Comey under investigation for ‘threat' to Trump on social media, officials say
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem also accused Comey of calling for Trump's assassination, writing on X on Thursday that her department and the Secret Service were 'investigating this threat and will respond appropriately'. FBI director Kash Patel said his agency would 'provide all necessary support' as part of the investigation.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Fox News that she believes Comey should be in jail because of the post and accused him of 'issuing a hit' on Trump.
Asked what he wanted to happen to Comey, Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier it was up to 'Pam and all of the great people', referring to Attorney-General Pam Bondi.
It is the job of the Secret Service, which is part of DHS, to explore potential threats to the President, but in general such inquiries are launched only when a person is believed to be actively threatening harm.
David Cole, a law professor at Georgetown University, said there is 'absolutely no basis' to investigate Comey for allegedly threatening Trump's life. The Supreme Court has set a 'very high standard' in such cases, Cole added, and there is 'no way in the world that a photo of this beach arrangement constitutes that'.
'Anyone who has studied any First Amendment law would realise this was protected speech,' said Cole, the former national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. 'It might not have been the most discreet or professional post, but it's 100% protected. If anyone should understand the value of indiscreet and irresponsible but nonetheless protected posts on social media, it's Donald Trump.'
Used as a verb, '86' originated in hospitality, meaning to refuse service to a customer or that a menu item was not available, and its use expanded over time to broadly refer to rejecting, dismissing or removing, according to its dictionary definition. It can also refer to killing something or someone.
'I didn't realise some folks associate those numbers with violence,' Comey said in his follow-up post. 'It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.'
A spokesman for the Secret Service, Anthony Guglielmi, said in a social media statement that the agency investigates anything that could be taken as a threat. 'We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director & we take rhetoric like this very seriously,' he added.
Comey, who began as FBI director under President Barack Obama, has long had a contentious relationship with Trump.
Trump ousted Comey in 2017 as he was leading a counterintelligence investigation to determine whether associates of Trump may have coordinated with Russia to interfere with the 2016 election. Around the time of his firing, Trump accused Comey of giving Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, 'a free pass for many bad deeds' when he decided not to recommend criminal charges over her use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
Neither investigation led to charges. The probes made Comey unpopular in both parties, although Trump and his allies in Congress continued to target Comey long after his ouster, scrutinising his conduct around the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Justice Department in 2019 declined to prosecute Comey over his handling of memos that documented his interactions with Trump, although the FBI inspector general criticised Comey for his actions and said he violated agency policy.
Advertise with NZME.
On social media, Trump has bashed Comey as a 'DIRTY COP' and 'Leakin' Lyin' James B. Comey'. He revived those attacks in the interview with Fox News, suggesting the administration officials probing Comey's seashell post should consider his past as a 'dirty cop'.
'If he had a clean history, I could understand if there was a leniency, but I'm going to let them make that decision,' Trump said.
In 2019, Comey was among the former FBI officials Trump accused of treason – a crime punishable by death in the US legal code.
Trump has also been accused of violent rhetoric. In 2023, in reference to calls to Chinese officials by General Mark A. Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump wrote on Truth Social: 'This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.'
In an interview with Tucker Carlson in November, Trump said of former congresswoman Liz Cheney, whom he called a war hawk: 'Let's see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.'
During his 2016 campaign, he said that if Clinton were in a position to appoint judges, there is 'nothing you can do, folks. Although the Second Amendment people, maybe there is, I don't know'.
Advertise with NZME.
And during the 2024 election, Trump shared a video on social media that showed a supporter's pickup truck driving down a road with a graphic on its tailgate that depicted President Joe Biden tied up. In response, Biden's campaign accused Trump of 'regularly inciting political violence'.
At least one other well-known Republican official has used the term '86' before. In February 2024, Republican Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) boasted on X that his political allies had '86'd' three party leaders in recent months. He was responding to the news that Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell would step down from his leadership post in November of that year.
In 2022, the far-right activist Jack Posobiec wrote an X post that said only, '86 46.' Biden was serving as the 46th President at the time. Posobiec is a vocal Trump supporter who has been promoted by Trump on social media and invited to participate in a 'new media' briefing at the White House during his second term.
Republicans previously singled out Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) with allegations of violent rhetoric after he said in 2020 that two Supreme Court justices would 'pay the price' if they voted to restrict abortion rights. Chief Justice John G. Roberts jnr issued a rare rebuke of Schumer over the language, and Schumer later admitted he 'should not have used the words I used'.
