Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said on Fox News Thursday night that ex-FBI Director James Comey should be “put behind bars” for “issuing a call to assassinate” President Donald Trump on social media.
Earlier Thursday, Comey shared a photo of seashells on a sandy beach that spelled out “86 47,” and captioned the post “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.”
The number “86” has long been recognized as slang for kill, nix, or eliminate, and the number “47” is typically used to refer to Trump, the 47th President of the United States. Used in the military, 86 can refer to scrapping equipment or ending a mission, or, more sharply, mean neutralizing or eliminating a target. The term has also been associated with black ops and intelligence slang to denote the permanent, off the books removal of a target.
Comey deleted the post and claimed he wasn’t aware that the number “86” stood for any sort of violence, an implausible excuse given his former high position in the Intelligence Community.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” he stated after deleting the initial picture. “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
During an appearance on “Jesse Watters Primetime,” Gabbard said Comey knew exactly what he was doing and needs to “be held to account according to the law.”
The DNI told Watters that “a little over a month ago, a bunch of anti-Trump, anti-Musk protesters were proliferating the use of this 86-47 slogan, which is a veiled call to action to murder the sitting president of the United States.”
Gabbard continued: “For Comey to think that we, the American people, are so stupid as to think that he—as a former FBI Director, a former prosecutor, and someone who clearly pays attention to what’s going on—didn’t know what this actually was calling for.”
She described Comey as someone still admired in elite Democrat circles as a man of integrity, a truth teller, and a “law and order” kind of guy.
“This is the guy who’s issuing a hit on President Trump—the president the American people voted for,” Gabbard said incredulously.
“The dangerousness of this Jesse, can not be underestimated when we have two assassination attempts on the president’s life,” she added.
“The rule of law says people like him who issue direct threats against the POTUS, essentially issuing a call to assassinate him, must be held accountable under the law,” Gabbard declared, adding that she thinks he should be put in jail for threatening President Trump.
“I’m very concerned for the president’s life; we’ve already seen assassination attempts. I’m very concerned for his life and James Comey, in my view, should be held accountable and put behind bars for this,” she said.
Gabbard pointed out that Comey still has a lot of influence and that many people still take him very seriously.
Shortly after the post went viral yesterday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X that DHS and the U.S. Secret Service were launching an investigation into the alleged threat.
Fox News subsequently reported that Secret Service agents had been assigned to investigate and interview Comey.
After her appearance on Fox, Gabbard stated that she is fully behind the investigation.
“James Comey just issued a call to action to murder the President of the United States,” she posted on X. “As a former FBI Director and someone who spent most of his career prosecuting mobsters and gangsters, he knew exactly what he was doing and must be held accountable under the full force of the law,” she added. “We fully support the Secret Service investigation into Comey’s threat on President Trump’s life.”
The White House also condemned Comey’s bizarre behavior, with White House deputy chief of staff and Cabinet Secretary Taylor Budowich calling his Instagram post “deeply concerning.”
“While President Trump is currently on an international trip to the Middle East, the former FBI Director puts out what can clearly be interpreted as ‘a hit’ on the sitting President of the United States — a message etched in the sand,” Budowich wrote on X. “This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino called Comey a “POS” [piece of sh-t] for pretending he didn’t know what he was doing.
“Comey truly is a POS. While he’ll claim not to know what 8647 means, there’s no doubt that the former disgraced FBI Dir. knows exactly what he’s doing, with a plea to bad actors/terrorists to assassinate the POTUS’ while traveling internationally,” Scavino posted on his personal X account. “Don’t let him get away with it!!”
White House Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller called Comey’s actions “a chilling escalation” of the deep state’s “war against out democracy.”
“As the former FBI director, and key leader of the deep state, Comey’s call for assassination—while the president is abroad no less—is a chilling escalation of the war against our democracy by a faction committed to its destruction,” Miller wrote on X.
Comey briefly led the Bureau during Trump’s first term before he was fired in May 2017 over his involvement in the Russia hoax and handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. He was FBI director from September 4, 2013 – May 9, 2017.
An outspoken critic of the president, Comey has previously stated that he saw Trump as “morally unfit” to serve as commander-in-chief.
Update:
Comey was escorted by US Secret Service agents to their Washington Field Office Friday afternoon for interview, CNN reported.
It is expected that Comey will be asked if he intended the message as a threat, or to inspire others who might consider an act of violence against Trump, the source said. Ultimately, a decision on whether the case is chargeable as a threat against the president may lie with the US attorney in Washington.
“The Secret Service vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees,” Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said in a statement to CNN. “We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI Director and we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters.”
President Trump earlier told Trump told Fox News “Special Report” host Bret Baier in a recorded interview that Comey “knew exactly what that meant,” adding: “A child knows what that meant—That meant ‘assassination.’”
If Comey was a Republican, there would have been a nighttime, no-knock warrant served on him by a SWAT team, all of his electronic devices would have been seized, and he’d have been perp-walked right into jail. That this didn’t happen is another Republican failure.
The point is that you don’t put something like this on social media. He was, for God’s Sake, the Head of the FBI!