Democrats turn on Comey for tweet warning against the ‘socialist left’

“Democrats, please, please don’t lose your minds and rush to the socialist left,” Comey implored in a tweet on Sunday. “This president and his Republican Party are counting on you to do exactly that. America’s great middle wants sensible, balanced, ethical leadership.”

Days beforehand, Comey, a registered Republican for most of his adult life, called for a ‘blue wave’ to sweep Republicans from power in November’s midterm elections. “This Republican Congress,” he wrote, “has proven incapable of fulfilling the Founders’ design.”

Comey has become a figurehead of the anti-Trump #resistance since Trump fired him unceremoniously last May for his botched handling of the FBI’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s unauthorized email server use. However, before he shifted his ire to Trump, many Democrats blamed Comey’s announcement that the agency was reopening the Clinton investigation – one week before the 2016 election – for Clinton’s loss.

Still bitter about 2016, some critics on Twitter didn’t let the former agency head forget their beef.

While Comey’s Sunday tweet did not explicitly mention any names, the shocking primary victory of 28-year-old ‘democratic socialist’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in New York in June has been perhaps the clearest indication yet that Democrats are embracing the party of Bernie Sanders rather than the party of Hillary Clinton. Campaigning on a platform of Medicare for all, free university tuition, gun control and abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Ocasio-Cortez ousted her 10-term incumbent, Rep. Joe Crowley.

To some Twitter observers, Comey’s tweet is the last gasp of a dying form of Democrat politics, one that was beaten in the 2016 election, and now looks out of step with the demands of young progressives.

Since the 2016 election, which saw the Democrats lose the House, the Senate, and the presidency, several 2020 hopefuls have embraced far left positions to court progressive voters.

Surfing the wave of outrage over the Trump administration’s ‘zero-tolerance’ immigration policy, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Kamala Harris (D-California) have both called for abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while Senator Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) has dodged the question in TV interviews. All three have been tipped for a presidential run in 2020, as well as Independent Senator Bernie Sanders (Vermont), the godfather of the progressive movement.

Comey’s warning that a swing leftwards would play into Republicans’ hands is not an empty one either. The GOP has crafted an election message out of Democrats’ militant excesses, releasing a campaign video last month portraying the Democratic party as the party of violent protest and “extremist ideas.”

Whatever its worth, Comey’s advice is falling on deaf ears within the Democratic party. “Last time you practiced politics it resulted in a fiasco of epic proportions,” tweeted Ronald Klain, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Joe Biden. “Don’t think we need any more political advice from you.”

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