Republicans Fight Back Against Comey's 'Attacks' on Trump
After the former FBI director James Comey likened President Trump to a mob boss in a TV interview, Republicans said Monday they would defend the president without fear of appearing to pile on the country's former top law enforcement official.
"If someone attacks you, you have a right to defend yourself," said Kayleigh McEnany, the Republican National Committee spokesperson. "So yes, we will defend the president who is being relentlessly attacked in a tell-all book."
Comey, who says he was fired last year after he refused to pledge his loyalty to the president, told ABC News's George Stephanopoulos in a interview broadcast Sunday that Trump is "morally unfit to be president." Comey was promoting his new book, "A Higher Loyalty," which was to be published Tuesday.
In the interview, Comey said his decision to alert Congress less than two weeks before the 2016 presidential election of additional emails under investigation by the FBI was influenced by his belief that Hillary Clinton would defeat Trump. In her own book published last year, Clinton said Comey's decision cost her the presidency.
Reactions to Comey's interview ー and the statements in his book ー have been split, largely along party lines.
"It was very sad," McEnany said in an interview on Cheddar. "What i saw was someone trying to rehabilitate his image."
In a [tweet](https://twitter.com/davidaxelrod/status/985543801660985344) Sunday night after the ABC broadcast, President Obama's former chief strategist David Axelrod said he questions the timing of Comey's book coming as it does at a critical phase in the special counsel'sinvestigation of the Trump campaign's possible dealings with Russia. "But I have no doubt about its brilliance when it comes to book sales," said Axelrod. "Maybe he should have called it Higher Royalties?
Advance sales have pushed "A Higher Loyalty" to the top of Amazon's Best Sellers list. The book's publisher, Macmillan Publishers' Flatiron Books, was printing 850,000 copies in anticipation of high demand, CNN reported.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/the-rnc-fires-back-after-james-comey-interview).
President Biden spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the fourth time this year. Biden and Putin spoke for two hours about the massing of Russian troops and materials near the Russian border with Ukraine. Various outlets have reported that the U.S. has intelligence that Russia could be planning an invasion of Ukraine in the next few months. Both countries said the call was productive, but the situation remains tense.
Hagar Chemali, foreign policy expert and host of "Oh My World!" on YouTube, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss.
A recent Wall Street Journal poll indicated that Hispanic voters are up for grabs for the upcoming midterm elections, with 41 percent of respondents saying they would vote for Democrats and 44 percent for Republicans. Bryanta "Bre" Maxwell, a Democratic Strategist, former political director for Jaime Harrison's senate campaign, and principal and CEO of Indigo Consulting, LLC, joined Cheddar to break down the numbers and to dive into what this specific electorate is looking for as the balance of power in Congress hangs in the balance in 2022.
Vice President Kamala Harris received impressive amount of media coverage in January for making history. However, the media attention waned significantly and some are now even saying she has almost disappeared from public view. Reecie Colbert, founder of BlackWomenViews Media, joined Cheddar Politics to discuss more.
If you thought you heard the last of the Mueller report back in 2019, you'd be wrong. While the bombshell report was the biggest story in Washington for years, much of the report remained redacted. Our friends at BuzzFeed News weren't satisfied, so they sued to have certain passages unredacted. They notched another win when a federal appeals court ordered ten passages from the report to be released.
Matt Topic, BuzzFeed's attorney in the case, and Jason Leopold, reporter at BuzzFeed News, join Cheddar Politics to discuss.
The U.S. reported its first confirmed case of the omicron variant in California on Wednesday. Scientists and health officials are racing to understand the variant, with the WHO saying it's still too early to determine whether it's more contagious, more deadly or more resistant to vaccines than other variants. Omicron has pushed members of the WHO to commit to start talks over a "gobal pandemic treaty" for future pandemic preparedness.
Priti Krishtel, co-founder and co-executive director of the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge, joins Cheddar Politics to discuss.
Wednesday was not a good day for those who believe in abortion rights in this country as the Supreme Court heard arguments on a Mississippi abortion law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The majority of the court appears poised to roll back abortion rights, and the questions from the conservative justices seemed to indicate the law for nearly 50 years is likely to change.
Jessica Mason Pieklo, senior vice president and executive editor of Rewire News Group, joined Cheddar Politics to discuss Wednesday's hearing.
Michael Cohen, Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, has been busy since completing his prison sentence in November. He's getting into the NFT space, selling his federal prison badge and the original manuscript of his book "Disloyal" as NFTs. Cohen joined Cheddar to discuss his latest venture and why he thinks there is still much to be revealed about his case.
Jonathan Adler, Law Professor at Case Western Reserve University, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss Tuesday's ruling and provide legal context to recent battles over vaccine mandates.
