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May 10, 2017 02:28 PM UTC

Cory Gardner Responds (Poorly) to Comey Firing

  • 15 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols
Sen. Cory Gardner and President Trump

Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) has ascended to a leadership position in the U.S. Senate…but you wouldn’t know this based on his response to the blockbuster news on Tuesday that President Trump had fired FBI Director James Comey.

Gardner is the Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), making it his responsibility to make sure that Republicans maintain their Senate majority through 2018. Gardner is one of 13 white dudes designated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to craft the Senate GOP version of healthcare legislation. Gardner serves on some powerful committees in Washington D.C., including the Committee on Foreign Relations (he is the Chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asia, The Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy).

Gardner is also one of the most reliable pro-Trump voters in Congress, which means his opinion is a good barometer of how an unapologetic Trump supporter might react to big news out of the White House. In other words, Gardner’s response to Comey’s firing is more than relevant, particularly here in Colorado.

Donald Nixon

Gardner did his best to avoid commenting on the Comey situation when the news was breaking on Tuesday — though not because of a lack of effort from local media outlets — but he broke his silence on Wednesday morning with a very bland statement focusing more on who should be hired as the next Director of the FBI:

“The next director of the FBI, like Comey, must be an independent voice for the bureau — specifically for its continued investigation into Russia’s involvement with our election process. It’s important that the FBI investigation into Russia, along with the ongoing bipartisan Senate investigation, remain of the highest priority for this nation and I expect it will under the next director.”

Controversy? About Comey? What controversy? Let’s just focus on finding the next FBI Director and forget about all of this other stuff, shall we?

Interestingly, Gardner’s duck-and-dodge statement is quite a bit different from what he told Dan Caplis on 710 KNUS on Wednesday morning. Notice how Gardner’s response changes when he knows he is speaking to a generally-conservative audience on KNUS radio:

“I do think there’s a very high level of politics around this, though.  I mean, if you go back to the fall, Chuck Schumer said, ‘I don’t have confidence any longer in Director Comey.’  And he said that his behavior was appalling. He said that — ripped into him and basically said that he should be fired. And so, those who were for his firing are no longer for his firing, and those who were against his firing…

This is just…Again, it’s politics, and it’s sick. And I’m tired and saddened that the American people have to deal with this.” [Pols emphasis]

You see, Sen. Gardner is sick and tired of having to answer questions about whether or not it was appropriate for President Trump to fire the person who was in charge of investigating allegations of collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign. Nothing to see here, folks, just move along!

But if you take a look at some of the comments made by other top Republican officials in response to the Comey news, you can see that Gardner’s “aw, shucks” reaction is quite the outlier. There aren’t many other Republican leaders who are joining Gardner in pretending that this whole thing is just one big political beef.

It has been widely reported today that Comey was seeking more resources for his investigation into Russian ties to Trump before he was fired. Meanwhile, at the White House, Trump has been posing for pictures with Henry Kissinger (no, seriously) and Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak (we’re not making this up). The “Tuesday Massacre” story isn’t going away anytime soon, and a betting man would put money on the idea that it will get a lot worse for Trump — and Republicans — before this is over.

During one of the darkest times in modern American history, let the record show that Senator Cory Gardner merely shrugged.

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15 thoughts on “Cory Gardner Responds (Poorly) to Comey Firing”

  1. Democrats couldn't wait to see Comey fired until a Republican did it. Could you possibly be any bigger hypocrites if you tried? Jeez!!

    2. Oh look.  Moldy got his talking points.  After everybody else.  Little slow on the uptake there.  

      But, hey.  Timing had nothing to do with it.  It's not like Comey wasn't close to finding something damning.  Trump just took advice on an investigation from his AG who recused himself from said investigation and then met in the oval with Flynn's buddy Kislyak.  Nothing to see here.

       

       

      And I'm still waiting for my ACA article.

    3. "Hypocrisy: Hypocrisy is the contrivance of a false appearance of virtue or goodness, while concealing real character or inclinations, especially with respect to religious and moral beliefs; hence in general sense, dissimulation, pretense, sham."

       

      So, explain the sham, pretense of virtue, etc here.

       

      1. Comey did bad things during the campaign season (idiot discussions of non-criminal  HRC email issues). Pats himself on back, with a false pretense of virtue . Democrats object. Get told by Trump that Comey really is virtuous, appears to be non-partisan. Democrats suck it up.

