title:  Comey Just Laid Out The Two Reasons Putin Supported Trump Over Clinton And Both Are Damning (VIDEO)
text: Today, FBI Director James Comey sat down with Congress to talk on a wide range of scandals plaguing the Trump administration. It was Part One of a two part series of testimonies likely to destroy Trump s chances of ever pretending Russia didn t help him get elected or that he didn t know the people he staffed in the White House were rife with conflicts of interests. (Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates is up next, and it promises to be a doozy!)Comey started off by emphatically stating (again) that the intelligence community has clear evidence linking Russia   and Russia specifically   to interference with the election. Calling Russia the single biggest threat to American democracy, he didn t mince words. He also denied Trump s latest frantic attempt to cast doubt by debunking the White House s claim that it was probably China. Comey stood by the intelligence community s conclusions: This was Russia.But Comey s most powerful moment came when he was asked by Sen. Al Franken to explain why Russia wanted Trump over Hillary Clinton in the first place. What was the point? He wasn t Hillary Clinton, who Putin hated and wanted to harm in any possible way,  Comey says on why Russia had a preference for Trump pic.twitter.com/xYCQoTJhnG  CBS News (@CBSNews) May 3, 2017The point, according to Comey, was two-fold. By every shred of information the intel community has, it s clear that Russia s autocratic ruler Vladimir Putin despises Hillary Clinton. He s had a beef with her stretching back to her time as Secretary of State where she routinely stood up to his plans of expansion. He also blamed her State Department for stirring up Democratic protests against him by the Russian youth fed up with Putin s iron-grip on their country. (Like Trump, Putin often blames legitimate protests against his rule as caused by outside agitators.) In short, according to Comey, Putin wanted vengeance against Clinton for being tough on him and Trump was the way to do it.It also ties into Comey s second conclusion: Russia figured Trump, ignorant as he is, would be much easier to pull one over on. Comey put it slightly more generously: Putin believed he would be more able to make deals, reach agreements with someone with a business background than someone who had grown up in more of a government environment. Putin wasn t wrong. Before the election was even over, his campaign was secretly promising Putin that they would ease up on sanctions. Trump would later appoint Rex Tillerson, a man with very close ties to Russian oil companies and Putin himself, to Secretary of State. Russia got nearly everything they wanted on November 8th, 2016.None of this is good news for Trump. Having lost the popular vote by millions, Trump also has the distinction of being the least popular new president in history. He has a credibility problem. Comey s testimony only makes it clear that his illegitimacy problem extends internationally. Whether he coordinated with Russia intentionally or whether he was a useful stooge for Putin to exploit, remains to be seen. What is clear is that the FBI has every reason to believe Russia was celebrating Trump s win as hard as any  Make America Great Again  Trump voter.And Sally Yates has the second in the one-two punch coming next week.Featured image via CBS