Fox Host: I Was For Mueller Report Being Made Public Until Comey Agreed With Me
Reacting to a Washington Post op-ed by former FBI Director James Comey that argued that transparency is possible with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe and that the findings should be released to the public, Fox News host Melissa Francis indicated that she now doesn’t want the report made public since Comey does.
In his column, Comey noted that new Attorney General William Barr told the Senate that he will be as transparent as possible with Mueller’s findings but will also abide by the Justice Department’s tradition of protecting privacy rights. He concluded his piece with the following:
But Republicans are wrong now, when they claim Justice Department rules forbid transparency about the completed work of the special counsel. It is difficult to imagine a case of greater public interest than one focused on the efforts of a foreign adversary to damage our democracy, and in which the president of the United States is a subject. I don’t know all the considerations that will go into deciding precisely what to say about the completion of the special counsel’s work and when to say it. It’s always important to consider guidelines and routines. But don’t listen to those who tell you transparency is impossible. Every American should want a Justice Department guided first and always by the public interest. Sometimes transparency is not a hard call.
During an Outnumbered discussion on Comey’s op-ed, #OneLuckyGuy Brian Kilmeade laughed it off by saying that there isn’t anybody he’d “like to hear from less than James Comey” on this issue. This prompted Francis and fellow panelist Kennedy to fire shots at the former top cop.
“He’s an over-politicized hack, Kennedy sneered. “He made a lot of mistakes. He was fired for those mistakes. He would have been fired by either administration if Hillary Clinton had one. He certainly wouldn’t still be FBI director.”
After Francis said that Comey damaged the 2016 presidential campaign dramatically, token liberal panelist Marie Harf weighed in, blasting Comey for the way he handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation. At the same time, Harf noted that she agreed with the point Comey’s making about transparency with the Mueller report.
“I don’t know what’s in it,” Kilmeade, a loyal Trump defender, interjected. “Maybe there’s some stuff we shouldn’t have public.”
Harf observed that while sources and methods or sensitive intelligence information shouldn’t be publicized, everything else should be laid out for the American people, something met with agreement by Kennedy.
“If I pay for a pair of shoes, I want to wear them,” the ex-MTV VJ added.
“I totally agree with you and I thought it should be made public until he made this argument,” Francis asserted. “And it reminded me that he came out and laid out what he said where the facts of the Hillary Clinton case.”
Kilmeade jumped in, saying Comey did “nothing” on Clinton but still did damage to her without indicting the former Secretary of State. “It reminded me of that. I thought, ‘Maybe it shouldn’t be made public,’ by virtue of him making this argument,” Kilmeade continued.
Watch the clip above, via Fox News.
