When portions of James Comey’s much-anticipated memoir, A Higher Loyalty, started appearing last week, it was widely reported that the former FBI director compared President Trump to a mob boss. But in his interview with George Stephanopoulos, he went a step further, brutally calling Trump a “forest fire.” While the exchange wasn’t included in ABC’s Sunday broadcast, here’s the transcript:
JAMES COMEY: I worry that the norms at the center of this country– we can fight as Americans about guns or taxes or immigration, and we always have. But what we have in common is a set of norms. Most importantly, the truth. “We hold these truths to be self-evident,” right? Truth is the fourth word of that sentence. That’s what we are. And if we lose that, if we lose tethering of our leaders to that truth, what are we? And so I started to worry. Actually, the foundation of this country is in jeopardy when we stop measuring our leaders against that central value of the truth.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Are we losing it?
JAMES COMEY: I think we are in part. But I think the strength of this country is that we’re going to outlast it. That there will be damage to that norm. But I liken President Trump in the book to a forest fire. Going to do tremendous damage. Going to damage those important norms. But a forest fire gives healthy things a chance to grow that had no chance before that fire.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: How do we put it out?
JAMES COMEY: We put it out in two ways. We put it out first by not becoming numb to the fact that the truth is being assailed every day. By not deciding that it’s just too much to pay attention to because that’s the path to losing truth as the central value in this country. So all of us have to constantly be involved and call it out when we see the truth endangered, when we see lying. And then next, we need to get involved. The American people need to stand up in the public square and in the voting booth and say, “Look, we disagree about an awful lot. But we have in common something that matters enormously to this country. And our leaders must reflect those values.”
At least he has a positive spin!
Read the whole interview here.
