Jim Comey
speaker
98 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Jim Comey’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
Paint me a scene. Yeah, we went to the coast of North Carolina. We love the Outer Banks and Barrier Islands. for the week before the book rollout. Thought it'd be a great time to get away, think about the next book and what I'm going to say. And we went for a walk on Thursday afternoon. of the week before publication, and we were walking across a big piece of beach.
And as we got towards the end of our walk, we saw in the sand some numbers and spelled that in shells. And my wife said, why would someone put their address in the sand? So we stopped, we both sort of turned our heads sideways and studied it. And I said, you know, I think it's I think it's like a political message of some kind. And she said, oh, yeah.
And then she explained to me that when she was a server, which she did throughout school, that 86 was a restaurant term. And I said, no, I don't know that. I used to hear it as a kid. We would say 86 this place when we were at a bar or a restaurant that was dull. We want to go someplace else. So she said, oh, you should take a picture of that. I said, cool. I took a picture of it.
And then I posted on Instagram when we got back home and thought no more of it. And I thought it was just a cool way for someone to express a political view. And then I heard later in that day that people were saying it was a threat to assassinate the president. And I was like, oh, my God. I've never heard 86 used in that context. I actually still haven't.
But I thought, man, I want no part of anything like that. So I took it down immediately and posted a little statement explaining why I took it down. And that's the Shell story.
No, that's the great thing. People at the beach seem to focus on The things they should focus on, the water, the waves, their families, they're not looking. I'm hardly a celeb, but they're not looking for celebs. And it was a big sort of the point area of a barrier island that's a gigantic collection of sand. And so it's not crowded at all.
I'm not a big Instagram-er. I tend to post family stuff, political stuff, and book stuff. Last fall at the beach, I saw something I thought was cool and I posted it, which was someone had painted inside a big shell endorsement of Kamala Harris. So I remember posting that. I'm not a big poster, but when I see something that strikes me as funny or interesting, I post it.
You may see less of that in my future Instagram posts.
Like they called you in? Yeah, they called me that night and I talked to an agent on the phone and he said, look, this may be the end of it, but if they want to do an in-person interview, would you do that? And I said, of course. So, just let me know what you want. I'll be home tomorrow afternoon.
And they reached back out and said, look, when you get home, we'd love to have you in for a personal interview. I said, sure. Can you give me a ride? Because I didn't want to be walking through a, nothing against the media, but didn't want to be walking through a bunch of cameras. And so they came to my house, gave me a ride, said, do you want to sit in the back or the front?
I said, I'd prefer to sit in the front. And so I sat in the front seat and they drove me into their garage. We did the interview, which wasn't long. And then they drove me home.
Yeah, I don't know what was going on up the chain. And so it's hard for me to say. Look, the guys I dealt with at Secret Service, which has always been the case with them, were total pros. And they were going through their normal interview they do when there's anyone's alleged there's a threat. And I just thought, look, I... There's no conceivable basis for saying this was a threat.
But if they want to talk to me, I'll talk to them. And that should be the end of it. But I can't speak to it.
Yeah, look, if I were the investigator, I would think of it Is this a credible threat? Is this term 86 something that's been used in movies or books in the past to convey some sense of violence? And if the answer was no, which I believe it is no, I think that would have been the end of it. But I don't know in the Trump administration what kind of pressure the investigators are operating under.
I appreciated that with me, they acted like professionals. I got to imagine their lives are pretty difficult right now.
Oh, yeah. And I want to draw a line under Chris Krebs. I mean, the president issued an executive order saying he should be investigated. So, there's no doubt that the Trump administration is using the investigative power's of the executive branch to target people, to frighten people, to cow people. There's no doubt that that's going on. And that is a real problem.
I'm just saying, in my case, I can't see what happened up the chain. My interactions with the Secret Service were
Yeah, you're absolutely right. I mean, it's critical when you lead a justice agency, so DOJ or FBI, that both the reality and the perception of your institution be that you're operating without fear or favor. And that when you gather facts, you're not on anybody's team. That is, without that, you're lost. And-
That is draining away right now because it's clear they're taking actions based on who's on what team going after the president's enemies. That's poison for confidence in justice institutions and confidence is everything.
that was not my history growing up. And so I don't know what it is, but again, it's, it's been a long time, right? I haven't done an interview in a year. It was last time you and I were together. So look, I, I have so enjoyed being a grandfather and an author and, and T-shirts and jeans. And frankly, after the election in November, I was thinking, I'll just withdraw.
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