Crosstalk: June 9, 2017

​This morning, former FBI Director James Comey appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee to provide testimony concerning President Trump. Did President Trump or Attorney General Sessions place pressure upon Comey to stop an investigation? Was there an obstruction of justice? Was the president himself under investigation? Who leaked a memo pertaining to Comey's personal notes regarding his impression after visiting with the president? Is there evidence that Russia tampered in our election?

These and related issues were covered as Jim welcomed Robert Romano back to Crosstalk. Robert is the senior editor with Americans for Limited Government, a non-partisan organization dedicated to restoring the constitutional limited powers of government at the federal, state and local level.

There was a lot of media hype heading into today's hearings, so Jim began by asking if a 'smoking gun' was found. In other words, was a Trump/Russia collusion connection found? No. Comey also declined to say that the president obstructed justice in any capacity. He also acknowledged that he had not been directly ordered by the president or Attorney General Sessions to stop any investigation.

Robert referred to James Comey in a press release as a 'drama queen'. The reason for that is because the only reason for Comey to testify wasn't to provide any new information. What we did learn was that Comey acknowledged to President Trump that he wasn't ever the target of the counter-intelligence investigation that had to do with the supposed election hacking by Russia. The president had every reason to be upset about the fact that Comey was willing to go forward and say that the Hillary Clinton investigation is concluded but the whole time President Trump wasn't under investigation. Comey was asked repeatedly if the president was the target of the investigation and he wasn't willing to publicly say that until today, after he was fired.

Robert believes that everything that's been directed at the president has been about stopping him from doing the things he was elected to do and undermine the legitimacy of the election which he won by the majority of the electoral college. He did that by appealing to states that had been neglected by both Republicans and Democrats in the 'rust belt'. This includes working class voters that want better trade deals, don't want to see their jobs potentially go to illegal immigrants, and to reform the enforcement of federal laws.