Yes, we all know that Chris Matthews draws the ire of conservatives. In January, the MSNBC host said that President Donald Trump’s inaugural address had a “Hitlerian background.” Yet, in the aftermath of James Comey’s testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday, he commented that the former FBI director’s testimony gutted the whole theory that the president colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election (via Washington Examiner):
"The assumption of the critics of the president, of his pursuers, you might say, is that somewhere along the line in the last year is the president had something to do with colluding with the Russians … to affect the election in some way," Matthews said on MSNBC, following the testimony.
"And yet what came apart this morning was that theory," Matthews said, listing two reasons why.
First, he said Comey revealed that "Flynn wasn't central to the Russian investigation," and secondly, he said that kills the idea that Flynn might have been in a position to testify against Trump.
"And if that's not the case, where's the there-there?" Matthews said.
Mr. Comey, who was fired by Trump in early May, drafted memos of his meetings with the president and admitted to leaking them to the media through a friend in the hopes that a special counsel would be appointed. Mr. Comey also said that no one, including President Trump, asked him to drop the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 election. The memo detailed a one-on-one meeting in which the president hoped that the investigation into his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn could be dropped. Was it highly improper for Trump to ask this of the then-FBI director? Yes. Does it amount to something that’s impeachable? No. The evidence of obstruction of justice, which Democrats clamored about over this memo, is not there. For more, definitely give Guy’s analysis a read. It notes the helpful and damaging aspects of Comey’s three-plus hour testimony concerning the Trump White House.
Even going into this hearing, there was zero evidence of collusion between Russia, President Trump, or members of his campaign.
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