Comey: GOP ‘has left me and many others’ and become party of Trump
Former FBI Director James Comey in a new interview railed against the Republican Party, saying he thinks the GOP has lost its way.
“The Republican Party has left me and many others,” Comey, who was a registered Republican for most of his life, said during an interview on the ABC News podcast “Start Here” when asked whether he still considers himself a Republican in his “heart of hearts.”
“I just think they’ve lost their way and I can’t be associated with it.”
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Comey said he saw the change in the party take place starting with President Trump’s campaign. He said the GOP has continued to change over the course of the Trump presidency.
“These people don’t represent anything that I believe in,” he said.
He added that he thinks the Republican Party now reflects “entirely Donald Trump’s values.”
“It doesn’t reflect values at all. It’s transactional, it’s ego-driven, it’s in service to his ego,” Comey said.
Trump and his administration in recent days have gone on the attack against Comey as the former FBI director continues a media tour promoting his new book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.”
The president has targeted Comey several times in tweets, and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said last week that Trump’s firing of Comey will be “one of the president’s greatest achievements.“
Over the weekend, Trump referred to Comey, whom he fired last year, as a “slimeball” and said he would go down as the worst FBI director in history.
Trump also denied ever asking for Comey’s loyalty and questioned why “the big questions in Comey’s badly reviewed book aren’t answered.”
Comey has done a number of interviews in recent days to promote the book.
During an interview on ABC that aired Sunday night, Comey said there’s “certainly some evidence” Trump obstructed justice when he asked about the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
Comey also said during the ABC interview that he thinks it’s possible Trump is compromised by Russia.