Trump ‘morally unfit’ for job, says EX-FBI chief as hostilities escalate
● Comey claims Russians have something on US president
Former FBI director James Comey says he thinks it is possible the Russians have compromising information on Donald trump as he described the US president as “morally unfit” for office.
Mr Comey claimed there was “some evidence of obstruction of justice” in the president’s actions.
His comments in an ABC News interview broadcast in America on Sunday night were expected to escalate his war of words with the president and further erode a relationship marked by open hostility and name calling.
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway criticised Mr Comey yesterday, accusing him of peddling a “revisionist version of history” and sinking into the “gutter” with petty comments about the size of the president’s hands and the length of his tie. “He looked a little shaky,” she offered on ABC’S Good Morning America.
Hours before the interview was shown, the president, who fired Mr Comey last year, unleashed a Twitter outburst. Mr Trump labelled Mr Comey “slippery”, suggesting he should be put in jail and branded him “the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!”
Mr Comey’s televised remarks coupled with the release of his forthcoming book offer his version of events surrounding his firing and the investigations into Russian election meddling and US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s email practices.
Several of the episodes he described in detail, including a private conversation about former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn, are central to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. His recollections are presumably valuable for prosecutors examining whether the president’s actions constitute obstruction of justice.
The EX-FBI director, who until his firing in May last year led an investigation into possible ties between Russia and the Trump campaign, acknowledged it was “stunmr ning” to think Russia could have damaging information about an American president. But he said that in Mr Trump’s case, he could not discount the possibility the president had been compromised.
“These are more words I never thought I’d utter about a president of the United States, but it’s possible,” Mr Comey told ABC News’ chief anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Comey also answered “possibly” when asked if the president was attempting to obstruct justice when he cleared the Oval Office of other officials in February last year before encouraging him to close the investigation into Mr Flynn, who by that point was suspected of lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts.
The retired general pleaded guilty in December and is now co-operating with Mr Mueller’s investigation.
Mr Comey also said he believed Mr Trump was “morally unfit” to be president and that he treated women like “pieces of meat”.
“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 it, that person’s not fit to be president of the United States on moral grounds,” Mr Comey said.