James Comey on Trump's Tweets: 'I'm Like the Breakup He Can't Get Over'

Comey also shared his reaction to finding out he was fired via TV.

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Former FBI Director James Comey stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night promoting his new book A Higher Loyalty, which came out on Tuesday. Comey was fired by Donald Trump last May, at the beginning of the FBI’s investigation into Russia’s influence on the 2016 presidential election.

“It’s Comey Day, everybody!” Colbert announced to his studio audience before bringing out the former director and pouring him some red wine into a paper cup—reportedly what Comey did when he found out he was fired by Trump via TV.

“In the last few days, he has called you ‘Slippery [James],’ and he has called you a slimeball,” Colbert said, referring to Trump’s persistent tweets about Comey. “Anything to say back?”

“No. He’s tweeted at me probably 50 times. I’ve been gone for a year. I’m like a breakup he can’t get over,” Comey responded wryly. “I’m out there living my best life. He wakes up in the morning and tweets at me.”

As they drank the Pinot Noir, Comey compared Trump’s behavior to that of a mob boss, but noted that he was still surprised by the president’s audacity to fire him in the middle of an investigation. “The leadership style is actually strikingly similar,” Comey said, doubling down on comments he made last year about Trump. “I don’t mean it in the sense that Donald Trump is out breaking legs or shaking down shopkeepers. I mean it in the sense that he leads, it’s all about the boss. What will serve the boss best? How are you helping the boss? It’s all about that person and nothing external to that.”

“If you felt like you were working for a mob boss, were you surprised that you got whacked?” Colbert then asked.

“I actually was quite surprised because I thought I’m leading the Russia investigation,” Comey said. “Even though our relationship was becoming strained, there’s no way I’m going to get fired or whacked.”

“Why? Why wouldn’t you get fired?” Colbert pressed.

“Because that would be a crazy thing to do. Why would you fire the FBI director who is leading the Russia investigation?” Comey responded.

“Because you’re leading the Russia investigation!” Colbert exclaimed.

The two also mulled over Clinton’s emails and Trump’s alleged Steele dossier aka the Presidential Pee Tape. “You went in January of 2017 to tell President Trump about the Steele dossier. How did you tell him that there was a—and I want to put this delicately—pee-pee tape? How did you tell him about that rumor?” Colbert asked.

“I spoke about information, unverified, that related to an allegation that he was with prostitutes in a hotel in Moscow, and that the Russians had videotaped it,” Comey responded. “I didn’t go into the rest of it.”

“So you didn’t mention the salacious detail of the two prostitutes getting up on the bed that the Obamas had stayed in—because it was the presidential suite—and, you know, engaging in some water play,” Colbert confirmed.

Comey agreed and said the president denied the whole situation. “He interrupted me and denied it in pretty strong terms and asked, I assumed rhetorically, whether he looked like a guy who needed the services of hookers,” Comey said, sipping on his paper cup of wine.

Comey bumped into Ghostface Killah and Method Man backstage, who also stopped by the show to talk politics—particularly Jeff Sessions. 

Watch the full uncut interview in the video above.

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