Fired FBI director James Comey calls Donald Trump a ‘strange and slightly sad old guy yelling at you to get off his lawn’ as he claims president is ‘diminished’ from his own Twitter attacks
- Former FBI Director James Comey wrote an editorial for the Washington Post Monday on the Four Stages of being attacked by President Trump on Twitter
- Comey argues that at first there’s shock, then numbness, and then it doesn’t hit as hard
- ‘It feels as though a strange and slightly sad old guy is yelling at you to get off his lawn,’ Comey explained
- Comey was trying to make the point that while Trump is ‘diminished,’ in part because of his Twitter show, in Stage Four Americans needed to pay attention
- ‘For the fourth, and final, stage, we need to fight through our fatigue and contempt for this shrunken, withered figure,’ Comey argued
Former FBI Director James Comey wrote another editorial for the Washington Post, this time arguing that President Trump has been ‘diminished’ by his own Twitter attacks.
Comey goes through what he sees are the four stages of being attacked by Trump – first there’s shock, then there’s numbness, and then it doesn’t hit as hard.
‘It no longer feels as though the most powerful human on the planet is after you. It feels as though a strange and slightly sad old guy is yelling at you to get off his lawn, echoed by younger but no less sad people in red hats shouting, “Yeah, get off his lawn!”‘ Comey said of Trump and his supporters.
Former FBI Director James Comey wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post Monday in which he lays out what he sees are the Four Stages to being attacked by President Trump
Just this week, President Trump picked on former FBI Director James Comey, calling his a ‘dirty cop at the highest level’ and ‘Scum!’
Former FBI Director James Comey says that President Trump (pictured) is diminished, thanks in part to the near constant show he performs on Twitter, lashing out at his enemies
FBI Director James Comey (right) meets President Trump (left) in the Blue Room at the White House two days after he’s sworn in in January 2017
‘In this stage, President Trump seems diminished, much as he has diminished the presidency itself,’ Comey went on.
Comey pointed to how world leaders have been caught laughing at the president, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threw away Trump’s letter over the country’s Syria strategy.
‘American leaders clap back at him, offering condescending prayers for his personal well-being,’ Comey said, an apparent reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Comey noted that Trump’s aides ‘talk about him behind his back and treat him like a child,’ while ‘principled public servants’ defied his orders and cooperated with the impeachment inquiry.
‘His record in the courts is similar to the Washington Redskins on the field,’ Comey remarked.
The D.C. football team ended the 2019 season with three wins and 13 losses.
Comey wrote that even Trump’s ‘secret weapon’ – his Twitter account – has lost power. Engagement with Trump on Twitter has steadily decline, Comey wrote.
‘They are channel-surfing on him. The exhausted middle has arrived at a collective Stage 3,’ Comey said.
Comey said in the op-ed that he doesn’t mean that Trump isn’t ‘dangerous.’
‘The horrific betrayal of allies in northern Syria demonstrates that an impetuous and amoral leader can do great harm, even in shrunken form,’ the former FBI head said.
Stage 4, Comey argued, is getting people to tune in again, just long enough to vote Trump out.
‘For the fourth, and final, stage, we need to fight through our fatigue and contempt for this shrunken, withered figure,’ he said. ‘Spurred by the danger he poses to our nation and its values, we have to overcome the shock and numbness of earlier stages.’
Comey served as FBI director at the beginning of the Trump administration, but was fired by the president in May 2017. That move prompted then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to appoint Special Counsel Robert Mueller to take over the Russia investigation.
Comey testified before Congress and cooperated with the Mueller probe, as some of his interactions with the president could fall under obstruction of justice.
Trump has considered Comey an enemy since and sporadically goes after him on Twitter.
In a tweet from this week, Trump called Comey both a ‘dirty cop at the highest level’ and ‘scum!’