The bitter public feud between President Trump and his least favorite former FBI director got even uglier on Wednesday, when James Comey took to Twitter to defend the increasingly hard to defend intelligence community amid more evidence of politically motivated targeting of the Trump campaign in 2016, including new revelations of an alleged FBI informant trying to ensnare Trump associates. After Comey insulted Trump and his supporters, Trump responded, and didn’t pull any punches.
After Trump tweeted that Comey’s FBI may “end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before,” Comey responded online by defending his team and slamming the president and those who support him.
“Facts matter,” wrote Comey. “The FBI’s use of Confidential Human Sources (the actual term) is tightly regulated and essential to protecting the country. Attacks on the FBI and lying about its work will do lasting damage to our country. How will Republicans explain this to their grandchildren?”
“Dangerous time when our country is led by those who will lie about anything, backed by those who will believe anything, based on information from media sources that will say anything,” he added in a follow-up tweet. “Americans must break out of that bubble and seek truth.”
As reported by Mediaite, when Trump was asked by Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade on Wednesday about Comey’s comments, Trump turned Comey’s “grandchildren” line against him and declared his firing of Comey to be one of the best things he’s done for the country.
“How is he going to explain to his grandchildren all of the lies, the deceit, all of the problems he has caused for this country?” said Trump. “I think of the things that I’ve done for the country, the firing of James Comey is going to go down as a very good thing.”
Trump then emphasized that he thinks the FBI is “great,” but that his issue is with the “rotten apples,” like Comey.
“I know so many people in the FBI,” he said. “The FBI is a fantastic institution, but some of the people at the top were rotten apples. James Comey was one of them. I’ve done a great service for this country by getting rid of him, by firing him.”
Comey has come under increased scrutiny since the release of his memoir, in which he provides accounts of his handling of the “still unverified” Steele dossier that was funded by the DNC and the Clinton campaign. In one of his media appearances in April promoting his book, Comey admitted to not disclosing to Trump who funded the dossier when he briefed the president on its salacious contents.
Recent reports have revealed that Comey’s briefing of Trump on the dossier, which was prompted by former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, now with CNN, was used by CNN as the rationale for breaking the story of the dossier, sparking the Russia “collusion” narrative.
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