Read This And Save Yourself A Lot Of Time

The 6/8/17 testimony of former FBI Director James Comey before the Senate Intelligence Committee is being hyped as much as the Super Bowl.  Democrats [and possibly some RINOs — Republicans In Name Only] are salivating, expecting the shoe [with Comey’s foot inside] to drop heavily on Trump, setting the stage for the final lap of their efforts to get him out of office so things can get back to what they consider to be “normal”.

Don’t bother to watch any of the live coverage or the endless expert panel discussions in the media that will continue regardless of the actual outcome of Comey’s appearance before the committee.  I can tell you now, the day before the event, exactly what all that will be [free — no extra charge 😀] …

There Are Only Three Potential Outcomes

There actually are only three potential outcomes from Comey’s testimony. I’ll list them here in descending order of probability [opposite to the ascending order Trump’s detractors want to see]:

1. 1. No new news. Comey isn’t going to make himself indictable by saying that Trump pressured him to ease up on the Flynn [or any other] investigation [which is what his detractors are salivating for]. He is already on record as saying that hasn’t happened in his experience [“a situation where we were told to stop something for a political reason, that would be a very big deal. It’s not happened in my experience”]. If he changes that story, he would be indictable for perjury in the earlier testimony.  His answers will be either very vague [and therefore interpretable and “spun” any way both Trump’s supporters and detractors want to “spin” them] or something along the lines of “I can’t discuss that in an open session of this committee”. He will also be extremely careful to avoid inadvertently throwing out words and phrases that would shift the outcome to #2 below.
   2. Small tidbits of “new information” [actually, just fodder for more “fake news”].  Both supporters and detractors of the President will be listening very carefully for any word or phrase in Comey’s testimony that can be interpreted as exonerating Mr. Trump completely [supporters] or clearly indicating that the “smoke” is getting closer to the “fire” [detractors].
   3. The smoking gun Trump’s detractors have been waiting for. Clear, verifiable proof that Trump crossed the line and definitely obstructed justice [and is therefore impeachable]. This, of course, would be the Holy Grail Trump’s detractors desperately want.

If the outcome is #3, then Mr. Trump’s detractors [all Democrats — and some Republicans, mostly RINOs or “establishment” politicians”] will have won, the path to impeachment will pick up considerable steam, and the President’s agenda will essentially be tabled at least for the rest of this year.  If it is #1, there will be no appreciable change in media coverage other than the addition of speculation about what Comey didn’t say, or what he implied, or how evasive he was.  If it is #2, the media coverage will be more or less along the same divides by outlet or channel [a) obviously guilty, just not yet proven so; or b) just an innocent victim of a political witch hunt], but with huge amounts of “new” juicy content — “This simply heightens the need to continue this investigation until the ‘real truth’ [he’s guilty] comes out”, or “Surely we can now get past all this and move on to dealing with issues the American people want addressed”.

So there you have it. The whole scoop in this short post. I know my readers are grateful that I have saved them all the time they’d have spent finding this out by watching live coverage tomorrow and “post-mortem” coverage for at least days, probably weeks.

A Challenge

In closing, I’d offer this challenge.  … With all the free time I’ve given you: 1) read materials from both Democrats and Republicans on the real issues [the economy, tax reform, healthcare, immigration, terrorism, etc.] and draw your own conclusions as to which party’s positions are more in line with your own; and 2) begin actively “lobbying” your Senators and Representatives to push agendas that align with your views.

Thanks!

Charles M. Jones

Author: Charles M. Jones, PE, CPA

[retired — neither license active] View all posts by Charles M. Jones, PE, CPA