Former FBI Director James Comey called on Americans to "get off the couch" and vote to deny President Trump re-election in 2020, and he referred to Mr. Trump's presidency as an "attack on our values."
"I can't see what the end of the Mueller effort looks like, I don't know what form it'll take, I don't know what they'll conclude....I can tell you that all of us should use every breath we have to make sure that the lying stops on January 20, 2021," Comey said at a Sunday night event at the 92nd Street Y in New York City.
"I hope that Donald Trump is not removed from office by impeachment because it would let the country off the hook," Comey told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace, who was moderating the event. "And it would drive into the fabric of our nation a third of the people believing there was a coup. And we need a moment of inflection, where we all get off the couch and say, 'That is not who we are,' and in a landslide rid ourselves of this attack on our values." The former FBI director suggested that impeachment might "short-circuit" the political process, and "we wouldn't have the moment of clarity we need in this country."
That said, Comey continued, if both the House and Senate were to vote to impeach and remove Mr. Trump from office, "that's fine."
The comments are the latest in the back-and-forth between Mr. Trump and the FBI director he fired in May 2017. Mr. Trump has been lashing out at Comey on Twitter, ramping up his attacks and calling him "Leakin' James Comey." "Leakin' James Comey must have set a record for who lied the most to Congress in one day. His Friday testimony was so untruthful!," the president tweeted on Sunday.
Comey on Friday appeared before a closed-door session of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees, where lawmakers questioned him on a range of topics. According to the transcript released Saturday, Comey did not respond to some questions related to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. He also denied a tweeted assertion by Mr. Trump that claimed Comey and Mueller were "best friends."
