Trump ‘morally unfit’ as president

WASHINGTON: Former FBI director James Comey said in an ABC News interview yesterday US President Donald Trump is a dangerous, ‘‘morally unfit’’ leader doing ‘‘tremendous damage’’ to institutional and cultural norms.

Comey, fired by Trump in May last year, was worried the president may be open to blackmail by Russia given claims he was present when prostitutes urinated on each other during a 2013 Moscow visit.

Comey’s firing came as the Federal Bureau of Investigation was probing possible connections between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia’s meddling in the US election.

Russia has denied interfering in the election and Trump has denied any improper activity.

Comey said in the exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, which aired yesterday, that it is ‘‘possible, but I don’t know’’ whether Russia has evidence to back up the allegations about Trump’s Moscow trip.

Trump told Comey he had not stayed overnight in the Moscow hotel and that the claims related to the prostitutes were not true, Comey said.

❛ Slippery James Comey . . . will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far! Donald Trump on Comey

‘‘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,’’ Comey said.

‘‘He is morally unfit to be president,’’ he added.

Comey has a tellall book, A Higher Loyalty, due out this week.

The book — and the scheduled interview had prompted Trump to hurl a new set of insults at Comey earlier yesterday challenging accusations made in the book, and insisting he never pressed Comey to be loyal to him.

‘‘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!’’ Trump wrote in one of five Twitter posts aimed at Comey.

In the book, Comey says Trump, in a private meeting, pressed the then FBI director for his loyalty.

Comey told ABC News the title of the book came from that ‘‘bizarre conversation’’ he had with Trump at the White House in January 2017, shortly after his inauguration.

‘‘He asked for my loyalty personally as the FBI director. My loyalty’s supposed to be to the American people and to the institution,’’ Comey said.

The FBI has long tried to operate as an independent law enforcement agency.

‘‘I never asked Comey for Personal Loyalty. I hardly even knew this guy. Just another of his many lies,’’ Trump said on Twitter. Comey also defended his decision to publicly disclose the FBI’s reopening of its investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s handling of email when she was secretary of state.

The Clinton probe was already public, Comey said, whereas the FBI’s examination of possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia was in its early stages. It did not become publicly known until after the 2016 presidential election.

Despite his reservations about Trump, Comey said he did not believe the US Congress should impeach him, as it would let the American people ‘‘off the hook’’ for something ‘‘they’re duty bound to do directly.’’

‘‘People in this country need to . . . go to the voting booth and vote their values.’’ — Reuters

❛ A person . . . who talks about and treats women like they’re pieces of meat, who lies constantly James Comey on Trump