Comey speaks

The former FBI director says Trump lied to America, and Cornyn shrugs.

Former FBI Director James Comey’s written and spoken testimony on Thursday presented the American people with an account of a president acting with a disregard for law and office that our nation hasn’t seen since the days of Watergate.

In sworn testimony that streamed over laptops and iPhones and in bars across the nation, Comey accused the sitting president of using “lies, plain and simple” to defame him and to discredit the FBI.

From his own words, we learned Comey felt pressured by Trump to drop the investigation into Michael Flynn, a former national security advisor who had lied about his relationship with the Russian government. This testimony follows reports that Trump had also asked NSA Director Mike Rogers and Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats to suppress or refute the FBI’s probe — a claim that both men didn’t deny in carefully parsed statements before Congress on Wednesday.

When Richard Nixon tried to interfere with the FBI’s Watergate investigation, the House of Representatives declared it to be an obstruction of justice and abuse of power.

Comey also described how Trump asked for his “loyalty” and felt the president expected a “patronage relationship.”

That is language we’d expect to hear about a third-world strongman or mafia boss. In the United States, government officials swear their loyalty to the Constitution, not the president.

Now, more than ever, the American people need a Congress that takes seriously its responsibility of checking and balancing the White House. Unfortunately, Texas’ own U.S. Sen. John Cornyn looks like he’d rather play defense attorney for Trump. As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee panel that questioned Comey, Cornyn used his few minutes with the microphone to raise the now-closed investigation into Hillary Clinton’s misuse of a private email server — a topic that would be distinctly more relevant if Clinton had not lost the 2016 election.

U.S. intelligence agencies assert that Russia interfered with that election, and Comey reminded Congress that Russia will interfere again. We have a man in the Oval Office who, at best, is deeply ignorant about the role that the president is supposed to play in our republic. And yet Cornyn is prioritizing partisan potshots.

The Republican Party has made no secret of its intent to spin Comey’s testimony as nothing more than fodder for cable TV talking heads — another opportunity to define political deviancy downward. Partisan pundits are already attacking Comey for leaking personal memos that rebutted Trump’s narrative about the FBI and triggered the appointment of a special counsel. Perhaps they also think the Watergate investigation should have gone after Deep Throat instead of Nixon. Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., even tried to argue that this is all merely a matter of ignorance, claiming “the president’s new at this.”

Sorry, but “it’s my first day” is an argument for people who work at White Castle, not the White House.

Texas deserves better. Texas deserves answers. Among the answers that we’re calling for:

• A public disclosure of any recordings that might exist of meetings between the president and Comey.

• An investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice and abused his office, with answers released before the 2018 election.

• An independent commission that will investigate and report on Russian interference into the 2016 election.

• A fully staffed and funded U.S. Department of State that can push back against Russian intrusions into U.S. interests.

• A full investigation of both U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions and senior adviser Jared Kushner for allegedly lying about their relationships with Russian figures.

• Testimony from Trump under oath to provide his own account of meeting with Comey.

• And, finally, we need to know where our senators and representatives draw the line for the president’s actions.

“I suppose there is a certain amount of amorality that almost all politicians will tolerate. But there is also a threshold, and that is the president’s problem.”

That’s what U.S. Sen. John Tower, Texas’ first Republican senator since Reconstruction, had to say during Watergate. We wonder where he would put the threshold today.

Now, more than ever, the American people need a Congress that takes seriously their responsibility of checking and balancing the White House.