Rep. Adam Schiff believes former FBI Director James Comey made the same mistakes as President Obama did in responding to Russian meddling in the 2016 election: He assumed Hillary Clinton would win.
“He made the same mistake in many respects that [the] Obama administration made more broadly and for the same reason,” Schiff said on ABC’s “This Week.
“The Obama administration didn’t aggressively take on the Russians while their hacking and duping was going on, while the social media campaign was going on because, in part, I think they felt like Comey — that Hillary Clinton was likely to win and that it would feed into Trump’s argument that they were rigging the process. I think the Obama administration and James Comey made a similar mistake.”
Comey said in an interview with ABC, set to air in full later on Sunday, that part of his thinking when deciding to reopen the Clinton email investigation was influenced by polling showing she would likely win the election.
Trump criticized this thinking earlier Sunday, saying it was proof Comey was angling for a job in Clinton’s administration.
Clinton and her supporters blame Comey for costing her the election by reopening the investigation.
