After FBI Director James Comey laid out a devastating case against Hillary Clinton for her reckless email practices while secretary of State, he shocked the conscience of the nation by declining to recommend that the Department of Justice charge her.
While Democrats are cheering the decision and hoping the nation will quickly move on, Republicans are expressing shock and outrage that Hillary is not being held accountable for her many, many infractions.
Here are eighteen of the most noteworthy reactions from members of the GOP:
1. Donald Trump on Twitter: The System is Rigged!
The system is rigged. General Petraeus got in trouble for far less. Very very unfair! As usual, bad judgment.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2016
FBI director said Crooked Hillary compromised our national security. No charges. Wow! #RiggedSystem
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 5, 2016
2. Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Fox News: Comey Had One Job and Failed To Do It.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz said Tuesday that FBI Director James Comey failed to adequately carry out his duties when he recommended the Justice Department not prosecute Hillary Clinton for her “extremely careless” handling of classified emails when she was secretary of state.
“The job of the FBI is to provide the fact pattern to the Justice Department and not make the political calculation that this is what a reasonable prosecutor would do. That’s not the job of the FBI,” Chaffetz told Fox News host Bret Baier Tuesday night.
3. David French, NRO: “We’ve got a banana republic, if Hillary can keep it.”
Scandal and incompetence follow Hillary Clinton like the cloud of filth that accompanies Peanuts’ Pig-Pen. She botched the Libya intervention so thoroughly that the country is now an ISIS playpen. Her State Department left men alone to die in Benghazi, then she misled the American people to cover up her own failure. Her family foundation is a pay-to-play influence-peddling operation. And now we know that she mishandled classified information and lied to conceal her own wrongdoing.
But rules and standards are for the little people. The FBI demolished every Clinton excuse and blew apart every Clinton lie, but soon she might well walk into rooms serenaded to the sweet sounds of “Hail to the Chief.” To paraphrase the words of Benjamin Franklin, we’ve got a banana republic, if Hillary can keep it.
4. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani on Fox News: “Discouraging” — Comey Made “Special Exception for the Clintons”
“I am shocked at his conclusion for two reasons,” Giuliani said. “First of all, he actually clearly concluded that she violated 18 United States Code Section 793, when he said that she was extremely negligent. That statute does not require intent; it just requires gross negligence, and gross negligence is defined by judges in their charge as extremely negligent.”
“I don’t know how he could possibly avoid section 793 subsection F,” Giuliani added, “which says impertinent in part, whoever being trusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document related to national defense through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody shall be fined under this title or imprisoned more than 10 years or both.”
“It would be unreasonable for a prosecutor not to go forward with it and almost an abdication of duty,” Giuliani, who was in office during the 9/11 attacks, told Gretchen Carlson on Fox News. “What was just laid out is what we would call a no-brainer in the attorney’s office that Jim Comey worked at, he was one of my assistants.”
“A reasonable prosecutor would have brought this case no doubt,” he added. “I don’t know how he ever, ever is going to be able to charge anybody in the CIA or the FBI who is extremely careless with top secret information, if he isn’t charging Hillary Clinton.”
“This is the special exception for the Clintons.”
Next Page: Carly Fiorina, Paul Ryan, and the New York Post.
5. Carly Fiorina on Facebook: This Is a Shameful Day for Our Country, No Matter Your Political Beliefs.
Today, the FBI admitted that Hillary Clinton endangered the American people — and confirmed that the worst things any of us imagined about Hillary’s email server were true.
FBI Director James Comey concluded that Clinton was “extremely careless” in handling our nation’s secrets.He admitted that no reasonable person could have believed putting these emails on a private server was at all appropriate or acceptable. He admitted that 110 emails on the server were classified at the time they were sent — showing that Hillary not only lied, but knowingly endangered national security as Secretary of State. He admitted that Hillary deleted work-related emails before turning them over to the State Department, despite her claims otherwise. And most shocking, Mr. Comey even admitted that it’s likely foreign governments hacked her emails — and that our adversaries could know critical secrets about the U.S. government because of Hillary’s actions.
But when you’re a Clinton, none of this matters. Not when you have the ear of the President, or you can call a secret airport meeting with the Attorney General. Not when you behave as if you’re above the law, and will never be held responsible for your actions.
Mr. Comey admitted that someone caught in a similar situation would “often” be punished. And yet, he announced the FBI would not recommend criminal charges for Hillary Clinton.
It’s not just a miscarriage of justice, but a blow to the very heart of our democracy. This is a shameful day for the rule of law and the security of our nation, no matter what your political beliefs may be.The Obama Administration might be circling the wagons, and doing all they can to prop up their corrupt, incompetent, untrustworthy Democratic nominee — but the American people know better. And if our government won’t make her face consequences, voters will.
