James Comey Urges Americans To 'Use Every Breath We Have' To Oust Trump
Former FBI director wants 'landslide' victory to beat Trump in 2020
© press
Former FBI Director James Comey has urged American voters to remove President Donald Trump from the White House with a "landslide victory" for his opponent in 2020.
Comey, who was talking during a speech Sunday in New York City, begged Democrats to cast aside ideological differences in order to defeat Trump in the 2020 election.
"I understand the Democrats have important debates now over who their candidate should be," Comey told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, "but they have to win. They have to win."
Comey, who responded to key questions on the Russia probe with "I don't know" or "I don't remember" during his testimony last week before the House Judiciary Committee, decried Trump's character at every opportunity.
When asked if Robert Mueller has evidence that Trump may be a co-conspirator in crimes described by the special counsel, Comey said he didn't know, "but if he's not there, he's certainly close."
© press
[RELATED] Top FBI Officials 'Appalled' by Hillary Clinton’s Email Use, Comey Testifies
Comey added that he hoped that Americans would "in a landslide rid ourselves of this attack on our values."
"Removal by impeachment would muddy that," he said, leaving the country feeling like the leader had been removed by a coup.
CNN reports Hours earlier, Trump attacked Comey in a pair of testy morning tweets, declaring without evidence that the former FBI chief had lied on Friday in his testimony to the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.
"Leakin' James Comey must have set a record for who lied the most to Congress in one day. His Friday testimony was so untruthful!," Trump wrote, adding in a second post:
"On 245 occasions, former FBI Director James Comey told House investigators he didn't know, didn't recall, or couldn't remember things when asked."
Comey laughed at the idea Trump had even looked over the actual testimony, joking to Wallace before she could read the tweets, "He's finished reading the 253 pages?"
After hearing the words out loud, he turned serious.
"My reaction to it is actually disturbing to me, which is kind of, 'Eh, there he goes again.' I thought I was 'Lyin' James Comey' now I'm 'Leakin' James Comey'.
© press
But I kind of shrug and sometimes smile and laugh about it and then I have a secondary reaction, which is to be horrified at my own numb reaction," Comey said.
"We have to remind ourselves the President of the United States of America is publicly announcing that people are committing crimes, that they should be in jail."
Asked if Trump's tweets could be viewed as witness tampering, Comey answered carefully -- insisting he had no insight into Mueller's thinking.
"I'm not prepared to judge it," Comey said, "but again, if I were prosecuting a case in the Southern District of New York and a prominent person started attacking my witnesses, I'd want to know so what's going on there and does that cross the line from free speech, which we have to keep protected, into something else?"
Speaking about the period before the 2016 election, Comey was unsparing of Republican congressional leaders who he said opposed making public intelligence community concerns over Russian interference.
"To their everlasting shame, the leaders -- (Senate Majority Leader Mitch) McConnell, (House Speaker Paul) Ryan -- refused," Comey said. "I think they're going to have a hard time explaining that to history."
He had kinder words for former President Barack Obama, describing the Democrat as a foil to Trump in almost every way.
"I was struck that Barack Obama is the best listener as a leader I had ever seen and Donald Trump is the worst I've ever seen," Comey said.
"Obama had the confidence to be quiet and try and get that. Donald Trump is a deeply, deeply insecure person, so I don't see any prospect that he would be able to be quiet for long enough to hear the truth."
