Name: Ex-FBI Director James Comey on Trump's impeachment and further violence to come - BBC Newsnight
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T18:41:19.000Z
Duration: 10 min 6 s
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I think the United States Congress had to serve notice that this behavior, even though it's coming at the end of his term, needed a permanent historic mark.

And I think they made the right decision.

One congressman told of fears of his Republican colleagues that voting for impeachment could endanger his life.

Does that sound like a kind of terrorism to you?

There are always crazy people in a position to threaten government officials.

Do you believe that Donald Trump has to be removed from office before inauguration?

I think it would be good for our country if he were, because it would send a signal that this is absolutely beyond the pale, unacceptable behavior by any American leader.

What would be your message to Donald Trump right now?

If you could speak directly to him, I don't think I would actually waste my breath since we're talking about a lawless nihilist.

But if I had to deliver him a message, I would say it.

There's no way out of this for you except to accept the judgment of the nation and leave the stage and allow this nation to try to heal.

We're now a week on from those scenes of mayhem violence on the capital.

I was sickened, as I hope, not just all Americans, but all human beings were by an attack on a symbol of democracy, the center of democracy for our country and a symbol, I hope for the whole world.

As a former law enforcement official for the life of me, I can't understand why that Hill was not adequately defended.

I think it's gonna be very important for our country to take a look back as we did after 9 11 and understand what happened and why.

You famously led the FBI, and the question many are asking this time is, Where were they?

How can the director Christopher Wray still be in place.

That's those questions can't be answered yet.

Those are the right questions to ask, but you need to do a much deeper dive in a much more careful, thoughtful gathering of information to understand.

What did they do with what they knew, who acted on that information?

It just can't be judged from this vantage point, but it should be judged.

It's kind of late in the day, I guess, to be, you know, deep diving on this because some will be concerned that for four years the key institutions of America have bean scared of upsetting a fragile president.

This is just speculation, but I think the FBI director who followed me has been very careful to maintain a lower profile so that he doesn't get fired by an erratic president and have the FBI decapitated at a critical time in our nation.

I bet he's thinking that right now, this week, it's important not to let the eye of Sauron fall on you and and have the FBI director fired.

The FBI, we know has warned of the possibility of further riots further action by militias.

I'm worried that there are serious threats, but I also know because I've been involved in securing two inaugurations that this for American security services, is the Super Bowl of security.

We know how to secure to completely locked down a large piece of ground, and I'm confident that will be done.

But at the same time, I know the threat is really Do you believe that the mega movement itself is becoming synonymous with a conspiracy led extremism threat?

There's a reason the American people associate the red hats with something racist and that they should be fearful of.

It's probably an exaggeration because there's so many millions of Americans who are not violent people.

People have just been people who've been fooled.

I'm not talking about the Maga movement as a whole, but significant aspect of and you saw it live.

And on television at Capitol Hill, significant aspects of those people who consider themselves devotees of Donald Trump are people that I would classify as domestic terrorists in your book, you've written that Donald Trump shouldn't face prosecution.

I know it was penned earlier in the autumn.

I still think that on balance, the best decision for the United States of America will be not to grant Donald Trump the platform that prosecuting him would give him for every day for three or four years in the nation's capital is United States.

Vs Trump appeared on television every day.

I think the better thing for our country and our new president is to push Donald Trump to the side a bit.

I'd rather the TV lights go out and he stand on the lawn at March, a Lago shouting at cars in his bathrobe.

We're none of us can hear that it is not position, isn't it?

For a federal prosecutor, I mean, you've built your career on doing the right thing in the name of justice and being transparent and showing mawr importantly, that actions have consequences.

Eso if the appearance of fairness matters if we arrest drug dealers on shopkeepers, why wouldn't you extend that same sense of the appearance of fairness Look, I know it's an odd thing for me to say, given my career, and given that the guy's been saying I should be in jail for the last four years.

But I'm trying to make a judgment about what's best for the country.

I obviously think he belongs in jail, but I don't think pursuing that is in the best interest of the entire nation.

Do you think Joe Biden should pardon Trump us for did Nixon?

I don't know whether Donald Trump he's not a genius, but he might figure out that if he accepts a pardon, that's an admission of guilt.

I don't know that he would accept a pardon, but as part of healing the country in getting us to a place where we can focus on things that are gonna matter over the next four years, I think Joe Biden is gonna have the least think about that.

There's a lot of talk of Donald Trump attempting to pardon himself.

Does he open himself up to more litigation, more prosecution?

If he does that, yeah, that would be an unusually dumb thing, even for him to dio, because it's unsettled as to whether a president can do that.

I believe the president can't It would be a lawless act.

It would prompt the Department of Justice toe have to prosecute him so that they could litigate this question about whether that's an effective release from criminal liability.

So in a way, by trying to give himself a shield, he would be inviting the sword of the Department of Justice.

What about those who've enabled the false narrative this time around?

Ted Cruz, Josh, Holy Senators who've pushed to overturn the election result?

Do you believe they're guilty off attempted insurrection?

Would you suggest they should be removed from office?

I don't I can't offer an opinion on whether they're legally responsible, because that's a That's a technical question, but they're morally responsible.

They lit a fire in a crowded building, knowing exactly what they were doing, and now they're standing outside, saying they were shocked, shocked that people ran from the building and got hurt by the flames.

How would you answer House Republicans who say the whole impeachment process is just political on unnecessarily divisive at this time someone who says that is really not worthy of a response.

James Comey Last time we spoke about the 2016 election, the part you may have played inadvertently in bringing Donald Trump to power when you told the public you were reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails nine days before the election, I remember you said to me you had to choose between a bad decision on a disastrous one.

You hoped you'd made the least bad choice.

When you look at where we are today, do you honestly still believe that I dio dio?

It makes it all the more painful decision.

But even if I could travel back in time, you can't have the FBI director making decisions based on who he thinks should be president.

It was between bad and disastrous, and I would love, never have been involved.

But having been involved, we had to choose the choice that we chose.

Do you think that history students will come to see this as a moment when the Democratic Institutions of America held up under enormous pressure?

Or will they say, Gosh, they came perilously close to collapse.

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Ex-FBI Director James Comey on Trump's impeachment and further violence to come - BBC Newsnight

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