6. Paul Ryan on The Kelly File: Wants Comey to testify on Capitol Hill, says Clinton should be blocked from getting a security clearance while running for president.
“People have been convicted for far less,” Ryan said on The Kelly File. “This certainly does underscore the belief that the Clintons live above the law, and this is one of the reasons why people are so dissatisfied, so upset about government. They think that people live by a different set of rules, and the Clintons, they take the candle on this one.”
Ryan said he didn’t understand how Comey came to his conclusion after going through a “laundry list of violations” by Clinton.
The speaker called for the FBI to hand over all of its findings from the investigation, saying “there’s a whole of accounting that needs to happen.”
He also said the House oversight and judiciary committees would hold hearings and that Comey would be called to answer questions.
Additionally, Ryan said that the Director of National Intelligence should take special action to block candidate Clinton’s access to classified information after the Democratic convention, “given how recklessly she handled this from the start.”
7. NY Post: The fix was in.
Tuesday, FBI Director James Comey painted a devastating picture of Hillary Clinton’s reckless lawbreaking with her emails and the damage it likely caused — but then recommended no charges against her. When it comes to the Clintons, say goodbye to the rule of law. Here’s how Comey himself put it: “Although there is evidence of potential violations of the statute … our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case.”
Huh? Why not?
Besides, shouldn’t the FBI let the prosecutor decide that without tainting their judgment? Comey just dealt a powerful blow to the public’s faith in the concept of equal justice. Hillary will now claim falsely she’s been exonerated — even though the FBI found her in violation of the law.
Is there any wonder so many voters this year are outraged by the “rigged” system?
8. David Horowitz, FrontPageMag: THE MOST FRIGHTENING POLITICAL FIX.
We knew they could fix the Department of Justice; we suspected they could fix the FBI. What we didn’t know was that the fixes would be this transparent: the secret meeting with a chief culprit and the DOJ head; the next day announcement by Justice that the Clinton bribery investigations would be postponed until well after the election; the suspiciously brief FBI interrogation of the former Secretary of State who during her entire tenure had recklessly breached national security protocols, deleted 30,000 emails; burned her government schedules; put top secret information onto a hackable server in violation of federal law; and topping it all the failure of the FBI director after enumerating her reckless acts to recommend a prosecution — all within a single week, and just in time for the Democrats’ nominating convention.
It was, all in all, the most breathtaking fix in American history.
Next Page: Hillary made a bet that she was too big to jail, and she was right!
9. Judge Jeanine Pirro on Fox News: Comey Has “Destroyed” the Reputation of the FBI.
Tonight on Hannity, Judge Jeanine Pirro harshly criticized FBI Director James Comey for recommending no charges against Hillary Clinton, saying the director has “destroyed the reputation” of his agency. “This is a dark day for criminal justice,” she said. “This is a dark day for the Department of Justice and the FBI. There’s a lot of good people in those departments. He has destroyed that reputation.”
Pirro also reacted to Comey saying that there would normally be “administrative sanctions” for someone who made the same mistakes as Clinton. “If she were to be president of the United States, hasn’t she already proven that she cannot be trusted with this information? Shouldn’t she lose any security clearance that she has?” She sharply disagreed that “no reasonable prosecutor” would bring a criminal case against Clinton. “Jim, you’re wrong. I respect you but you’re wrong.”
https://youtu.be/LAajnXYUi-U
10. Congressman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee: Decision not to recommend criminal charges “defies logic.”
“I am concerned that despite finding Secretary Clinton acted with extreme carelessness and there is evidence of potential violations of the statutes regarding the handling of classified information, the FBI is recommending no criminal charges against former Secretary Hillary Clinton. This defies logic. The American people expect government officials to abide by the law just like everyone else. The fact that Secretary Clinton ignored the law and faces no consequences for doing so diminishes the American people’s trust in their government.
“I spoke with Director Comey today immediately following his announcement and raised several concerns. I asked several pointed questions about the Bureau’s conclusion and will push for answers. It is clear that Secretary Clinton possibly jeopardized the safety and security of our citizens and nation through her use of private email servers. None should be above the law and the American people need to know that federal law enforcement is taking this misconduct seriously.”
Goodlatte sent a letter to Comey outlining his concerns.
11. Dr. Sebastian Gorka on Fox News: She’s blackmailable!
She can be blackmailed by anybody — Russia, China, North Korea, Iran … She was sending classified emails from outside U.S. territory on multiple servers using multiple devices. That means, the second she gets into office, they give her the football with the nuclear codes, and North Korea and Iran start blackmailing her. She should recuse herself from any public office.”
