Fired former FBI chief James Comey lashed out at Donald Trump in an interview with ABC broadcast Sunday, calling him “morally unfit” to be president and describing him as a serial liar who will “stain everyone around him.”
Comey’s remarks are the latest salvo in a war of words with Trump, who excoriated the former FBI director on Twitter earlier in the day, again calling him a “slimeball” and suggesting he should be jailed.
The wide-ranging interview with ABC News also came ahead of Tuesday’s release of Comey’s memoir, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership,” in which he details his interactions with the Republican president.
“I think he’s morally unfit to be president,” Comey said, in his first televised interview since being fired in May last year.
The former federal prosecutor pointed to how Trump “talks about and treats women like they’re pieces of meat” and “lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it.”
Comey also said that serving in Trump’s administration poses a serious ethical dilemma.
“The challenge of this president is that he will stain everyone around him,” he told ABC.
“And the question is, how much stain is too much stain and how much stain eventually makes you unable to accomplish your goal of protecting the country and serving the country?”
In the book, Comey likens Trump to a dishonest, ego-driven mob boss and says he demanded the then FBI chief’s personal pledge of loyalty — a damning account that has infuriated the president at a moment of intensifying legal pressure on other fronts.
Source: AFP
