Cornyn fair when questioning Comey
Sen. John Cornyn is fair and reasonable.
A former state attorney general and judge on the Supreme Court of Texas, he’s better equipped than many of his colleagues to ask pertinent questions during a Senate hearing.
And while he’s a Republican through-and-through — even a member of his party’s leadership team in the Senate — unbridled partisanship isn’t his game.
He didn’t erode that reputation when questioning former FBI Director James Comey during Thursday’s hearing by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
But he did seek to frustrate the prevailing Democratic narrative that President Trump fired Comey in an effort to obstruct an FBI investigation of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
“If you’re trying to make an investigation go away, is firing an FBI director a good way to make that happen?” Cornyn asked.
“It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me,” Comey answered, “but I’m obviously hopelessly biased, given that I was the one fired.”
Comey’s voluntary appearance was part of the committee’s look into whether there was Russian interference in last year’s presidential election.
Most of Comey’s testimony, however, focused on his relationship with President Trump, his memories of meetings with the president and his general assessment of the man now occupying the White House.
The portrait he painted was deeply unflattering. He described a president who is dishonest and self-absorbed. But what else is new?
Many senators used it as an opportunity to build the case for impeachment.
Through sharp questioning, Cornyn sought to establish that while Trump may be vindictive and foolish, there isn’t evidence yet that proves he is guilty of any impeachable offense.
And Comey seemed to concede his point.
Cornyn also didn’t miss an opportunity to mention the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server that Comey publicly announced he would not refer for prosecution before the November election.
That seemed a little unnecessary.
But Cornyn’s questions were otherwise fair and reasonable — even if their responses could mean 3 1/2 years more of Trump.
This story was originally published June 9, 2017 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Cornyn fair when questioning Comey."