Trump is morally unfit to lead, says sacked FBI chief
FORMER FBI director James Comey has warned that Donald Trump is ‘morally unfit to be President’ and a ‘stain on all around him’.
In an excoriating TV interview, Mr Comey – who was fired by Mr Trump last year – claimed the US President repeatedly lies on ‘matters big and small’ and treats women ‘like they’re pieces of meat’.
While Mr Comey discounted rumours that Mr Trump is mentally incompetent or suffering from the early stages of dementia – insisting the President is ‘of above-average intelligence’ – he added: ‘There’s something more important than that, that should unite all of us, and that is 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. He is morally unfit to be President.’
The White House blamed Mr Comey’s dismissal as FBI director on his handling of the inquiry into former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s use of email to send classified documents, while Democrats suggested it was because of the FBI’s investigation into alleged links between Russia and Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Promoting his memoir, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, And Leadership, which is out today, Mr Comey told ABC News: ‘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. He’s morally unfit to be President.’ He also lambasted the President for behaving like a Mafia boss, demanding loyalty and treating senior White House staff as if they were part of his ‘family’.
He added that Mr Trump ‘will stain everyone around him. And the question is, how much stain is too much stain’.
Mr Trump, who last week called Mr Comey a ‘slimeball’ hit back at the accusations, yesterday tweeting that he had ‘lied to Congress’ and ‘committed many crimes!’
During the interview, Mr Comey said he was worried the President may be open to blackmail by Russia given claims – which Mr Trump denies – that he cavorted with prostitutes in a Moscow hotel room. The former FBI chief recalled telling Mr Trump about the claims when they first emerged, and that he ‘interrupted very defensively’ and asked: ‘Do I look like a guy who needs hookers?’
He described how Mr Trump again brought up the Moscow allegations after he became President, and specifically a claim that he ordered prostitutes to urinate on a bed.
‘He said, “If there’s even a 1 per cent chance my wife thinks that’s true, that’s terrible,” ’ said Mr Comey. ‘And I remember thinking, how could your wife think there’s a 1 per cent chance you were with
‘Treats women like pieces of meat’
prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow? I’m a flawed human being, but there is literally zero chance that my wife would think that was true.’
Asked if he personally believed the prostitute claims, Mr Comey said: ‘These are more words I never thought I’d utter about a President of the United States, but it’s possible.’
He also defended the man behind those allegations, the former MI6 agent Christopher Steele. Although Mr Steele has been rubbished by the Trump White House, Mr Comey defended him as a ‘credible source’.