What Will You Tell Your Grandchildren?

Jim Comey's pulled off a unique double over the past year, managing to inflame the passions of both the left and right wings of the American body politic. The former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) spent 90 minutes on Friday talking about that, about his time at the Bureau, and about his fairly optimistic view of the future of the United States in a candid discussion with Ben Wittes of Lawfare.

The conversation, recorded for the Lawfare blog's podcast series, was open to the public, so I took advantage of my proximity and a nice hole in my late-week schedule to attend. Throughout a discussion of complex issues and an overheated time in our political history, I was struck more than anything by Comey's decency, humility, and humanity.



As he recounted the events surrounding his firing, Comey said that the only thing that made him angry was the way he was prohibited from saying goodbye in person to the people with whom he had relationships, like the custodial staff and the ladies in the special records room on the 7th floor of FBI headquarters. He called that aspect of his dismissal especially cruel.

Wittes is an admitted friend of Comey's, and the questioning was kind to the guy who many on the left fervently believe led to Hillary Clinton's loss in November. Comey noted that reasonable people have reason to criticize his decision to go public with the news that the FBI had reopened an investigation into Clinton's handling of emails, but characterized his choice as between an option that "sucked" and an alternative that "really sucked". Not exactly the phrasing I expected from a former FBI Director.

Comey took pains several times to pop his own bubble - he's either a very relatable guy, or a terrific actor. He routinely bought a sandwich in the FBI cafeteria for lunch (a practice far from the norm for past Directors) and asked questions of the people he found himself in line with. On one occasion, he spoke with an enthusiastic young IT technician, who explained how much he loved working for the FBI before asking Comey, "So, what do you do?" When Comey responded, "I'm the Director", the junior staffer asked, "Of what, like a division or something?"

"Dude, I'm the Director of the FBI," replied Comey. His wife enjoyed that story, according to Comey, who was surprisingly funny.

Throughout the session, Comey never mentioned the current President* by name, though he pulled very few punches in describing the damage to norms his administration and a complicit Congressional GOP are doing. He castigated Republicans for the way they've drifted far away from the foundational values that have governed us for centuries, specifically talking about the rule of law, all in the name ephemeral political outcomes. His test is a simple one: What will you tell your grandchildren when they ask what you did to stand up and be counted? In his analysis, too many in the modern GOP will fail that test if they're honest with themselves.

In the end, Comey's an optimist about our country. He described a number of tipping points in our history where Americans rose up to affirm our common values and resist threats to our unique republic. The American people are a sleeping giant, as Comey sees it, and once awoken are capable of righting even great wrongs.

He analogized our current times as a forest fire, capable of doing great damage in the short term, but ultimately regenerative. Comey sees green shoots in the work being done by the press and certain Congressional leaders, as well as the increasingly vocal common people refusing to accept the erosion of certain norms. (For what it's worth, Wittes wondered if a giant meteor of death might be a better descriptor of modern America.)

I found myself understanding the former analogy, wishing it were accurate, and deciding that it might not be. But Jim Comey's seen a lot more than I have, and he's a lot smarter than the average bear, so I'll continue to hope he's correct.

And I'm pretty sure he'll have no problem answering his grandchildren's questions.