In an interview with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, former FBI Director James Comey said impeachment would be too good for President Donald Trump. Comey effectively endorsed Trump’s 2020 competition by suggesting that Americans have to vote him out of office.
When Stephanopoulos asked Comey point-blank whether Trump should be impeached, the former FBI director dodged. “Impeachment is a question of law and fact and politics,” he said. The ABC host pressured him, “You’re a citizen. You have a judgment.”
At last Comey gave his opinion. “I hope not,” the former FBI director said, “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.”
“People in this country need to stand up and go to the voting booth and vote their values. And so — impeachment, in a way, would short circuit that,” the former FBI director declared.
In this statement, James Comey effectively endorsed Trump’s competition in the 2020 presidential race — giving carte blanche to the Democrats and to any Republicans who might consider challenging Trump in the primary.
Comey declared Trump unfit to be president. “I don’t think he’s medically unfit to be president. I think he’s morally unfit to be president,” the former FBI director said. He listed his grievances with the president, specifically saying that Trump “talks about and treats women like they’re pieces of meat.”
The former FBI director promised that his Sunday night interview would not be the end of his opposition to President Trump. “I’m gonna teach. I’m gonna travel around and speak about leadership. I want to offer them a vision of here’s what it should look like,” Comey said. “Values matter. This president does not reflect the values of this country.”
In some markets, an ad paid for by billionaire environmentalist Tom Steyer ran during the interview. That ad, echoing his $20 million ad campaign from last November, resonated with Comey’s anti-Trump message, even as it conflicted with the former FBI director’s actual words.
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