President Donald Trump slammed former FBI Director James Comey in an exclusive Fox News interview Friday, calling a now-deleted Instagram post by Comey “a veiled call for assassination” and accusing him of knowing full well what the message implied.
Comey’s controversial post featured seashells arranged to read “86 47,” with the caption, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” The image sparked immediate backlash, with critics pointing to “86” as slang for eliminating someone and “47” as a reference to Trump, the 47th president.
“He wasn't very competent. But he was competent enough to know what that meant. And, he did it for a reason,” Trump told anchor Bret Baier during a sit-down in Abu Dhabi for Special Report. “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant.”
Comey later deleted the post and issued a public statement: “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
Trump, however, dismissed that explanation. “If you're the FBI director, and you don't know what that meant – that meant assassination, and it says it loud and clear,” he said.
When asked if Comey should face prosecution, Trump demurred, saying the matter is under investigation by the Justice Department and U.S. Secret Service. “If he had a clean history – he doesn’t, he’s a dirty cop … I could understand if there was a leniency. But I’m going to let them make that decision,” Trump added.