S2 Ep1049: James Comey: Uncomfortably Numb
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Who is James Comey and what is his new book about?
Hello and welcome to the Bullard Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. Delighted to have back former director of the FBI from 2013 to 2017. He was a federal prosecutor in New York. His latest legal thriller, FDR Drive, came out this week. It's the third in a series. It is Jim Comey. What's going on, man? Great to be with you, Tim. Thanks for having me. All right. We got to start with the shells for the rocks. Okay. I mean, you made this happen. Not me, I guess, with the Instagram posting. I get in trouble with some of my posts sometimes. So I've been there. Paint me a picture here. I know you've done a couple of interviews already. So you're with your wife. You're on a beach walk. Is it the morning? Are we in Bethany? Are we in Cape May?
You're an author now.
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.
What happened with the seashells and social media?
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.
Got it. And were there other people around? I guess when you're walking down the beach, you're tall. You're kind of famous. Are people trying to chat you up on these beach walks?
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.
Are you into kind of resistance memes generally? Are people sending you, you know, funny little Instagram posts? Are you like into Instagram culture? Are you getting reels sent to you? Or was this a one-off?
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.
Seashell politics is one overlap for you. There you go. Yeah, crime novels, Reinhold Niebuhr. You just have a variety of interests, and seashell political art is one of it.
You may see less of that in my future Instagram posts.
It seems right. It seems advisable. So, the most insane part of all this, I was listening to a couple of your other interviews, is like you literally had to go into the Secret Service over this? Like you went into the building?
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.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who is James Comey and what is his new book about?
0:13–1:42
2
What happened with the seashells and social media?
1:42–6:03
3
How did the Secret Service get involved with Comey's seashell post?
6:03–11:45
4
What is the current state of the FBI according to Comey?
11:45–15:34
5
Are political pressures affecting the FBI's priorities?
15:34–22:36
6
What concerns does Comey have about the FBI's future?
22:36–32:10
7
How does Comey view the politicization of the FBI?
32:10–34:43
8
What are Comey's thoughts on public perception and trust in the FBI?
34:43–52:57
Speakers
4 identifiedMore from The Bulwark Daily
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