Ed Martin, Trump's former interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, had planned to investigate Schumer over the incident after Martin took office this year. But the Washington Post reported in March that Martin had abandoned the probe, finding it unfounded.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
23 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Diplomats who have been in the room give their insight on who might prevail in Alaska
The Telegraph has spoken to a host of former officials and diplomats who have first-hand experience dealing with both the Russian and American presidents. Trump characterised his goals for the high-stakes meeting as an opportunity to stare into his Russian counterpart's eyes to judge his plan to end the war in Ukraine. 'I'm going to see what he has in mind,' the US President told reporters. 'I may leave and say good luck, and that'll be the end,' he added. 'Probably in the first two minutes I'll know exactly whether or not a deal can get done.' If he is prepared to walk away at the slightest demonstration that Putin isn't ready to end the war – Zelenskyy says Russia is gearing up for more conflict – then what does Trump want? It has long been thought that he is desperate for a Nobel Peace Prize and has a particular grudge against President Barack Obama for being decorated only eight months into his first term. The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited Obama's 'extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation between peoples', which seemed to be more about Obama's promise as an international leader than his actual accomplishments. Trump is the self-styled 'president of peace'. 'As president, he has brokered peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Cambodia and Thailand, Israel and Iran, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, India and Pakistan, Egypt and Ethiopia, Serbia and Kosovo, and with the Abraham Accords,' the White House said. 'Trump and certainly [JD] Vance, they don't care about the future of Ukraine particularly,' Anthony Gardener, who served as Obama's US Ambassador to the EU, said. 'I'm convinced Trump does want to position himself as the person who, quote, unquote, brought a sort of form of peace to get a Nobel Peace Prize,' Gardener added. Ending the bloodshed in Ukraine could do that. Others say he's looking for yet another deal to sell as a demonstration of business acumen. There are significant rare earth mineral deposits in eastern Ukraine. That territory is on the table, and Trump has already made a play for it by signing an agreement with Zelenskyy to be able to mine it. 'Trump wants to bag a win … period,' Gardener said. In his office in the Kremlin, where Putin will be preparing for his meeting with Trump, sits a bust of Catherine the Great. The significance of the monument should not be lost. As Russia's longest-serving female monarch, Catherine dragged the country into the 18th century and during her reign, doubled the size of its empire. David Liddington, a former deputy prime minister, said Putin also compares himself to Peter the Great, 'somebody who is going to restore Russia's greatness and grow Russia's territory, at least its effective empire'. And Putin is likely to double down on his positions, in an attempt to at least cement his control over the Ukrainian territory already seized by his invasion forces. He will leave little of the planning up to his aides, who are mostly believed to be yes men there for affirmation rather than assistance. 'President Putin is secretive, well-scripted and always eager to press an argument that reaffirms his positions rather than his willingness to settle. He reflects the attitudes of someone who's familiar with power play, intelligence and security considerations, not the transactional, commercial kind of negotiation playbook,' Margaritis Schinas, a former European Commission vice-president, said. According to Bobby McDonagh, a former Irish ambassador to the UK, Italy and EU, Putin is 'utterly predictable'. 'He will relentlessly and ruthlessly pursue his very narrowly defined idea of Russian interests,' McDonagh added. Those who have been in the room before say the Russian President will likely try to corner his American counterpart by demanding that the structure of their meeting plays out in a specific fashion. 'He prefers meetings structured in two parts: first, with delegations and interpreters that mainly serve as an audience to listen to his position on a particular subject, usually peppered with aggressive comments on those who think otherwise; then, a more closed – usually tete a tete – discussion of principals where he may show some margin of openness,' Schinas said. It is in the latter section of the meeting in which Putin will try to hammer home any wriggle room he has made for himself. 'Putin will keep his eye on the strategic prize. He will look for opportunities to lessen the economic pressure on Russia and the Russian economy,' Liddington said. The UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office estimates that sanctions on Russia have deprived the Russian state of at least £333 billion ($755b) in war funds between February 2022 and June 2025. Any easing would give Putin a significant win. John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, told the Telegraph that Putin will use his KGB skills to manipulate the US President. 'That's one reason why Putin really did not want Zelenskyy or the Europeans there. He doesn't want Trump to be distracted with all these other players,' Bolton said. 