“The man is a lying demagogue you can’t trust,” said the former FBI chief.
After a mob of supporters of President Donald Trump laid siege to the US Capitol and Trump was subsequently impeached for instigating an uprising, former FBI director James Comey expressed concern about the general intelligence briefings Trump may receive after his term in office.
Ana Navarro, co-host of The View, told Comey on Friday’s show that she was troubled by the possibility that once Trump leaves office, he could reveal sensitive information to people who are not authorized to receive it or information to foreign opponents. to sell. like Vladimir Putin from Russia or Kim Jong Un from North Korea.
Navarro asked Comey to detail the types of briefings Trump might receive following President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20.
“I understand… that former presidents, not all the time but regularly, receive general intelligence briefings on the state of the world and the threats to the country,” Comey said.
He said it “makes sense” because presidents often speak in public, both nationally and internationally, after they leave office.
“We want to give them a picture of what’s going on in the world,” Comey said. “They also receive specific information if there is a threat to them.”
Comey said post-presidential intelligence briefings are usually “monitored” by the director of the national intelligence agency, “who will have to look very closely at whether Donald Trump should be given information, including information that may be sensitive to the security of the United States.”
“The man is a lying demagogue you can’t trust,” Comey said. “You want to be very, very careful about what you give him.”
“I hope he will be stripped of the benefits of a former president by being condemned by the US Senate and barred from further participation in public office,” he added. “Maybe that’s a reason for them to shut it down completely.”
Comey’s comments come after the House’s vote to impeach the president on Wednesday, a week after a mass of his supporters rose up on Capitol Hill. At least five people died as a result of the violence.
Trump is the first president in US history to be impeached twice. It was also the largest bipartisan ballot in American history.
To condemn Trump in the Senate impeachment process, every Democratic senator will have to vote for a conviction, and they will also need the support of 17 Republican senators. In a statement released just after the House passed the impeachment article on Wednesday night, McConnell said it would be best for the country to wait for Biden to be sworn in next week to hold a trial in the Senate.
In Comey’s book Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency, and Trust, which he said he completed in the fall of 2020, Comey wrote that if Trump faced federal charges after his term in office, Biden should consider pardoning Trump. grant. He explained why on “The View.”
“It was a really tough and close question. It’s even harder and closer now, and I’m not sure I’m right,” Comey said. “But I’m concerned about what will happen to our country if we put it at the center of Washington, DC”
Comey proposed a scenario where “Trump moves through the courts in DC, and he is there constantly as a new president tries to heal the nation, both mentally and physically, as we fight this terrible pandemic.”
On balance, I’d rather he be convicted by the Senate, expelled from office, and prosecuted by local New York prosecutors for the fraud he was before he came [into] office, “Comey said.” It would be better if we turned off the Klieg lights and chase him locally, instead of putting him center stage while Joe Biden tries to lead us. ‘
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