McCain On Giving Steele Dossier to Comey: ‘I would do it again’

In January of 2017 Sen. John McCain gave then-FBI Director James Comey a copy of the so-called “Steele dossier” setting into motion a series of consequential and controversial events.

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In his soon-to-be-published memoirs, “The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations,” McCain wrote that he does not regret what he did and he “would do it again.”

“I did did what duty demanded I do,” wrote the ailing senator and war hero. “I discharged that obligation, and I would do it again. Anyone who doesn’t like it can go to hell,” McCain said, adding that the risks that Trump had  been compromised by Vladimir Putin and Russian intelligence “had to be investigated.”

Excerpts of McCain’s book have been published by The Guardian.

The Steel dossier began as an opposition research project that was initially paid for by the conservative website The Washington Free Beacon who was opposing Trump’s bid for the Republican nomination in 2016.  After he won, however, Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the Democratic Party took over the project and paid for completing it.

The dossier has been at the center of FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigations into collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign.  Trump has always maintained that these investigations are “a witch hunt” and a “hoax.”

In his own book, Comey said that Trump was fixated on disproving many of the allegations found in the dossier, and before firing him as FBI Director had asked Comey to do that.

McCain has been criticized by Republicans for giving the dossier to the FBI, but he has always been a man of principle and to the end is saying that his actions were correct.

The immigration issue is another where he differs from mainstream GOP views, but he believes that will change over time.  “Right now, Republicans are on the wrong side of progress,” McCain wrote “and if we want to retain our competitiveness in the fastest-growing communities in the country we’ll stop letting the zealots drive the debate, and fix the problems that [give] them their soapbox.”

He also says that many in the GOP believe that America is being “contaminated by the customs of non-European immigrants”.

“They’re still a small fraction in the Republican Party. But they’re the ones getting all the attention right now. They need to be confronted, not ignored or winked at or quietly dismissed as kooks,” McCain writes. “They need to be confronted before their noxious views spread further and damage for generations the reputation of the Republican Party.”

One thing that has been made clear is the John McCain is still fighting against the elements of Trumpism and the GOP that he does not agree with.  He has gone so far as to tell his family that he does not want the president to attend his funeral.  He has openly opposed Trump’s pick for CIA Director.

He will be a maverick to the end and will be long remembered as someone who stood up for what he believed in no matter what.  And because of that his memory will serve as an inspiration to millions of Americans, even those who disagreed with his political views.

Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.