[Ads-l] King and Comey: "Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?"

Ben Zimmer bgzimmer at GMAIL.COM
Sat Jun 10 00:12:08 UTC 2017


There's no such allusion in Comey's prepared remarks (which he didn't read
from at the session anyway). I highly doubt there was any collusion on the
allusion -- just "thinking along the same lines."


On Fri, Jun 9, 2017 at 7:57 PM, Joel Berson <berson at att.net> wrote:

> According to the Washington Post:
> “You said [Trump] said, ‘I hope you will hold back on that.’ But when a
> president of the United States in the Oval Office says something like ‘I
> hope’ or ‘I suggest’ or ‘would you,’ do you take that as a directive?”
>  Comey replied: “Yes. Yes, it rings in my ear as kind of, ‘Will no one rid
> me of this meddlesome priest?’ ”
>  King said: “I was just going to quote that in 1170 [of] Dec. 29 Henry II
> said, ‘Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?’ And then the next day he
> was killed. Thomas A Becket. That’s exactly the same situation. We’re
> thinking along the same lines.”
>
>  Did Senator King (whose questioning was remarkably to the point and
> eliciting) and Comey consult so that King was prepared to allude to this
> quotation and Comey to cite it?  Or is it in Comey's prepared remarks,
> which King had seen before the committee session?
>
>
>

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