Former FBI Director James Comey, who posted an apparent threat against President Donald Trump on social media earlier this month before claiming ignorance and deleting it, has claimed that the Republican Party is "white supremacist adjacent."
Comey appeared on Jen Psaki's show on MSNBC, where he was asked by the host about fighting domestic terrorism before she inquired about if "there are laws that should be put in place that would help better manage” various threats as the Trump administration is "testing the system" legally.
"Probably there could be changes at the margins," Comey claimed, and then added, "There are cultural impediments to doing this work. Let's say you work in the FBI. You know that one of the two political parties, is—let me put it nicely—white supremacist adjacent at a minimum. And so, why would you want to throw your career on that side of the line, and be summoned to Capitol Hill and be asked, 'Why are you pursuing these innocent groups?'"
"So we have a cultural impediment to working it effectively. That should get more attention than it does," Comey added, not addressing laws that could be changed, but simply asserting that the whole of the Republican Party is adjacent to white supremacy.
In a similar vein Comey accused Trump of "exploiting the power of racism" in America for political gain in 2019, writing in the New York Times at the time, "America has long had a radioactive racist soup in the center of our national life. Donald Trump thinks he is stirring it for political benefit. He’s actually doing something more dangerous."
Addressing Trump directly in the piece he wrote, "You must stop trying to unleash and exploit the radioactive energy of racism."
The comments from Comey come just weeks after he posted a shell formation on Instagram with the numbers "86 47," meaning to get rid of President Trump, and can sometimes invoke violent connotations. Backlash ensued against the former FBI head, and he was forced to delete the post from his social media, later claiming he did not know that violence was associated with it.