12. Ralph Peters on Fox News: Hillary “made a bet that she was too big to jail — and she was right.”
I have regarded both candidates as Satan vs Lucifer. Today was the first day I thought, you know, I might have to vote for Donald Trump just to get this Obama/Clinton mafia out of Washington. What they have done — what Director Comey did — disgracefully — was to shred the law. He has shown that there are two sets of laws — one for the rest of us, and one for the elite of the elite, like Hillary Clinton. And it’s part of the pattern of the Obama administration — they’ve been dismantling the Constitution, selective prosecutions, rigged investigations… The Constitution and rule of law is the foundation of all that’s good in this country!”
13. Mark Levin: Clinton would’ve been a “slam dunk case.”
“They found several thousand emails that were not disclosed to the FBI,” Levin said on LevinTV Tuesday night. “You know what I call that? A cover up. She intended to cover up, she intended to unravel the security system that was put into place. It’s worse than gross negligence. This is a slam dunk prosecution. This is a slam dunk case.”
“She used multiple smart phones. Multiple mobile devices. She lied about that. She lied about the servers — with an ‘s’ — plural. She lied about not getting any classified information,” Levin said. “Always skating on the edge, always protected and dammit she might be the next president of the United States.”
14. Monica Crowley on Facebook: “Just ask the British people what full-on rage can accomplish.”
Despite this grotesque and obvious display of corruption, there is a significant upside. And it’s an upside that Mrs. Clinton may not see, because global elites cannot and will not see it.
Every time members of the bipartisan ruling class protect each other, normal citizens, who are constantly being ground into the ground by those same elites, grow ever-more enraged.
The betrayal, which already runs deep, becomes an even greater driver for change.Witness Brexit: the global elites lectured the British people condescendingly about the wisdom of staying in the European Union — primarily as a way to protect their own power, influence and wealth. The British people told them to take a hike. They had had enough.
And so it may very well be here in America. Comey, Obama, Lynch, the Clintons … the elitist cabal that just let her skate may well face their own reckoning in November. They just gave Donald Trump three months’ worth of campaign material. All he has to say is: “See? I told you she was crooked. And if you think this was bad, wait until you see the magnitude of corruption at the Clinton Foundation. I told you the system is rigged. I told you the global elites protect each other. The whole dirty system and all of the dirty players need to be removed root and branch — and I’m the only one who can do it. And I promise you, I will.”
Next Page: Hillary Clinton is a criminal involved in a criminal enterprise.
15. Darrell Issa on Breitbart Radio: We are in a crisis and Hillary Clinton is a criminal involved in a criminal enterprise.
We are in a crisis because Hillary Clinton, if the voters do not stop her, will be the next President of the United States. She will, in fact, on Day One say, “Pardon me,” and she’ll mean it. She’ll have pardoned herself. She will have, in fact, gone from being a criminal involved in a criminal enterprise — obviously, Clinton Cash depicted that — and somebody who flaunted the security laws, the privacy laws, the presidential and the Federal Records Act, and gotten away with it.
16: Kurt Schlichter, Townhall: We Owe Them Nothing.
We owe them nothing — not respect, not loyalty, not obedience. Nothing.
We make it easy for them by going along. We make it simple by defaulting to the old rules. But there are no rules anymore, certainly none that morally bind us once we are outside the presence of some government worker with a gun to force our compliance. There is only will and power and we must rediscover our own. If there is no cop sitting right there, then there is nothing to make you stop at that stop sign tonight.
They don’t realize that by rejecting the rule of law, they have set us free. We are independent. We owe them nothing — not respect, not loyalty, not obedience. But with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we will still mutually pledge those who have earned our loyalty with their adherence to the rule of law, our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.
17. Andrew McCarthy, NRO: FBI Rewrites Federal Law To Let Hillary off the Hook.
In essence, in order to give Mrs. Clinton a pass, the FBI rewrote the statute, inserting an intent element that Congress did not require. The added intent element, moreover, makes no sense: The point of having a statute that criminalizes gross negligence is to underscore that government officials have a special obligation to safeguard national defense secrets; when they fail to carry out that obligation due to gross negligence, they are guilty of serious wrongdoing. The lack of intent to harm our country is irrelevant. People never intend the bad things that happen due to gross negligence. I would point out, moreover, that there are other statutes that criminalize unlawfully removing and transmitting highly classified information with intent to harm the United States. Being not guilty (and, indeed, not even accused) of Offense B does not absolve a person of guilt on Offense A, which she has committed.
18. Yours truly on Twitter: Remind you of anything?
This feels like the time Chief Justice Roberts rewrote ObamaCare so it could be constitutional. #WTF #Rigged #FixIsIn #BananaRepublic
— Nice Deb (@NiceDeb) July 5, 2016
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