head of Great America Alliance, said no one from the White House asked his group to do the ad. Some of the commentary in it — including the title — echoes public statements by Trump and other administration officials.
Two days after firing Comey last month, Trump called him a “showboat” in an interview with NBC News.
WASHINGTON — The day after President Trump asked James B. Comey, the F.B.I. director, to end an investigation into his former national security adviser, Mr. Comey confronted Attorney General Jeff Sessions and said he did not want to be left alone again with the president, according to current and former law enforcement officials.
Mr. Comey believed Mr. Sessions should protect the F.B.I. from White House influence, the officials said, and pulled him aside after a meeting in February to tell him that private interactions between the F.B.I. director and the president were inappropriate. But Mr. Sessions could not guarantee that the president would not try to talk to Mr. Comey alone again, the officials said.
Mr. Comey did not reveal, however, what had so unnerved him about his Oval Office meeting with the president: Mr. Trump’s request that the F.B.I. director end the investigation into the former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, who had just been fired. By the time Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey last month, Mr. Comey had disclosed the meeting to a few of his closest advisers but nobody at the Justice Department, according to the officials, who did not want to be identified discussing Mr. Comey’s interactions with Mr. Trump and Mr. Sessions.
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