Former FBI Director James Comey spoke out about a controversial social media post that some perceived as a threat against President Trump.
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Former FBI Director James Comey is breaking his silence, speaking on camera for the first time
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about the Instagram post that sparked accusations from Trump allies of promoting violence against
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the president. The post featured seashells arranged in the numbers 8-6-4-7, which some
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interpreted as a coded threat. The number 86 is sometimes slang for get rid of, and 47 is a
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reference to Trump as the 47th president. But Comey says the post was innocent, just something
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he and his wife saw while walking on the beach. He said she recognized 86 as a restaurant term
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from her time as a server, meaning a dish that's no longer available. Here's Comey explaining the
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moment to MSNBC. We stood over it and I said, you know, I think it's some kind of like political
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message. And she said, you know, 86 when I was a server, she did a lot of work in restaurants
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meant to remove an item from the menu when you ran out of ingredients. And I said, well, to me
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as a kid, it always meant to leave a place, to ditch a place. I said, that's really clever
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So then she said, you should take a picture of that. And I did. And I posted it on my Instagram
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account and thought nothing more of it until I heard through her that people were saying it was some sort of a call for assassination which is crazy But I took it down I don even if I think it
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crazy, I don't want to be associated with violence of any kind. Comey says he regrets the controversy
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but stands by the post as, quote, totally innocent. He also revealed he was contacted
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by the Secret Service and met with agents in person. He called the interaction professional
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and routine. The Post, made last Friday, quickly drew backlash. Some of President Trump's closest
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allies accused Comey of inciting violence. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard
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went as far as to call for his arrest. Others demanded his home be searched. Comey called
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those claims ridiculous and said the reaction speaks more about today's political climate than
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his Post. Comey and Donald Trump have a long history. President Trump fired Comey in 2017
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initially citing his handling of the Hillary Clinton email probe. Donald Trump later admitted it was also due to Comey's role in the Russia investigation
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Since then, Comey has become a vocal critic of Trump, publishing a book and endorsing former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election
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