Former FBI Director James Comey spoke out Sunday ahead of the release of his book “A Higher Loyalty,” slamming President Trump as “morally unfit to be president.”
“I don’t think he’s medically unfit to be president. I think he’s morally unfit to be president,” Comey said in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville, 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 him - that person is not fit to be president of the United States on moral grounds.”
.@GStephanopoulos: “Is Donald Trump unfit to be president?”
— ABC News (@ABC) April 16, 2018
@Comey: “Yes, but not in the way I often hear people talk about it...I don't think he's medically unfit to be president. I think he's morally unfit to be president.” https://t.co/nzGYlTmLXf #Comey pic.twitter.com/4eag9flFZ2
Comey said he didn’t support impeachment but believed voters need to decide whether Trump should continue to be president.
“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.”
Comey also discussed the Russian dossier with Stephanopoulos as well as why he decided to publicly announce his decision to reopen the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private server before the 2016 election, which Clinton and her supporters believe is what led to her defeat.
“The honest answer is, it wouldn't change the way I think about it,” he said, adding that he hopes “people will read that story and try to put themselves in my shoes. Try to realize that I'm not trying to help a candidate or hurt a candidate; I'm trying to do the right thing.”
Comey acknowledged, however, that his decision was influenced by the belief that Clinton would win.
“I don’t remember spelling it out, but it had to have been, that she’s going to be elected president and if I hide this from the American people, she’ll be illegitimate the moment she’s elected, the moment this comes out,” he told the ABC host.
Ahead of the interview Trump blasted the former FBI director in a number of tweets, pegging him as a liar and “slimeball.”
“Unbelievably, James Comey states that Polls, where Crooked Hillary was leading, were a factor in the handling (stupidly) of the Clinton Email probe. In other words, he was making decisions based on the fact that he thought she was going to win, and he wanted a job. Slimeball!” he wrote. “The big questions in Comey’s badly reviewed book aren’t answered like, how come he gave up Classified Information (jail), why did he lie to Congress (jail), why did the DNC refuse to give Server to the FBI (why didn’t they TAKE it), why the phony memos, McCabe’s $700,000 & more?”’
Trump continued: “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!”
On Monday morning Trump followed up: "Comey drafted the Crooked Hillary exoneration long before he talked to her (lied in Congress to Senator G), then based his decisions on her poll numbers. Disgruntled, he, McCabe, and the others, committed many crimes!"