      2. Comey did good things later, investigating Trump's Russian mob connections etc, and Republicans object with a false pretense of virtue. Nunes does odd things, Chaffetz does too.  Democrats tell Comey he is finally doing his job, investigating real criminal behavior.

      3. Sessions is recused form the investigation. Sessions sub 1 decides to run interference for Trump.  Trump gets his knickers in a twist because Flynn and Page are going to testify at the behest of the FBI (hence Comey). Trump feels the heat. Trump decides to pretend he is all upset about how Comey revealed the fake HRC email scandal (false pretense of virtue). Trump fires Coomey, at the same time thanking Comey for supposedly assuring everyone that Trump is not involved in the Russian investigation (false pretense of virtue). Democrats and Republicans are outraged because THEY KNOW that Trump is lying, that the investigation is getting serious, and that there is fire under all that smokescreen.

       

      You need to point out where the hypocrisy is on the part of the Democrats. Firing someone who is investigating your crimes is a move that requires an independent investigation (something that Democrats have asked for for months now)

       

    4. The only question you should ask yourself Moldy in the silence of your thoughts is whether you think it is patriotic to not protect our most sacred right to vote from interference by foreign governments?  Do you really think it is OK for Putin to shit on our elections?  Who cares how Comey got fired.  The only question you need to answer to yourself is if you truly believe in protecting the liberties enshrined in our national Constitution and Bill of Right from foreign meddling.  Does your passion for protecting our national liberties only extend to criticizing Colin Kapernack for not standing during the playing of our national song?  You are a pretty weak patriot if you care about voter fraud which is insignificant but turn a blind eye to election fraud which is rampant.  What say you?  Do you want to find out if there was any collusion between Trump and Russian hackers or are you only interested in "locking them up" if they are Democrats?

  2. I'm glad Comey is gone. He had lost credibility a long time ago. The problem for Trump is that he chose to fire him when, as far as we know, the only big thing on his plate was Trump/Russia. He fired him to slow and cripple that investigation.

    1. The problem for our nation is that there is no Howard Baker or Elliot Richardson in today's GOP leadership to stand up for democracy and ensure a fair and impartial investigation of Trump and his associates' involvement with Russian interference with the election, including potential financial ties.

      The GOP, from Pence, McConnell and Ryan, on down the ranks, the marching orders are to just pass those tax cuts for their sponsors, and keep their base fed with "alternative facts" justifying their paranoia and sense of victimhood.

      2. Speaking of Pence, McConnell, et. al., I'm wondering just how far down the line of succession the corruption and collusion with the Russian government goes. Will the V.A. secretary end up in the Oval?   

        And BTW, the photo on this thread is spooky. What makes it weirder still, is that Nixon had a brother named Donald.

        1. Donald was a bit of a rascal, tried to profit from the sibling relationship. RMN, to his credit, never allowed him close. Trussia would be giving him a Kushner type portfolio

        2. Skinny — I was wondering the same thing regarding how deep it goes.  I'm pretty sure that the Trump Crime Family (as V'ger might term them) corruption of the GOP is spreading deeper every day.

          Foot soldiers like Moldy and Gerbils, if offered a proverbial glass of Kool-Aid by someone with an (R) after their name would, in all likelihood, drink it.

  3. We now know that Comey was fired for refusing to take a "loyalty oath" to Donald Trump and for seeking funds to expand the FBI's investigation into Trump's collusion with the Russians.  Trump is attempting to cover up his exposure to the Russians in a most ham-handed way.

    We saw this coming.  We saw an authoritarian strongman take over the presidency.  We knew his attempts to destroy the fundamental checks and balances of the Constitution (attacks on the media, the judiciary, even Tea Party congressmen who didn't fall in line) would create a chaos.  Well, chaos is here, right now. 

    What's next?  Burning down the Reichstag.  That is, Trump will soon create and/or respond to a crisis that he will use as an excuse to consolidate his power.  He will attempt to muzzle the media and the courts using "emergency" powers.  Will any Republicans stand up to Trump and save America?

    BTW – I recommend watching Morning Joe.  Scarborough's show, especially this week, has cut through the chatter and succinctly described what's important.

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