Reuters
Former FBI Director James Comey said President Donald Trump is not fit for the Oval Office, and can’t rule out that the Russians may have blackmail material that they’re holding against him.
“He is morally unfit to be president.”
In a wide-ranging interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos that aired in a primetime special Sunday night, Comey went into great detail about the investigation into Hilary Clinton’s emails that led up to the election, and his dealings with Trump after he took office. It was his first televised interview since Trump fired him last May.
Many of Comey’s comments — such as calling Trump a habitual liar and comparing him to a mob boss — were consistent with excerpts released last week from Comey’s upcoming tell-all book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,” which will be released Tuesday. It is already No. 1 on Amazon.com Inc.’s bestseller list.
In Sunday’s interview on Walt Disney Co.’s ABC, Comey added that Trump treated women like “meat” and was a “stain” on those around him, and was not morally fit to lead the country. “Our president must embody respect and adhere to the values that are at the core of this country,” Comey said, according to a transcript of the interview. “The most important being truth. This president is not able to do that. He is morally unfit to be president.”
However, Comey said he does not think Trump should be impeached, because that “would let the American people off the hook.” Instead, “people in this country need to stand up and go to the voting booth and vote their values,” he said.
Comey said he was “mystified” why Trump refused to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin, even in private, especially after the abundance of evidence that Russia meddled in the 2016 election.
Comey said it’s possible the Russians “have something” on Trump. “I think it’s possible,”he said. “I don’t know. These are more words I never thought I’d utter about a president of the United States, but it’s possible. . . . It is stunning and I wish I wasn’t saying it, but it’s just ... it’s the truth. I cannot say that. It always struck me and still strikes me as unlikely, and I woulda been able to say with high confidence about any other president I dealt with, but I can’t. It’s possible.”