'Putin will try to get Trump back into feeling that they're friends again. I think Trump has been disappointed that his friend, over the first six months of the Administration, has not helped him reach this deal.' According to Bolton, Putin has 'manipulated Trump on Ukraine really right from the beginning of the Administration, but back before the disaster with Zelenskyy in the Oval Office'. The Russian President is 'going to try and get Trump back on side', Bolton said, adding: 'He's got to work fast'. 'The outcome will depend entirely on whether Trump resists Putin's known and entirely unacceptable demands,' McDonagh added. He was referring to a stripped-back Ukrainian Army, no prospect of them joining Nato, and the recognition of Russian sovereignty over the Ukrainian regions of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. The US President is much happier to consult with advisers on his positions in the meeting, but those don't bode well for Ukraine. Tulsi Gabbard, his intelligence chief, is known to not care much for Kyiv. Vance and Pete Hegseth, the Defence Secretary, have vocalised the need for Ukraine to surrender territory. 'He likes to be surrounded by his team and advisers, allowing them space for contributions, but under no circumstances margin for decision,' Schinas said. This means the US President is unlikely to listen to the European leaders, including Keir Starmer, who were to hold talks with him overnight. There is one hope among the European and Ukrainian onlookers ahead of the summit. Is Trump prepared to let himself be embarrassed at the hands of Putin? Will he attempt to emulate Ronald Reagan, the former US president credited for the invention of 'Make America Great Again'? Sir Julian King, Britain's last-ever European Commissioner, said: 'You can get unexpected outcomes'. 'Reagan at Reykjavik blindsided his allies,' he said, referring to the 1986 summit between the US president and Mikhail Gorbachev which ushered in the end of the Cold War. 'But as they meet for the first time in years, with Putin's maximalist negotiating and Trump's unpredictability, anything could happen. 'The one potential saving grace, Trump won't want to come out looking like a chump,' he concluded.
NZ Herald
23 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Swing voters want more focus on the economy, less on identity issues
Five years ago, Raymond Teachey voted, as usual, for the Democratic presidential nominee. But by last fall, Teachey, an aircraft mechanic from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, was rethinking his political allegiances. To him, the Democratic Party seemed increasingly focused on issues of identity at the expense of more tangible day-to-day concerns, such as public safety or the economy. 'Some of them turned their back on their base,' Teachey, 54, said. Raymond Teachey, an aircraft mechanic who said that he skipped the 2024 presidential election after supporting Joe Biden in 2020, at a park in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Photo / Hannah Yoon, The New York Times Working-class voters like Teachey, who supported Biden in 2020 but either backed Trump last year or, as Teachey did, skipped the 2024 presidential election, help explain why Democrats lost pivotal swing counties like Bucks and vividly illustrate how the traditional Democratic coalition has eroded in the Trump era. Now, Democrats hope to bring these voters back into the fold for the midterm elections in 2026, betting on a backlash to Trump and his party's far-reaching moves to slash the social safety net. But in interviews with nearly 30 predominantly working-class voters who supported Biden in 2020 before defecting or struggling deeply with their choices last year, many had a stinging message for the Democratic Party. Just because we have misgivings about Trump, they say, it doesn't mean we like you. 'I think I'm done with the Democrats,' said Desmond Smith, 24, a deli worker from Smithdale, Mississippi, and a black man who said he backed Biden in 2020 at the height of the racial justice protests. Last year, disillusioned by what he saw as the party's over-emphasis on identity politics and concerned about illegal immigration, he voted for Trump. Asked how Democrats could win him back, he said: 'Fight for Americans instead of fighting for everybody else'. An in-depth post-election study from the Pew Research Centre suggests that about 5% of Biden's voters in 2020 switched to Trump in 2024, while roughly 15% of those voters stayed home last year. Trump retained more of his 2020 voters than Democrats did, a crucial factor in winning the election. Polling on the current attitudes of those Biden defectors is limited, but it is clear the Democratic brand, broadly, continues to struggle. A Wall Street Journal poll released in late July found that the party's image was at its lowest point in more than three decades, with just 33% of voters saying they held a favourable view of Democrats. 'They're doing nothing to move their own numbers because they don't have an economic message,' said John Anzalone, a veteran Democratic pollster who worked on that survey. 'They think that this is about Trump's numbers getting worse,' he added. 