Hello and welcome to The Spectator's Americano podcast, a series of discussions about American politics and the Trump presidency in 2017.

I'm Freddie Gray and I'm Deputy Editor of The Spectator.

I'm joined today by Jacob Harbron, who is editor of the national interest and a frequent contributor to the American Carme podcast.

And we're going to be talking about James Comey's testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is happening right now.

So Jacob, the hearing today of James Comey has been billed as a blockbuster event as a Super Bowl of politics.

But watch you from this side of Atlantic.

It's hard to see exactly what the drama is.

Where is it?

And has it lived up to its billing?

I don't know if it's as dramatic as bill.

It is dramatic because, first of all, Comey is quite a good witness.

He's the opposite of Trump, very sober, even very careful about what he says.

Yes, he's even occasionally modest at times. He admits to being sort of cowardly at moments.

Right. Well, he did say I wasn't Captain Courageous. I'm not Captain

courageous. And he acted, he wanted to shirk the confrontation. That was clear and did. But his

explanation was that he was so stunned by Trump's request that he was simply taken aback and trying

to respond as carefully as he could.

Already sort of the angry people on the right and the pro-Trump faction are saying

that he's really just trying to ensure that his place in history is noble and he's seen as good.

Well, no doubt that he wants to portray himself as a man of rectitude and probity.

And he's not doing Trump any favors.

But Trump really stepped on his own landmine and firing Comey in the first place.

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