Media

OPINION: Media, siding with Dems, show they just can’t take Trump’s ‘yes’ for an answer

by Joe Concha, opinion contributor - 05/10/17 10:20 AM ET

The media who cried wolf went to Defcon 1 when President Trump announced on Tuesday that he was firing FBI Director James Comey. Cries of a constitutional crisis could be set to music, with additional lyrics including “Russia,” “Nixonian,” “Tuesday Night Massacre” and “cover up.”

That’s not to say Comey’s firing isn’t a big story. Of course it is, and it should dominate coverage as a result.

{mosads}But it’s also a perplexing story, or as Charles Krauthammer called it on Fox Tuesday night, “inexplicable.” And the announcement was so sudden, Senate Majority Leader in Mitch McConnell and House Speaker in Paul Ryan still hadn’t commented as of Wednesday morning.

But the most glaring aspect of the affair is the hypocrisy from Democrats and the media on full display.

All over cable news, we Democrat after Democrat acted horrified over Comey’s ouster.

Twilight zone. I was as disappointed and frustrated as anyone at how the email investigation was handled. But this terrifies me.

— Robby Mook (@RobbyMook) May 9, 2017

But it’s painfully obvious these same Democrats would have wanted Comey gone if Hillary Clinton had been elected.

Cryin’ Chuck Schumer stated recently, “I do not have confidence in him (James Comey) any longer.” Then acts so indignant. #draintheswamp

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 10, 2017

“Maybe he’s not in the right job,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Nov. 2 on CNN.

“I called on FBI Director James Comey to resign his position after his recent communication with members of Congress regarding the bureau’s review of emails potentially related to Hillary Clinton’s personal email server,” Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) wrote in a Nov. 3 op-ed for The Hill.

“The FBI director has no credibility,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) back in January.

So while the unintentional comedy of contradiction is happening in plain sight, most viewers were never told of a number that likely matched their sentiment: 17 percent.

That’s the percentage of Americans who have a favorable opinion of Comey, according to a Harvard-Harris Poll survey of registered voters provided exclusively to The Hill in March.

Another poll Harvard-Harris poll was taken in April. Good news for Comey: His favorability number jumped to 18 percent.

And Democrats like former Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook, who are “terrified” by Comey’s abrupt termination on Tuesday night? The number drops to just 12 percent having a favorable view of the 56-year-old Comey.

To get a taste what hypocrisy not only looks like, but what it smells like, here’s Mook on Twitter on Tuesday night reacting to Comey’s ouster. That tweet was retweeted or liked more than 13,000 times.

But compare that with Mook back in March and you get a much different perspective:

It’s time for Comey to remove himself from this too. His credibility is gone. https://t.co/szzhote15c

— Robby Mook (@RobbyMook) March 2, 2017

So is Mook terrified by his own recommendation? The stench is overwhelming on this one.

The same sentiment was shared by former Hillary Clinton communications director Brian Fallon, who went with this colorful analogy on CNN.

“The White House is peeing on our leg and saying it’s raining outside,” said Fallon.

Rewind to Fallon earlier this year reacting to the announcement of an investigation by the DOJ inspector general to examine whether the FBI failed to follow proper procedures and if it improperly released information about the Clinton probe.

“The deviations from the protocols at the FBI and the Justice department were so glaring and egregious,” Fallon said in an interview on MSNBC, who added without evidence that if not for Comey’s letter on October 27, Clinton would be president.

And then there was Kellyanne Conway’s appearance on CNN with Anderson Cooper, which paled in comparison to the deference and space Mook received yesterday evening.

“Your White House is saying that what [Comey] did was wrong, but previously, as a candidate, Donald Trump was saying it was the right thing,” Cooper said to Conway regarding the FBI’s handling of the Clinton email probe.

“You’re conflating two things that don’t belong together,” Conway said. “Thanks for the trip down memory lane, I was on your show often last fall saying we were going to win Michigan and how we were going to do it, so that was fun. But here’s what happened today. Today, not in a campaign, in the White House, the president of the United States took decisive action…”

Cooper interrupted Conway before she could finish, “So, that person doesn’t exist anymore? Candidate Donald Trump, that’s a fictional character we’re no longer allowed to refer to? We can now only refer to the Donald Trump who exists today?”

“Anderson, I’ll ignore how unkind that is and all I’ll say is that as president of the United States, he needs confidence in his FBI director and he doesn’t have it,” Conway replied.

“I’m not sure that many people believe this doesn’t restore confidence in the FBI,” Cooper shot back. “In fact, a lot of people are raising questions about saying that it destroys people’s confidence in the FBI.”

As you can see, nowhere in that interview are actual numbers, such as the Comey poll showing him at 17/18 percent favorability among registered voters, presented. All we get is Cooper arguing that “a lot of people are raising questions about saying that it destroys people’s confidence in the FBI.”

Mook, conversely, was never challenged on CNN regarding his assertion in March that Comey should be removed. In fact, Mook is never interrupted once during five long answers over a five minute stretch that each lasted anywhere from 40 seconds to over one minute each, which is an eternity in cable news.

Add it all up, and a deputy attorney general appointed by President Obama recommends the FBI director had to go.

That same FBI director is one of the least-popular public figures in the country.

The political press glosses over or omits altogether these pesky facts and jumps right to Defcon 1.

It’s the media that cries wolf and has every day since Trump’s ride down an escalator in June of 2015 to announce his candidacy.

But that’s the thing about crying wolf.

People, or readers and viewers, stop listening no matter how much hyperbole is applied.

Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) is a media reporter for The Hill.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.