Thomas McKee: Comey should’ve acted earlier

The Nov. 11 letter “Comey’s actions will be felt for many years” blamed FBI director, James Comey for the Democrats’ defeat. The letter writer is right about the negatives resulting from the Republican win, but he’s wrong about which of Comey’s actions should be blamed.

It wasn’t Comey’s late-in-the-campaign action that caused the defeat for, by that time, most voters had already decided how, or whether, they would vote.

During the primaries the Democratic Party leadership and many of its voters had blinders on, failing to correctly sense the country’s mood by pushing ahead with Hillary Clinton when real change was desired. Comey could have saved the Democrats from their folly had he indicted Clinton in June. His decision, clearly special treatment of an elite, allowed her to continue her ill-fated campaign.

Had she been indicted, the Democrats would have chosen Bernie Sanders and given the voters a baggage-free candidate to vote for, not a choice of the lesser of two evils. Sanders heading the Democratic ticket and all the resulting youthful enthusiasm would have produced much different Nov. 8 outcomes, at the top and down-ballot.

This story was originally published November 20, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Thomas McKee: Comey should’ve acted earlier."