In light of President Trump’s decision to fire former FBI Director James Comey on Tuesday evening, both Republicans and Democrats are charging one another with hypocrisy, with many on each side making those accusations central to their arguments.
Republicans are relentlessly reminding Democrats that they’ve called for Comey’s firing for months. Democrats, for their part, are reminding Republicans of their praise for Comey after he notified Congress the FBI had reopened its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails days before the November election.
We get it – Democrats who wanted Comey fired are now upset Trump fired him and Republicans who celebrated Comey’s work are now justifying Trump’s decision to fire him by questioning that work.
But both sides have since responded to those apparent contradictions.
Democrats acknowledge they believe Comey should have been dismissed, but are troubled instead by the timing of Trump’s decision. Republicans acknowledge that they agreed with certain decisions made by Comey over the course of his tenure, but his overall record damaged the credibility of the FBI.
One may find either explanation unpersuasive, but further charges of hypocrisy should at least explain why that is so, rather than recycling the same unmodified talking points as though they were decisive arguments.
It is no longer productive to play back the clips from October and resurface the tweets from recent weeks (yesterday, in John Podesta’s case). Both sides should respond to one another’s substantive rebuttals, not cling inflexibly to narratives that no longer engage the claims of their opponents.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
