In First Interview, Comey Explains Why Trump Is 'Unfit'

In an ABC interview certain to draw some angry tweets from President Trump, former FBI director James Comey slammed the president as "morally unfit" to lead. In the interview with George Stephanopoulos, which aired Sunday night, Comey reiterated much of what he says in upcoming memoir A Higher Loyalty, likening Trump to a Mob boss and his administration to a forest fire. He described Trump's obsession with a salacious Russia dossier—and said he wasn't sure if he believed Trump's insistence that none of it was true. "I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but I don't know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013," Comey said. "It's possible, but I don't know."

Comey, in his first interview since Trump fired him last year, added that it was possible that the Russians might have material they could blackmail the president with, reports the Washington Post. He recounted early meetings with Trump, saying a request to drop the FBI investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn is "certainly some evidence of obstruction of justice." Comey said he believes Trump is of above average intelligence and is not in the early stages of dementia. "I don't think he's medically unfit to be president. I think he's morally unfit to be president," he said. Comey said he doesn't think Trump should be impeached, but removing him is something the American people are "duty-bound to do directly" when they vote in 2020. (Comey, whose memoir will be released Tuesday, is beginning a media blitz.)