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NYT’s Bruni Whistles Past Graveyard: Comey Letter ‘Won’t Move People Away’ from Hillary

NYT’s Bruni Whistles Past Graveyard: Comey Letter ‘Won’t Move People Away’ from Hillary

Bruni Praises Clinton Campaign and its ‘Allies’ In Switching Focus from Hillary to Comey: Looking at You, Frank!

Frank Drebin would be so proud of his namesake . . . It was one of those classic “nothing to see here, move along” moments. On today’s Morning Joe, New York Times columnist Frank Bruni, saying that there was no new terrain broached in FBI Director James Comey’s letter of this past Friday, claimed “it won’t move people away from” voting for Hillary Clinton.

Bruni also praised the “incredibly rapid and thorough mobilization of the Clinton campaign and their allies” in getting headlines to mention Comey as much as Clinton, and to question whether the FBI Director did the right thing. Lost on Bruni was the irony that chief among those Clinton campaign “allies” are members of the liberal media who write the headlines. You know: allies such as . . . Frank Bruni.

Note: Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski repeatedly noted that the Clinton campaign had refused to send any surrogates onto the show this morning. Example: “I would like to point out once again that we’ve made numerous efforts to have members of the Clinton campaign, top surrogates, top Democrats, whoever will come on, come on the show. And please try and help us get through this story. But they are not making themselves available.”

Note Segundo: Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway did appear, flatly and confidently predicting “we are going to win the election.”

JOE SCARBOROUGH: Frank, what’s your take on the impact on the race, ten days out?

FRANK BRUNI: I don’t think this is going to have as big of an impact as everybody else thinks. I mean, if this were a whole new frontier of criticism about Hillary Clinton, if this was a kind of criticism about her we hadn’t heard before.

JOE: If this was George W. Bush’s DUI back in: that had an impact.

BRUNI: This is the same terrain we have been on for weeks and months and really a year now: the emails. It don’t think it’s going to move people away from her.

I think also I have seldom seen a campaign do as quick and concerted a job of changing the focus as the Clinton campaign has done. If you look at the headlines over the last 48 hours, as many of those headlines have name Comey in them as have the name Clinton. When we’re writing the history of this election and how the last two weeks played out, we’ll be talking about the incredibly rapid and thorough mobilization of the Clinton campaign and their allies in terms of turning the focus of the story into whether James Comey did the right thing.

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Comments

casualobserver | October 31, 2016 at 10:38 am

Pretty clear that Comey is getting schlonged big time. The Dems are circling the wagons and their advocate and supporters……I mean the media is doing their bidding as well. It’s a full court press that will make the imaginary “right wing conspiracy” seem trivial.

Petraeus is probably feeling relieved that his treatment was so minor by comparison for stepping out of line.

    President Obama has now crushed the narrative.

    Josh Earnest explains:

    “President Obama doesn’t think Comey tried to influence the election.”

    “Obama still believes Comey has ‘good character'”

    “Obama has a lot of confidence in AG Loretta Lynch”

Bruni boldy went where no Dem has gone before when he pointed out just how much the media is controlled by Hillary. Just look at all the headlines blaming Comey, he said.

Just a question for those familiar with the Hatch Act: If Comey violated the Hatch Act by continuing the FBI investigation, then Obama campaigning for Hillary during regular office hours, must also have used his position to influence an election?

    Ragspierre in reply to MSO. | October 31, 2016 at 11:00 am

    Two observations…

    l. There is no violation of the Hatch Act in investigation. There is a putative violation in going public with that information.

    2. The Hatch Act expressly excludes certain members of the executive branch in recognition of the political role they play.

      starride in reply to Ragspierre. | October 31, 2016 at 11:24 am

      Not trying to split hairs but did Comey go public and hold a press conference, or did he just do his due diligence of presenting the situation to congress, and congress went public with the information?

        Ragspierre in reply to starride. | October 31, 2016 at 11:52 am

        That’s a fine point, and a mighty fine hair.

        The answer would be determined by a prosecutor, which I frankly doubt will ever happen. The Clinton machine has done what it intended…they put the onus on Comey. They want the matter left where it is. They don’t like due process. They rely on politicking.

