War of words: Trump ‘morally unfit to be President’ says Comey, as Trump rages

DONALD Trump raged that James Comey was “the worst FBI director in history”. Now he has had his chance to speak.

FORMER FBI Director James Comey has pulled no punches in a new interview to promote his tell-all memoir, declaring his former boss Donald Trump “morally unfit to be President”.

In an interview with ABC’s 20/20, Mr Comey said he didn’t “buy this stuff about him being mentally incompetent or early stages of dementia”.

“He strikes me as a person of above average intelligence who’s tracking conversations and knows what’s going on,” Mr Comey added.

“I don’t think he’s medically unfit to be president. I think he’s morally unfit to be president.

“Our president must embody respect and adhere to the values that are at the core of this country. The most important being truth. This president is not able to do that.

“A person ... who talks about and treats women like they’re pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it, that person’s not fit to be president of the United States, on moral grounds. And that’s not a policy statement.”

Mr Comey also told ABC News chief anchor George Stephanopoulos the is “certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice” when Mr Trump asked him last year at the White House to if he could see his way to “letting Flynn go,” referring to a criminal probe of fired National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

“If he didn’t know he was doing something improper, why did he kick out the Attorney-General and the vice president of the United States and the leaders of the intelligence community?” Mr Comey asked, referring to Mr Trump’s actions before he asked Mr Comey about Flynn’s case.

“I mean, why am I alone if he’s ... doesn’t know the nature of the request?”

Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017, setting off a scramble at the Justice Department that led to the appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel now investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, and possible collusion by Trump campaign officials in that meddling.

Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion.

Trump v Comey: Comey says in his book that interactions with the US President gave him “flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob”. Picture: AP/Evan Vucci and Andrew Harnik

Asked should Mr Trump be impeached, Mr Comey gave what he acknowledged might be “a strange answer”.

“I hope not because I think impeaching and removing Donald Trump from office would let the American people off the hook and have something happen indirectly that I believe they’re duty bound to do directly,” he said.

“People in this country need to stand up and go to the voting booth and vote their values.

“We’ll fight about guns. We’ll fight about taxes. We’ll fight about all those other things down the road. But you cannot have, as president of the United States, someone who does not reflect the values that I believe Republicans treasure and Democrats treasure and Independents treasure,” he said.

“That is the core of this country. That’s our foundation. And so impeachment, in a way, would short-circuit that.”

“DO I LOOK LIKE A GUY WHO NEED HOOKERS?”

Recounting the first time he met Mr Trump face-to-face, Comey remembered “he had impressively coiffed hair that looks to be all his”.

“I confess I stared at it pretty closely,” he said.

“He looked slightly orange up close with small white half-moons under his eyes which I assume were from tanning goggles.”

Mr Comey also spoke of a “really weird” Trump Tower meeting with the then president-elect, in which he briefed Mr Trump that the contents of an unverified intelligence document compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, including allegations that Mr Trump had been in a Moscow hotel room in 2013 with urinating Russian prostitutes was about to go public.

Mr Trump replied: ‘Do I look like a guy who needs hookers?’, Mr Comey said.

“He was very defensive and started to launch into — for reasons that I don’t understand, started going into the list of people who had accused him of touching them improperly, sexual assault and how he hadn’t done this, he hadn’t done that, he hadn’t done that.”

Later, he said, Trump added: “Another reason you know it’s not true is I’m a germaphobe. There’s no way I’d let people pee on each other around me.”

Mr Trump “talks about and treats women like they’re pieces of meat,” said Mr Comey. ahead of the launch of his book. Picture: AP /Bebeto Matthews)

PRE-EMPTIVE RAGE

Trump had taken a pre-emptive strike against Comey, losing his cool on Twitter in the hour leading up to the revelations to come in both the interview and the ex-FBI director’s upcoming book.

In a volley of angry, over-the-top tweets, Mr Trump called Mr Comey “slippery,” suggested he should be in jail and labelled him “the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!”.

It came ahead of Mr Comey’s first interview on the book, which offers his version of the events surrounding his firing as FBI director by Mr Trump and the investigations into Russian election meddling and Hillary Clinton’s email practices.

Mr Comey’s book, A Higher Loyalty — Truth, Lies and Leadership — compares Mr Trump to a mafia don and calls his leadership of the country “ego driven and about personal loyalty”.

According to excerpts of the book obtained by US media, Mr Comey writes that interactions with Mr Trump gave him “flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob”. “The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The US-versus-them worldview,” he writes.

I

I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies. His “memos” are self serving and FAKE!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

My book is about ethical leadership & draws on stories from my life & lessons I learned from others. 3 presidents are in my book: 2 help illustrate the values at the heart of ethical leadership; 1 serves as a counterpoint. I hope folks read the whole thing and find it useful.

— James Comey (@Comey) April 15, 2018

n an excerpt shown on Saturday, Mr Comey said his belief that Mrs Clinton would beat Mr Trump in the 2016 presidential election was a factor in his decision to disclose the investigation into her emails.

Mr Trump seized on that, saying Mr Comey “was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!”

Mr Comey’s disclosure shortly before the election that the FBI had reopened its investigation into her email use enraged Democrats. After Mrs Clinton’s loss, many Democrats blamed Mr Comey, and Mrs Clinton herself has said it hurt her election prospects.

“I HARDLY EVEN KNEW THIS GUY”

On Sunday, Mr Trump pushed back again against Mr Comey’s claims that Mr Trump sought his loyalty, saying: “I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies.”

Mr Comey fires back that his book draws on stories from his life and from lessons he has learned from others. “3 presidents are in my book: 2 help illustrate the values at the heart of ethical leadership; 1 serves as a counterpoint,” he wrote. “I hope folks read the whole thing and find it useful.”

An agitated Mr Trump questioned Mr Comey’s intelligence and place in history, writing, “Slippery James Comey, a man who always ends up badly and out of whack (he is not smart!), will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!”

He also suggested Mr Comey should be imprisoned, saying, “how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail).” There is no indication Mr Comey is under investigation for doing either.

Slippery James Comey, a man who always ends up badly and out of whack (he is not smart!), will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 15, 2018

Originally published as War of words: Trump ‘morally unfit to be President’ says Comey, as Trump rages