Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana sparred with NBC “Meet the Press” host Chuck Todd on Sunday over whether FBI Director James Comey was pressured not to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s email server.
“Do you think he was pressured not to advise to bring charges?” Todd asked.
“We know he was pressured not to go public,” Pence said. “So, we are reading press accounts, the Department of Justice opposed his keeping his word to the Congress of the United States this week.”
Todd cut him off, asking: “you’re implying he was pressured in July. Do you believe this?”
“Well, I have had a great deal of respect for Director Comey for many years,” Pence said. “I’ve always found him to be a straight shooter. But that was just troubling to come out and conclude what would have been a violation of the law for any other American, particularly a member of the armed forces, and to say she was simply extremely careless, I think was troubling to millions of Americans.”
“So, you truly believe he came to that conclusion based on pressure from others and not his own?” Todd questioned. “He said it wasn’t even a close call” when advising the Justice Department not to pursue charges, Todd added.
Pence responded by saying he didn’t want to speculate about why he came to that conclusion. “I would just tell you, I am one of the millions of Americans that was troubled by that. Why there is this double standard when it comes to the Clintons.
“No one is above the law. The American people believe in that principle. And the willingness of the FBI to say we have found an enormous volume of new emails and to hold them accountable,” Pence said.
Todd lashed back, “You are calling the FBI’s credibility into question by saying, you are saying, Clinton is being held to a different standard.”
Pence came back by asking for a redo. “Lets start again here,” he said. He immediately began discussing a “secret meeting” between Attorney General Loretta Lynch and President Bill Clinton on an airplane.
The Trump campaign likes to speculate that the meeting was a secret deal-making session to secure Lynch’s position under a Clinton presidency if she kept the FBI investigation under wraps.
After that meeting, said Pence, the FBI “made a decision that made no sense to millions of Americans.” Todd jumped in, “The attorney general recused herself from this … and said it was up to Director Comey.”
Pence said Comey went to Capitol Hill two days later and “literally undercut his own decision by confirming that Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that she denied it, had confidential emails on her server. That’s a violation of the law.”
