Comey knows exactly what '8647' means. The Trump 'resistance' is out of control. | Opinion
It's easy to become numb to the inflammatory rhetoric that President Donald Trump's opponents unleash. But former FBI director James Comey just sunk to a new low.
I hear almost daily from disgruntled liberals who wish President Donald Trump would die or face some other horrific misfortune (they wish the same for me, too).
It’s easy to become numb to this inflammatory – and hysterical – rhetoric.
Yet, when a former top U.S. law enforcement official enters the fray of such discourse, that’s another matter altogether.
On May 15, former FBI Director James Comey posted a photo on Instagram that depicted the number “8647” fashioned with seashells.
“Cool shell formation on my beach walk,” Comey quipped.
Not surprisingly, the now-deleted post created an immediate firestorm among conservatives and Trump administration officials.
The number “86” is synonymous with getting rid of something or tossing it out – or worse. It also means “to kill.” And “47” of course refers to Trump, the 47th president.
Comey, fired by Trump in 2017, has claimed he “didn't realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and that it “never occurred” to him that may be the case. He thought it merely was a “political message.”
Trump faced near assassination – twice. Comey knew better.
Give me a break.
That kind of alleged naiveté from someone who once led the FBI and purportedly helped to defend the country from all kinds of threats is hard to fathom.
I think Comey knows exactly what “8647” means.
Yet, even if one takes Comey at his word, what was the “political message” he supported exactly? As much as it drives the left insane, Trump won a second term fair and square, and he will be president for the next three and a half years.
Unless … something happens to him.
Ahead of the November election, Trump faced not just one – but two – assassination attempts. The first nearly ended his life, with a bullet grazing his ear.
Those facts make Comey’s post that much more egregious and irresponsible.
We’re living in a time when violence is increasingly prevalent as a form of “political protest.”
Take for instance, all the Teslas that have been firebombed because liberals are mad Tesla CEO Elon Musk is working with Trump. Worse, alleged assassin Luigi Mangione has been upheld as a warped “hero” by many for murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson because some people have gripes with the health insurance industry.
Should Comey be in jail? Probably not. But he deserves to be shamed.
As is often the case these days, unhinged rhetoric on one side begets it on the other. Some of the reaction from Trump administration officials is overblown.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, for instance, wrote on X that the Department of Homeland Security and the Secret Service were “investigating this threat and will respond appropriately” and that Comey "just called for the assassination" of Trump.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Fox News she thinks Comey “should be in jail.”
“Any other person with the position of influence that he has, people who take very seriously what a guy of his stature, his experience and what the propaganda media has built him up to be, I'm very concerned for the president's life,” Gabbard said.
Does Comey need to be in jail? Probably not. But Gabbard is right in her assessment about the state of rhetoric surrounding Trump.
Some of the top mainstream media organizations in the country make it a habit of feeding into the over-hyped portrayal of Trump as “Hitler” and “fascist.” The New York Times on May 14 ran an overwrought opinion by three Yale professors who said they were fleeing the U.S. because of Trump’s “authoritarianism.”
The constant drumbeat of hysteria against a president who 77 million Americans voted for is dangerous – and could lead to real violence.
For that, Comey deserves all the uproar that’s coming his way.
Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at Paste BN. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X: @Ingrid_Jacques