Former FBI Director James Comey’s soon-to-be released book depicts a man with clear personal bias against President Donald Trump.
ABC News and the Washington Post released extensive reports on the contents of Comey’s 304-page memoir, titled A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.
Comey describes his impressions after meeting Trump for the first time at a pre-inauguration intelligence briefing at Trump Tower. Comey writes the president-elect’s “face appeared slightly orange, with bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles, and impressively coiffed, bright blond hair, which upon close inspection looked to be all his. I remember wondering how long it must take him in the morning to get that done.”
Comey reveals that he was paying attention to the size of Trump’s hands, referring to a comment from Sen. Marco Rubio during the 2016 presidential race that Trump had small hands. Trump had called Rubio “Little Marco.”
Comey wrote that Trump’s hands are smaller than his own. “As he extended his hand,” Comey wrote of the first meeting, “I made a mental note to check its size. It was smaller than mine, but did not seem unusually so.”
Comey accuses Trump of no less than building “a cocoon of alternative reality that he was busily wrapping around all of us.”
According to the Post’s characterization of the book, “Comey describes Trump as a congenital liar and unethical leader, devoid of human emotion and driven by personal ego.”
Comey wrote that interacting with Trump gave him “flashbacks to my earlier career as a prosecutor against the Mob. The silent circle of assent. The boss in complete control. The loyalty oaths. The us-versus-them worldview. The lying about all things, large and small, in service to some code of loyalty that put the organization above morality and above the truth.”
Comey’s feelings about Trump may have been distorted by his childhood. He wrote that he was bullied as a kid.
The Post relates that Comey:
describes being bullied as a child growing up in Allendale, N.J. — taunted, body slammed into lockers and given “wedgies.” Bullies, he writes, “threaten the weak to feed some insecurity that rages inside them. . . . Surviving a bully requires constant learning and adaptation. Which is why bullies are so powerful, because it’s so much easier to be a follower, to go with the crowd, to just blend in.”Comey also ruminates on the psychology of liars in an apparent nod to the current occupant of the Oval Office.“They lose the ability to distinguish between what’s true and what’s not,” Comey writes. “They surround themselves with other liars. . . . Perks and access are given to those willing to lie and tolerate lies. This creates a culture, which becomes an entire way of life.”
Comey blasts “the forest fire that is the Trump presidency.”
“What is happening now is not normal,” he writes. “It is not fake news. It is not okay.”
Comey also reveals his wife and daughters all voted for Hillary Clinton and they participated in the anti-Trump Women’s March one day after the president’s inauguration.
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