Former Democratic Vermont Gov. Howard Dean chided FBI Director James Comey for choosing Team Russia when he informed lawmakers Friday that he found emails related to the now-ended investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.
“Ironically Comey put himself on the same side as Putin,” Dean tweeted on Saturday.
Ironically Comey put himself on the same side as Putin.
— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) October 29, 2016
Dean went on to say Comey “tried to do what he thought was right,” but “totally botched the presentation and may have destroyed the credibility of the FBI forever.”
Comey tried to do what he thought was right. He totally botched the presentation and may have destroyed the credibility of the FBI forever.
— Howard Dean (@GovHowardDean) October 29, 2016
Dean’s comments about Comey on social media are similar what others on the left have said more directly is an attempt to rig the election against Clinton in favor of Republican Donald Trump. Liberal New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman suggested Friday that Comey might be trying to “swing the election” with less than two weeks before Nov. 8, election day.
The shift in rhetoric on the left may sound familiar to those who remember not too long ago Trump was saying the same thing about his chances to win the White House. But after Comey’s letter went public, Trump said during a rally Friday in New Hampshire, “It might not be as rigged as I thought.”
Trump has also been tied to Putin by his political rivals, most recently when Clinton said during the final debate that as president, Trump would be Putin’s “puppet.”
Over the summer Trump encouraged Russia to find Clinton’s missing emails from her illicit homebrew server used while she was secretary of state. He now insists that was a joke and denies having anything to do with Putin, but U.S. officials have determined the Russian government may have been involved in hacking Democratic emails, fueling speculation Russia is indeed meddling in the election process.
The Clinton campaign, including the candidate herself, has called on the FBI to release all “relevant facts” they have on the emails.
In an internal memo obtained by Fox News on Friday, Comey explained to staffers he chose to break with normal procedure because he felt “an obligation” to tell Congress because he recently testified that the investigation had ended and that he recommended no charges be brought against the former secretary of state.
