Trump Rages at Comey ‘Calling for Assassination’ — says Justice Department Will ‘Handle It’
President Donald Trump lit into former FBI Director James Comey for claiming he didn’t know a social media post would be construed as an assassination message.
Comey sparked a wave of anger in MAGA world on Thursday when he posted a photo to Instagram that many interpreted as a call for violence against PresidentTrump when posted to his Instagram account a photo of shells spelling out the numbers “86” and “47” and captioned it, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” Comey later denied he knew how the message could be interpreted.
In an interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier, Trump ridiculed Comey’s explanation for the message.
“He knew what that meant. A child knows what that meant,” Trump said. “If you’re FBI director and don’t know what that meant, that meant assassination and it says it cloud and clear. He wasn’t very competent but competent enough to know what that meant. He did it for a reason and he was hit so hard because people like me and like what was happening with our country. All this, he is calling for assassination of the president.”
“He apologized, he is — what do you want to see happen?” Baier pressed.
“I don’t want to take a position on it, it will be up to Pam [Bondi] and all the great people,” Trump demurred. “I will say, I think it is a terrible thing. When you add his history to that, if he had a clean history, he doesn’t, he’s a dirty cop. If he had a clean history, I could understand if there was leniency, I will let emthis make that decision.”
Merriam Webster defines “86” as slang, meaning ‘to throw out,’ ‘to get rid of,’ or ‘to refuse service to.’ It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang, meaning that an item was sold out. There is varying anecdotal evidence about why the term eighty-six was used, but the most common theory is that it is rhyming slang for nix.”
Comey denied that his post was meant as a threat, saying in a statement that he was unaware people linked the specific numeric arrangement with violence. “I didn’t realize some folks associate it with violence. That didn’t occur to me when I saw it, but I am opposed to violence in all circumstances, so I took it down,” he said. Comey later said in a post on Instagram that he assumed the numbers “were a political message.”
During an interview with Fox News host Jesse Watters, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said that she would like to see Comey “behind bars.” However, some legal analysts believe his posting did not rise to criminal behavior.
Watch above via Fox News.
