Hillary Clinton’s former campaign chairman on Thursday excoriated former FBI Director James Comey, saying there is “good evidence” that his actions in the final days of the 2016 presidential race “blew the election” for Democrats.
“I’m not going to defend Jim Comey. I criticized him from the day he dropped a letter to [lawmakers] … right before the election,” John Podesta said during an interview on The Hill’s new morning TV show, “Rising.”
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“He refused to take the advice of senior people in the Justice Department, so I’m not going to defend him,” Podesta told co-host Krystal Ball just hours before the release of a Justice Department inspector general report.
Observers expect that report to be critical of Comey’s leadership of the FBI, including his decision to announce the FBI was renewing its investigation into Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of State just days before the presidential election.
Podesta said it is possible Comey cost Clinton the election, but that he did not believe President Trump fired the FBI chief in the midst of the Justice Department’s investigation into Russian meddling in the election just because he hurt his former Democratic rival.
“On the other hand, do you think there is anyone in America, whether they watch Fox News, MSNBC or watch The Hill.com, who believes Donald Trump fired Jim Comey because he was unfair to Hillary Clinton and kind of blew the election for us, which there is good evidence he did,” he said.
You can watch the full interview with Podesta at http://hill.tv/rising.