James Comey Claims Fox & Friends Cancelled His Appearance After Release of Horowitz Report

Caleb EcarmaDec 9th, 2019, 4:50 pm
 

Former FBI Director James Comey tweeted that he was set to appear on Fox & Friends Tuesday morning but his interview was cancelled after the release of the Justice Department’s inspector general report, a claim the network denied.

“FYI: I offered to go on Fox & Friends to answer all questions. I can’t change their viewers on Donald Trump but hoped to give them some actual facts about the FBI,” Comey wrote in a Monday afternoon tweet. “They booked me for tomorrow at 8 am. They just cancelled. Must have read the report.”

A Fox News spokesperson told Mediaite in a statement, “James Comey was not booked and was never confirmed to appear on Fox & Friends.”

Comey also called out Fox News during an appearance on MSNBC Monday.

“I offered to go on Fox & Friends, which I gather is a very important program for supporters of the president,” said Comey after host Nicolle Wallace asked what happened. “They agreed last night to book me at 8:00 tomorrow. I figured I can’t change the minds of Fox viewers about President Trump, but I can give their minds, I hope, about the FBI by giving them actual facts. And after the report came out they canceled my appearance. They must’ve read the report.”

“Maybe we can do it again after the Durham investigation, was their answer,” he claimed Fox said to him.

The much anticipated IG report on the origins of the Trump-Russia probe found that investigators followed DOJ and FBI policies when starting the investigation process, while also noting that, “We did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced the FBI’s decision to seek FISA authority on [former Trump campaign aide] Carter Page.” The IG review did state, however, that there are “significant concerns with how certain aspects of the investigation were conducted and supervised,” including a number of “inaccuracies and omissions” in the FBI’s FISA warrant request against Page, which cited material from Christopher Steele’s salacious and highly controversial dossier.

As for Comey’s relationship with Fox News, network anchors Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum responded to his tweet by offering him interviews on their shows.

“We’d love to have you back on @SpecialReport Mr Comey – live or pretape,” wrote Baier. “I have read the report. Just DM me.”

“We have reached out to your staff and invited you to come on tonight. Hope you will join us,” wrote MacCallum.

In a Monday op-ed for the Washington Post on the IG report, Comey mentioned one of those Fox News “viewers” he referenced in his tweet, writing about his mother-in-law:

“Those of us who knew that truth had to remain silent while a torrent of smears and falsehoods flowed from the White House, from some congressional committee chairmen, the attorney general and Fox News personalities. The FBI’s work was perceived as a threat to the president, and many Republicans apparently believe that all threats to Trump must be destroyed, no matter the cost to the nation.

The painful part is that millions of good people believed what they heard. My 89-year-old mother-in-law, watching Fox News in her Iowa assisted-living facility, became convinced that I was going to jail. I repeatedly assured her that there was a zero percent chance of that.”

UPDATE — 10:37 pm ET: Keith Urbahn, who represents Comey, stood by what the former FBI director said:

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Caleb Ecarma

Caleb Ecarma was a reporter at Mediaite. Email him here: caleb@mediaite.com Follow him on Twitter here: @calebecarma