      Thank you, sir.

      Wisewerds in reply to Ragspierre. | October 31, 2016 at 12:06 pm

      Comey had publicly stated that the investigation had concluded.

      If Comey had not made public the fact that they had found additional e-mails, Republicans would have (justifiably) claim that his silence amounted to the perpetration of a falsehood, by allowing people to vote under the false impression that the FBI investigation had concluded, when it is in fact ongoing in light of the discovery of what appears to be considerable new evidence.

      So Comey probably felt he had an obligation to say something to avoid violating the Hatch Act. That’s sure how his letter reads to me, anyway.

      Wisewerds in reply to Ragspierre. | October 31, 2016 at 12:07 pm

      Also, can you say “President Trump?”

casualobserver | October 31, 2016 at 10:50 am

Next level of attacks on Comey and Trump coming from the Clinton spokespeople and the media (the same thing):

If you want to see what a fascist Trump government looks like, this is it. Using Comey to make good on Trump threats to go after Hillary, etc. etc. etc.

Once again, the left cries HITLER! in so many words.

The panic is beautiful.

Just got a call from a pollster. It was fun, but the call was short. Maybe she wasn’t looking for those adjectives.

I just happened to be working the polls this weekend here in Florida and the sense I get is the Clinton campaign is like a nagging cough that just won’t go away (i.e. Hacking Hillary). There is a feeling that voters are not up to 4 years of this.

Sure, Crooked Hillary has her die hard supporters (mainly nasty elderly baby boomer women with white hair). The dye has been cast already and Hillary is in deep trouble. In fact, speaking with friends who are working at other polling locations they tell me that many democrats are getting tired of the Clintons and will vote for Trump. Also, NPA voters are almost 20% of the vote. These voters are not flocking the polls for Clinton.

It behooves all us older people, to point out to millenials, that this is no election year abberration.

This is what the Clinton presidency was like full time. That’s why we had “Clinton fatigue” when it ended.

This is it, folks.
While one may dislike Trump, his election would begin the process of unwinding the left’s control of the msn. The alternative is to have America swirl completely down the toilet, never to rise again.

    MSO in reply to Rick. | October 31, 2016 at 12:02 pm

    I hope you’re right; Trump is the first real Democrat to run for the Presidency since Scoop Jackson.

      casualobserver in reply to MSO. | October 31, 2016 at 12:19 pm

      By what definition? Hillary is closer to the 21st century definition of Democrat – a full fledged social justice progressive and anti-classical liberal.

      Maybe you mean Trump is a more classical liberal, meaning live and let live, for starters?

I was going to say that Frank Bruni should go back to reviewing restaurants (he did that between stints as a reporter) but he was a lousy reviewer.

There is one and only one reason we are here.

Crooked Hillary made terrible judgement calls time after time.

Comey had nothing to do with the server being set up in her basement.

Crooked this is all on you!

Did Obama just back Comey?

    Henry Hawkins in reply to Petrushka. | October 31, 2016 at 2:43 pm

    Yup, via spokeshole Josh Earnest, who spoke of Comey in glowing words. A real f**k you, Hillary!

      Ragspierre in reply to Henry Hawkins. | October 31, 2016 at 3:00 pm

      I make it a head-fake. Remember Daddy Bruce’s advice in “Brave Heart”. You support them from our lands in the North, and I’ll oppose them from our lands in the South.

      It scotchs (see what I did there?) the notion of a Comey prosecution, which is exactly what Hellary wants at this point, having shifted the shit-storm at least partially to Comey.

Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski repeatedly noted that the Clinton campaign had refused to send any surrogates onto the show this morning.

I’m not surprised.

Camp Clinton has a difficult job right now; it’s imperative to deny everything, but at the same time avoid saying exactly what they are denying.

This is because they have no idea which crimes Comey knows about. To be specific is to risk betraying something which isn’t currently a threat to them; talking about it raises suspicions, and those are a threat, especially with so little time left to smother them. Questioning by even the most sympathetic press is likely to force somebody to let something slip; they can’t rely on just any old spear-carrier being able to navigate that minefield.

