James Comey says Trump is 'morally unfit' to be president
Former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director, James Comey, in a scathing interview, struck back at President Donald Trump and said that he is "morally unfit to be president."
Comey also added that he believed it was possible that the Russians could succeed in blackmailing the Republican as they may hold some compromising personal information linked to the president.
Comey, in his new book 'A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership,' wrote some explosive details about his meetings with President Trump last year. The revelations prompted Trump to unleash a barrage of angry tweets against the former FBI chief, calling him an "untruthful slime ball.
Trump's tweets against Comey came amid reports that he was considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because of his role in the Russia probe.
After Trump fired Comey, Rosenstein appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller as the special counsel to head the investigation. Mueller is investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 presidential elections and possible collusion of the Trump campaign with the Russians in an effort to influence a Trump win.
Comey, in an interview, with USA Today, gave blistering remarks about the Republican president.
"I actually believe he's morally unfit to be president," Comey said, adding that the characterization is suits "someone who is able to see moral equivalence in (white nationalist protests in) Charlottesville or to speak and treat women like they're pieces of meat and to lie constantly and who appears to lack an external moral framework" of religion or philosophy or history."
The former head of the country's principal law-enforcement agency also said that it would be less than honest to rule out the possibility that Trump has been compromised by Russia.
"It's hard to explain some things without at least leaving your mind open to that being a possibility. There's a non-zero possibility that the Russians have some, some sway over him that is rooted in his personal experience, and I don't know whether that's the business about the activity in a Moscow hotel room or finances or something else."
Comey, with the mention of the Moscow hotel room, was referring to a British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele's dossier. The document was released shortly before the 2016 elections, which alleged evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia. The dossier also claimed that Russia had a blackmail tape of Trump asking prostitutes to urinate on a bed in a Moscow hotel room where the Obamas stayed.
President Trump has claimed that the "pee tape" is a fabrication and nothing about the dossier is true.
The Republican had also reportedly made a phone call to Comey on January 11, stating that the "pee tape" could not be real because he was a germophobe, according to the ex-FBI chief's new book.