WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined CNN New Day this morning ahead of the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing today on FBI oversight with FBI Director Comey.
“I will ask him about why he chose to comment on one and not the other, and, in particular, how he sees the future of the FBI and what they’re going to learn from the impact it had. Look, in an election that was as close as 2016, there's lots of different factors that determined the outcome, and I don't think it is possible to point to one specific thing and say this determined the outcome of the election,” said Senator Coons. “There were just 160,000 votes across three states that ultimately determined the outcome. Hillary Clinton did win the popular vote by 3 million votes. But, it is important for us to understand why the current FBI director chose to insert himself in the last days of the election the way he did.”
Full video and audio are available here.
Excerpts from the interview:
Senator Coons on FBI Director Comey’s Clinton letter last October: It is certainly striking that at the time there were ongoing investigations on both candidate Trump and candidate Clinton and that the FBI director chose to comment on one, but not to comment on the other. I am interested in hearing from the FBI director what lessons he’s learned from the consequences of that decision. I'm less interested in relitigating the 2016 election than I am figuring out how we secure our next elections from foreign interference and what lessons the FBI director and the FBI as an organization has learned about the deviations from the historic practice of not making comments on investigations. Particularly those that are explosive so close to an election.
Senator Coons on today’s hearing: I'm confident that question will be asked. I am one of the more junior members of the committee, so by the time it gets to me, I suspect that question will have been asked four or five times. I will ask him about why he chose to comment on one and not the other, and, in particular, how he sees the future of the FBI and what they’re going to learn from the impact it had. Look, in an election that was as close as 2016, there's lots of different factors that determined the outcome, and I don't think it is possible to point to one specific thing and say this determined the outcome of the election. There were just 160,000 votes across three states that ultimately determined the outcome. Hillary Clinton did win the popular vote by 3 million votes. But, it is important for us to understand why the current FBI director chose to insert himself in the last days of the election the way he did.
More on today’s hearing: Well, as I said, what I want to ask will have already been asked several times. What I would ask if I were the first questioner: why did you choose not to comment on the ongoing investigation into candidate Trump and potential collusion with Russia, but you did chose to comment in the waning days of the election on what you thought might be new evidence? This difference on how you treated one candidate, one campaign versus the other is pretty striking, and what lessons have you and the FBI learned about that impact on the election.
Senator Coons on the budget deal: That is pretty hard to square with reality. President Trump is the one who actually tweeted earlier this week that the government needs a good shutdown in September. I don't think there is any Democrat who wanted a shutdown. What we wanted is what we got, which was a good, balanced, bipartisan negotiation where the Senate Republicans and Democrats work together to keep the government functioning. There is no funding for a big new wall that the president wanted and insisted on, but that both Republicans and Democrats did not see the wisdom in that funding. There is no cut off in funding to Planned Parenthood. I'm personally thrilled there's $860 million in new money invested in fighting opioid addiction, a terrible scourge that is affecting every state in the country. I'm encouraged we're continuing to invest in medical research. I frankly think the president ought to be taking a victory lap and saying he played a role in getting a great deal instead of having his OMB director wag his finger at Democrats and say that we somehow were lusting after a shutdown. I just think it is silly.
Senator Coons on the border wall: We did approve money for border security. It is expressly not for the construction of a 2000-mile new wall. And, frankly, I think we are dithering here. We did pass a big bipartisan immigration reform bill two years ago that I voted for that would have invested in upgrading border security. It did not fund nor did this new deal fund building a 2,000-mile, big, beautiful wall. President Trump threatened to veto this bill if it didn’t include his vision of a border wall. It doesn’t include his vision of a border wall. We will see if he vetoes it. I don’t think he will.
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