'They need to worry about their numbers.' Certainly, anger with Trump, an energised Democratic base and the headwinds a president's party typically confronts in Midterm elections could help propel Democrats to victory next year. Democrats have had some recruitment success (and luck), and they see growing openings to argue that Trump's domestic agenda helps the wealthy at the expense of the working class, a message they are already beginning to push in advertising. There is no top-of-the-ticket national Democrat to defend or avoid, while Republicans have virtually no room to distance themselves from Trump's least popular ideas. But interviews with the voters whom Democrats are most desperate to reclaim also suggest that the party's challenges could extend well beyond next year's races. Here are five takeaways from those conversations. Biden's disastrous re-election bid fuelled a trust issue. It hasn't gone away. Bielski, 35, an executive chef at a private club, said he had typically voted for Democrats until last year's presidential election, when he backed Trump. Democratic leaders had insisted that the plainly frail Biden was vigorous enough to run, and they had encouraged sceptical voters to fall in line. Instantly after he dropped out, they urged Democrats to unite behind the candidacy of Kamala Harris, who was then the vice-president. That did not sit right with Bielski, who said he was already distrustful of Democrats who had pushed pandemic-era lockdowns. Harris, he said, 'wasn't someone that I got to vote for in a primary'. 'It almost seemed wrong,' continued Bielski, who lives in Phoenix. 'It was kind of like, okay, the same people that were just running the country are now telling us that this is the person that we should vote for.' After Harris became the Democratic nominee, some voters interpreted her meandering answers in televised interviews as an unwillingness to be straight with them. By contrast, while Trump gave outlandish and rambling public remarks riddled with conspiracy theories and lies, some said they had got the general sense that he wanted to tackle the cost of living and curb illegal immigration. 'It was difficult to understand what her point of view was,' said Bruce Gamble, 67, a retired substation maintainer for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority. Gamble said he voted for Biden in 2020 and Trump last year. Trump 'was able to communicate better to me', he added, while Harris 'felt like she was talking over my head, so I didn't quite trust her'. Worried about paying the bills, they saw Democrats as too focused on cultural issues. Many in this multiracial group of voters said they thought Democrats had gone too far in promoting transgender rights or in emphasising matters of racial identity. But often, they were more bothered by their perception that those discussions had come at the expense of addressing economic anxieties. 'It seemed like they were more concerned with DEI and LGBTQ issues and really just things that didn't pertain to me or concern me at all,' said Kendall Wood, 32, a truck driver from Henrico County, Virginia. He said he voted for Trump last year after backing Biden in 2020. 'They weren't concerned with, really, kitchen-table issues.' A poll from the New York Times and Ipsos conducted this year found that many Americans did not believe that the Democratic Party was focused on the economic issues that mattered most to them. 'Maybe talk about real-world problems,' said Maya Garcia, 23, a restaurant server from the San Fernando Valley in California. She said she voted for Biden in 2020 and did not vote for president last year. Democrats talk 'a lot about us emotionally, but what are we going to do financially?' She added, 'I understand that you want, you know, equal rights and things like that. But I feel like we need to talk more about the economics.' But in a warning sign for Republicans, a recent CNN poll found that a growing share of Americans — 63% — felt as if Trump had not paid enough attention to the country's most important problems. Sarah Smarty, a home health aide and an author who voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but flipped to President Donald Trump last year, drives through Mifflin County, near McClure, Pennsylvania. Photo / Hannah Yoon, The New York Times 'America First' gained new resonance amid wars abroad. As wars raged in the Middle East and Ukraine, some working-class voters thought the Biden Administration cared more about events abroad than about the problems in their communities. 'They were funding in other countries, while we do not have the money to fund ourselves,' said Smarty, 33, a home health aide and an author. She said she voted for Biden in 2020 and Trump in 2024, adding that she viewed Trump as a man of action. 'I would really like to see more jobs,' she said. 'I would like to see them take good care of people who are homeless in our area.' Bielski said that against the backdrop of overseas turmoil, Trump's 'America First' message resonated. But these days, he does not think Trump is living up to that mantra. 'We're getting into more stuff abroad and not really focusing on economics here,' he said. 'It doesn't seem like he's holding true to anything that he's promised.' Flores, 22, a technician at a car dealership, said the foreign policy emphasis — and a sense that life was tough regardless of the party in power — helped explain why he skipped last year's election as well as the 2020 presidential race. 'No matter how many times have we gone red, or even blue, the blue-collar workers' have seen little progress, Flores said. Marlon Flores, a technician at a car dealership who said that regardless of the party in power, blue-collar workers have seen little progress, at his apartment complex in Houston. Photo / Desiree Rios, The New York Times They worry about illegal immigration. But some think Trump's crackdowns are going too far. These voters often said they agreed with Trump on the need to stem the flow of illegal immigration and strengthen border security. But some worried about the Administration's crackdown, which has resulted in sweeping raids, children being separated from their parents, the deportation of American citizens and a growing sense of fear in immigrant communities. Several people interviewed said they knew people who had been personally affected. Smarty, for instance, said her friend's husband, who had lived in the US for 25 years, had suddenly been deported to Mexico. Her friend is 'going through some health problems, and they have kids, and that's really hard on their family', Smarty said. 