James Comey Slams ‘Sociopath’ Donald Trump, Says GOP ‘Has To Be Burned To The Ground’
Former President Donald Trump is a “sociopath” and his Republican Party needs to be destroyed, according to former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) James Comey.
In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday, Comey discussed the political tensions in the United States and argued that Trump is to blame for the unprecedented “drop in trust in our institutions.”
Comey — who was appointed FBI director by Barack Obama in 2013 and was fired by Trump in 2017 — said that Trump did tremendous damage to American institutions by constantly “lying” and misleading his supporters.
“It’s deeply unhealthy when the head of government is a sociopath, to be honest, and that shapes, unfortunately, millions of people in a harmful way,” Comey said, adding that President Joe Biden will have to work on rebuilding trust in vital American institutions.
Still, the former FBI director noted, Trump was not able to “change the culture” of agencies such as the Justice Department and Biden may be able to help Americans “navigate their way out of the fog” after four years of turmoil.
Comey also discussed the state of the GOP, suggesting that the party has transformed under Trump, abandoning its own principles, and that it needs to be dismantled for the good of the country.
“The Republican Party has to be burned to the ground, in some form or fashion,” he said.
“It doesn’t stand for anything that is valuable to our country. It doesn’t stand for anything, that is other than a cult of personality around a man who is a demagogue and a liar.”
If the GOP survives the post-Trump political turbulence, Comey opined, it will need to be rebuilt by anti-Trump Republicans and embrace its traditional values.
“I think you may see principled Republicans splitting off,” Comey predicted, suggesting that GOP lawmakers who were opposed to Trump’s agenda may have to purge “Trumpers” from their ranks.
National unity was the central theme of Biden’s inauguration speech, during which he repeatedly stressed the importance of healing the divisions in U.S. society. The address received high marks from prominent Republican senators such as Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Pat Toomey.
But there appears to be a schism between conservative voters and politicians, polling suggests.
For instance, in an Axios-Ipsos poll released last week a majority of Republican-leaning respondents said that Trump should run for office again in 2024 and expressed support for his behavior in recent weeks.
Similarly, a Quinnipiac University survey found that most conservative-leaning Americans believe Trump was right to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election, even though his rhetoric led to the storming of the U.S. Capitol.
