The country is reeling after the CIA announced that Russia definitively intervened in the recent election. Even the Obama Administration is still debating the proper response to the Russia hack.
After all, this goes far beyond the initial suspicions that the Russian government just wanted to cultivate distrust in American institutions and systems. Recent intelligence shows that they blatantly favored President-elect Donald Trump and wanted him in power.
But not everyone is deliberating and uncertain what to do next. Retiring Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) is calling for FBI Director James Comey to resign. Reid claims that Comey withheld critical knowledge for inexcusable political purposes.
.@SenatorReid says FBI Director James Comey should be investigated in wake of CIA revelations. RETWEET 2AGREE #AMJoy https://t.co/Xu9THTOOfz
— AM Joy w/Joy Reid (@amjoyshow) December 10, 2016
The “New J. Edgar Hoover”
Reid doesn’t have anything to lose with his retirement just around the corner. So he told MSNBC exactly what he thinks of the Russia hack and Comey, who he accused of being the “new J. Edgar Hoover.”
“This is not fake news. Intelligence officials are hiding connections to the Russian government. There is no question. Comey knew and deliberately kept this info a secret.”
Reid claimed that Comey, a Republican, did a disservice to the country for his own “partisan purposes.” Reid even wrote a letter to Comey in October, telling him that the CIA had information about Russia’s interventions in the election.
He implored the FBI to investigate:
“We have all read the press the last few days; the FBI had this material for a long time. But he, Comey, who’s a Republican, refused to divulge this information about Russia interfering with the presidential election.“
And this led to a situation in which WikiLeaks acted under a guise of political neutrality to leak Hillary Clinton’s emails but reveal no information about Donald Trump.
As Reid says, Comey could have helped to inform the American public about this extremely biased selective hacking:
“But he would not let well enough alone. He couldn’t do enough to help and everyone knows that WikiLeaks, everyone should know, WikiLeaks was involved from the very beginning. They leaked the information as if they were one of the great political operatives of America, when in fact it was run by the operatives in Russia.”
An Illegitimate Election
Ultimately, Reid is “disappointed in Comey,” but his concern extends far beyond that. After all, Russian intervention in a presidential election calls its very results into question.
Reid now wonders about the very legitimacy of Trump’s presidency in the wake of the Russian hack:
“He was elected, you know, this is a hanging chad 1,000 times over,” said Reid. “He lost the election, actually by about 3 million votes but we have the system we have here, business the way should change very soon.”
Featured Image: Screenshot Via Twitter.
