Former FBI Director James Comey knows better than most people the existential threat that Donald Trump poses to democracy in America.
On Sunday night, speaking to a well-healed audience on New York City’s Upper East Side, he said that American voters must end Donald Trump’s presidency with a “landslide victory for his opponent†in 2020.
And he begged Democrats to set aside their differences and unite for the common purpose of defeating Trump’s reelection bid.
“All of us should use every breath we have to make sure the lies stop on January 20, 2021,” Comey said to the crowd.
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He said Democrats must set aside ideology and nominate the person most likely to defeat Trump in the next presidential election.
“I understand the Democrats have important debates now over who their candidate should be,” Comey said, “but they have to win. They have to win.”
In his hour-long presentation Comey repeatedly told the audience that Trump’s character presented dangers that few people could understand. He said the president runs the White House — and the U.S. government — like a mob organization. He said the atmosphere around Trump is the same as he saw in his decades of prosecuting mafia figures.
And he made clear that in his opinion, many of Trump’s tweets were intended as witness tampering. He even said that eventually all of Trump’s tweets, along with other public statements, would likely be used as evidence against him in a court proceeding.
He also said it is possible that Trump might be an unindicted co-conspirator in some of the crimes recently described by special counsel Robert Mueller, but more evidence would be needed to be sure.
Concerning impeachment, Comey said a massive defeat in two years would be better. This, he said, would help rid the country of Trumpism.
“A landslide defeat would rid ourselves of this attack on our values. But removal by impeachment would muddy that,” he said.
He said he was afraid an impeachment would leave a third of the voters feeling like their chosen leader had been removed in a “coup,” and that would not be good for the country.
James Comey is correct in saying that Americans must come together and fight to the last breath to defeat Donald Trump if he does run for president again in 2020. Although the former FBI director has never fully confessed to the role he played in defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016, he has come to see that the election of Donald Trump was a total disaster for the United States. And we must do everything in our power to make sure that this dark period in our nation’s history ends as soon as possible.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