'I don't really feel that's exactly right.' They're not done with every Democrat. But they're tired of the old guard. Many of the voters interviewed said they remained open to supporting Democrats — or at least the younger ones. 'Stop being friggin' old,' said Cinnamon Boffa, 57, from Langhorne, Pennsylvania. As she recalled, she supported Biden in 2020 but voted only down-ballot last year, lamenting that 'our choices suck'. Teachey thought there was still room for seasoned politicians, but in many cases, it was time to get 'the boomers out of there'. He is increasingly inclined to support Democrats next year to check unfettered Republican power. 'They're totally far-right,' he said of the GOP. 'Honestly, I don't identify with any party.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Written by: Katie Glueck Photographs by: Adriana Zehbrauskas, Hannah Yoon, Desiree Rios ©2025 THE NEW YORK TIMES
NZ Herald
2 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Future polls will show impact of tariffs, but it also matters what the political alternative is
In an early August YouGov poll for the Economist, voters' No. 1 issue was 'inflation/prices', which at 21% beat the next most important concern, 'jobs/economy' by 7%. Trump's job approval rating in this survey was cratering at 41%. The President's handling of the economy rated roughly the same, at 40%. Those poor numbers are driven in part by dour reviews from independents and fit with recent data produced by Democratic pollsters. In a poll conducted in late July for the centrist Democratic think-tank Third Way, Trump's job approval rating clocked in higher than the YouGov survey, hitting 45%. But a 41% plurality of registered voters said the President's second term was unfolding as 'worse' than expected and only 42% approved of his signature economic package, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed into law on July 4. Approval of the OBBBA among independents, according to this poll? A dismal 32%. Moreover, an early summer Democratic poll shows that 58% of voters view the economy as 'Trump's economy', versus blaming former President Joe Biden. And if the polls are accurate, Trump's blue-collar voters are running out of patience. 'In the spring, many [blue collar voters] were willing to give Trump the benefit of the doubt on his tariff plan - but by summer, many expressed serious concerns that tariffs are hurting their lives by making things more expensive,' reads a July 30 analysis of a focus group conducted by the Working Class Project, an initiative led by a Democratic super PAC. Taken together, these findings put congressional Republicans in dire straits. And if such views proliferate among the electorate, it's not only Republicans on Capitol Hill who will feel the political pinch. Republicans vying to succeed Trump in 2028, especially Vice-President JD Vance, could pay an extremely high price. But of course, there are other surveys, and other ways of interpreting the polling. Let's begin with Trump's average job approval rating, calculated by RealClearPolitics at 45.7%. That's not half bad in our polarised times. The President's handling of the economy rated a similar 45% in CNBC's 'All America Economic Survey' fielded from July 3 through to August 3. Granted, that was a high-water mark in recent assessments of Trump's leadership on this topic. Ultimately, the President's fate, and that of his party, will rest not only with how voters feel about the economy and the effectiveness of his governing agenda, but also on what the political alternative is. Recall, on the eve of President Barack Obama's re-election in 2012, the unemployment rate was hovering like a dark cloud over the economy at 7.9%, up one point from the previous month. That's a lot of Americans out of work - and nearly double the 4.1% rate just prior to Election Day 2024. But Republican Mitt Romney, a career businessman and corporate turnaround artist, did not ride those grim numbers into the White House. Doug Heye, a Republican strategist in Washington active in campaigns during the Obama era, said there's a lesson there for Democrats assuming Trump and the GOP are inexorably doomed based on voters' economic anxiety. But so, too, must Republicans be careful not to assume the trade deals Trump has lately touted, and macro indicators showing a resilient if not entirely strong US economy, will produce electoral victory. 'It's a fluid thing,' Heye, an occasional Trump critic, told me. Heye explained that Trump has been given some latitude (and time) by voters to improve the economy because they blamed Biden almost entirely for the inflation that spiked on his watch. That's even though higher prices were in part a reaction to the coronavirus pandemic, and resulting public policy decisions, that began during Trump's first term. 'That hangover that remains continues to give Trump the ability to blame things on Biden.' When might voters finally absolve Biden of responsibility and point fingers at Trump? 'Companies are absorbing costs thus far on tariffs. That's not going to last forever,' Heye said. Here, another parallel with Obama might be instructive. The 44th president pursued healthcare reform, convinced the eventual Affordable Care Act was good public policy and, as politicians are wont to say, therefore good politics. In the short term, the law known as Obamacare was a political disaster for Democrats, costing the party 63 seats in the House seats and seven in the Senate. With Trump's firm belief in tariffs and insistence on building a protectionist moat around voters' access to foreign products, a 'shellacking' of his own can't be ruled out. But of course, it matters what kind of alternative Democrats are offering.
