The dishonesty of Anderson Cooper and James Clapper

By Bert Peterson

Regarding James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, the following exchange (edited) between CNN's Anderson Cooper, interviewing former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, took place:

ANDERSON COOPER: General Clapper… you said that Watergate pales to what we're confronting now. I wonder from what you saw today and heard today, did it disabuse you of that notion at all now?
JAMES CLAPPER: No, on the contrary it reinforced it. And just so to understand the context of my comment, what the big -- the big difference in my mind between Watergate, which I lived through, and this is the back drop of the Russian interference in our political process as opposed to a burglary, a break-in. To me, that is hugely different…
COOPER: In what way does it reinforce the seriousness of what the U.S. is confronting right now?
CLAPPER: Well, I think the director -- former Director Comey's testimony about his interactions with the president and what the president appeared to be trying to get him to do, I thought was quite damning and very disturbing.
COOPER: What was the President trying to get Comey to do?

Actually, though surprisingly enough, that is not what Cooper asked. We will get to that. But, for the moment, let’s assume that he did ask such an appropriate question. What would Clapper’s answer have been? In connection with Russia, what did Trump, as Comey’s boss, ask Comey to do? He tacitly asked him to drop the investigation against Gen. Michael Flynn. As Alan Dershowitz and others have held -- and in his testimony, Comey himself confirmed -- Trump was entirely within his authority to make such a request -- indeed, not simply to request, but to order Comey to drop the investigation.......... Read more