James Comey interview: Trump 'morally unfit' to be president as a man who treats women 'like pieces of meat,' says former FBI chief
President Trump denies collusion with Russia and denies allegations of obstructing justice
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Your support makes all the difference.Former FBI director James Comey has said President Donald Trump, is "morally unfit" for office as part of a publicity tour for his highly-anticipated new book A Higher Loyalty.
Mr Trump fired Mr Comey in May 2017, as Mr Comey was leading an investigation into Russian meddling in the presidential election of 2016, which has now expanded to include investigations into possible collusion between Trump campaign officials and Russia. Mr Trump has repeatedly hit out at Mr Comey, in a series of tweets since experts of the book started to appear on Thursday, the president has called him a "slimeball" and a "liar".
In his first interview since being fired, Mr Comey painted a scything picture of the president.
“Our president must embody respect, and adhere to the values that are at the core of this country. The most important being truth. This president is not able to do that. He is morally unfit to be president,” he said.
See the liveblog below to follow the interview as it happened, please give a few seconds for it to load.
The wide-ranging television interview with ABC lasted for five hours, with a condensed one hour version being broadcast on Sunday night. Questions centred around the new book, which challenges the president’s character in labelling him a mafia don and raises doubts about his commitment to serving America. In the transcript of the interview Mr Comey said Mr Trump will “stain” everyone around him.
Mr Comey is clearly trying to set up a dichotomy between himself and the president, but there were few absolutely new revelations in the interview. Still that does not diminish the powerful spectacle of the former FBI director - who was involved in a number of major events in Mr Trump’s run for, and then first year in, the White House - denigrating the sitting president.
Having started as the one in charge of the FBI investigation into Russian election meddling, which included investigating any possible collusion between Trump campaign personnel and Moscow, Mr Comey had plenty to say on that subject.
Mr Comey said he thinks it is “possible” that President Donald Trump might be compromised by the Russians. He said it struck him as unlikely but he could not say it with “high confidence” like he could with other presidents he has worked.
“It is stunning, and I wish I wasn’t saying it, but it’s the truth,” Mr Comey said.
He also described the “weird” Trump Tower meeting in which after the election he briefed the president-elect on the contents of an unverified intelligence document compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, including allegations that Mr Trump had been in a Moscow hotel room in 2013 with urinating Russian prostitutes.
“I did not go into the business about people peeing on each other” in his briefing with Trump, Comey said. “I just wanted to get it done and get out of there.”
Mr Trump has denied all allegations around the dossier.
As Mr Comey also described the two famous episodes of being alone with Mr Trump, one a dinner where Mr Comey said that Trump “I expect loyalty, I need loyalty.” and the other in the Oval Office when Mr Trump asked him “I hope you can let it go”, which Mr Comey took as a “direction” to drop an FBI investigation into Mr Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Mr Trump and the White House have denied wither conversation taking place, while Mr Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Asked whether he believed Mr Trump had committed obstruction of justice, Mr Comey said “it’s possible” and there was “ certainly some evidence” that it may have happened. Mr Trump has denied collusion with Russia and allegations of obstruction of justice.
Mr Comey has come under attack from Mr Trump in recent days in a number of tweets that have labelled him “slippery” and a “slimeball”. It is something he has in common with the man that took over the FBI Russia investigation, Special Counsel Robert Mueller, with Mr Trump having labelled that investigation a “witch hunt”.
The former FBI director said that if Mr Trump were to fire Mr Mueller, both Democrats and Republicans would have to recognise as Mr Trump’s “most serious attack yet on the rule of law.”
While there were a couple of lighter moments, including Mr Comey saying that when meeting Mr Trump for the first time he realised he had “impressively coifed hair” that “looks to be all his”.
“I stared at it pretty closely”, Mr Comey said, “and my reaction was, 'It must take a heck of a lot of time in the morning, but it's impressively coifed.’”
Mr Comey said that his role in the 2016 election, in re-opening and than closing an FBI investigation into the emails of Mr Trump’s rival candidate Hillary Clinton close to polling day “sucked”. Ms Clinton and some Democrats blame him for her loss, but Mr Comey said it was a “no-win” situation and that he was a “flawed human” trying to make decisions based on “higher values”.
Agencies contributed to this report
We are now onto the firing - or after the break - Mr Comey calls how he found out "crazy" before the adverts start.
Mr Comey says he did not expect to be fired and it was "crazy to do so".
He then heads for his last trip on the FBI private jet - saying he "drank red wine out of a paper cup".
We are now on the quotes from Mr Trump saying Mr Comey was out because of the "the Russia thing".
We are now onto the tweets Mr Trump said about "tapes" which led to Mr Comey leaking the unclassified memo to a friend and then the New York Times.
Mr Comey says he thinks it's possible that President Donald Trump might be compromised by the Russians.
The fired FBI chief says he could not discount the possibility that Russia might have something on the president.
Mr Stephanopoulos says that is a "stunning" possibility and Mr Comey says it is something that he never thought he'd say about a president of the United States.
Still, he says it strikes him as unlikely but something that he can't say without high confidence.
Comey is asked if the president is unfit to be president.
"He is not medically unfit to be president, he is morally unfit to be president," Mr Comey says.
What is the remedy he asked? "I think impeaching and removing Mr Trump will give the voters something indirectly, they should do directly."
"People should get up and vote their values".
He has asked about whether he "fell in love with his own virtue" - Mr Comey says "I don't think so".
The interview is now over, so I will catch-up on some of the things I didn't have time to type though - here is the full Comey answer on the question of Mr Trump being "unfit" for the presidency.
Mr Comey said "yes", he is unfit for the office - but went on:
“But not in the way I often hear people talk about it,” he said. “I don't buy this stuff about him being mentally incompetent or early stages of dementia. He strikes me as a person of above average intelligence who's tracking conversations and knows what's going on. I don't think he's medically unfit to be president.
"I think he's morally unfit to be president. 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. Our president must embody respect, and adhere to the values that are at the core of this country. The most important being truth. This president is not able to do that. He is morally unfit to be president.”
Here are Mr Comey's full quotes on the possible impeachment of Mr Trump:
“I hope not because I think impeaching and removing Donald Trump from office would let the American people off the hook, and have something happen indirectly that I believe they're duty bound to do directly”
“People in this country need to stand up and go to the voting booth and vote their values. And so — impeachment, in a way, would short circuit that.”
One I missed was Mr Comey being asked about his thoughts on what it would mean if Mr Trump fired Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
“It would, I hope, set off alarm bells that this is his most serious attack yet on the rule of law.”
“And it would be something that our entire country, again, Democrats and Republicans, that is higher than all the normal fights about policy. And it would be to the everlasting shame of partisans if they were unable to see that higher level and to protect it,” Mr Comey said.
There has been talk by some in Congress this week about legislation to protect Mr Mueller's status.
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