If Comey would cooperate and tell them just what he’s found, life on Team Hillary would be so much simpler. But it would be a tactical surrender for him to do that.

In the meantime, it would be suicidal for the campaign to just throw random scattershots based on what they know, if nobody else actually knows it. “No! No! It’s a lie! Huma wasn’t sending the addresses of CIA field offices to the Muslim Brotherhood!” Or maybe “No! No! It’s the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy at it again! Hillary wasn’t planning any assassinations!” Or even “No! No! The schedule for Hillary’s First Hundred Days was not drafted by George Soros!”

Presented with denials of this sort, even the Press might start to suspect that where a Clinton is blowing imaginary smoke, there’s a real fire.

The Clintons know that the Press is on their side, but it’s still a school of sharks. When it smells blood, there’s no telling exactly when it will go out of control and start biting everything in sight.

    pwaldoch in reply to tom swift. | October 31, 2016 at 4:50 pm

    This is because they have no idea which crimes Comey knows about. To be specific is to risk betraying something which isn’t currently a threat to them; talking about it raises suspicions, and those are a threat, especially with so little time left to smother them.

    Clinton should have paid more to get Lynch to direct Comey to give out what he did know. The Clintons should have a better idea what it takes to bribe or lean on a Fed to keep him quiet. Im surprised she didn’t get someone ti review her own copies of the ‘lost emails’ to figure out where her pain points are gonna be. Messages to Huma who then forwarded to “Carlos Danger”? Really? They should have seen that eventually coming down the road to bite them in the rear.

    “Camp Clinton has a difficult job right now; it’s imperative to deny everything, but at the same time avoid saying exactly what they are denying.”

    Yup. This reminds me of all the times my heart stops when my wife says “we need to talk” and “I think you know why I am angry”… my mind cycles on my dozen or more screwups that I’ve kept hidden. And then the relief when I learn its just another lecture about keeping the toilet seat down. Whew….

    Same trap here. Gotta keep your mouth shut until you know what exactly they have you cornered with.

    I’m surprised women who support Hillary aren’t seeing the same pattern here. They have become the cheated wife that everyone regards with pity:

    “Yes Marie, its perfectly plausible that your husband’s secretary accidentally dropped her panties in the back seat of his car as she was getting it serviced at JiffyLube… keep the faith.”

Another Voice | October 31, 2016 at 2:05 pm

Perhaps the 650,000 emails are actually both Huma and Anthony’s shared or “obtained” files by one or both of them being they are in a private shared residence with one of them having intimate knowledge of Clinton and “discovered” by the F.B.I. on Anthony’s personal computer in a folder labeled titled “Life Insurance”. It all goes to motive at this point and like the other investigation, who gets immunity.

    Henry Hawkins in reply to Another Voice. | October 31, 2016 at 2:48 pm

    Maybe Huma never minded the corrupt nature of the Clintons, but feared the sloppiness of their criminal processes, so, as a life insurance policy (politcal life), she decided she’d keep her own little secret set of all these emails. Then husband Anthony, home alone because he hasn’t faired well in public life, finds this secret stash and makes himself a copy too, his own ‘life insurance’ against a soon-to-be exwife heading for the pinnacles of power. Then comes the FBI knock at the door……

If Tim Kaine wants to salvage the small shred of credibility he still has, he must withdraw from the ticket immediately.

Among the recent batch of hacked emails released by Wikileaks, we learn that the day after Hillary Clinton testified in front of the House Select Committee on Benghazi last October, John Podesta, Hillary’s campaign chairman met for dinner with a small group of well-connected friends, including Peter Kadzik, who is currently a top official at the US Justice Department.

https://twitter.com/JTF_News/status/793189989370720257/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Team Hillary and the Dems in general are certainly going nuts over this; far more than usual. They must know that something truly deadly may be in there. Maybe some pervasive involvement with the Lolita Express—that’s probably the only thing which could kill the Clinton campaign instantaneously, even among her most slavish devotees.

Henry Hawkins | October 31, 2016 at 8:43 pm

Baghdad Bruni.