James Comey responds to Trump's tweets

here with James Comey his new book a higher loyalty is out today this is his first live interview since the books been released and thank you for coming back right now I guess you knew this was coming a lot of reaction from all sides including a tweet tweet storm from President Trump I want to focus in on two of the president's tweets because they're the most serious the the president says not only should you've been fired but the elite classified information lied to Congress under oath for both of those infractions he says you should go to jail yeah that is not normal that is not okay first of all he's just making stuff up but most importantly the President of the United States is calling for the imprisonment of a private citizen as he's done for a whole lot of people who criticize him that is not acceptable in this country I hope people read the book and see why the rule of law is such an important value in this country and key to that is that the president doesn't get to decide who goes to jail you've done to use to these tweets dulled to the to what's actually in I think that's a danger that we're known to it we wake up in the morning and see the President of the United States is accusing people of crimes without evidence and pronouncing them guilty and saying they should be in jail that should wake all of us up with a start but there's been so much of it that we're a little bit numb and that's dangerous one of the things I hope to do is encourage people to think about that and focus on that rather than becoming sort of numb to it and trying to squeeze it out of your mind a lot of Democrats unhappy with you as well over your handling of the Clinton email investigation drawn a response from Attorney General former attorney general Loretta Lynch who says who wrote in a statement yesterday if James Comey had any concerns regarding the email investigation classified or not he had ample opportunities to raise them with me both privately and in meetings he never did yeah I think that's right Loretta is a person I respect and liked very much but that isn't the problem I faced in that investigation the problem I faced in late June was that she announced she wouldn't recuse herself without checking with the FBI to see whether we had a view on it but would accept my recommendation to her directly not wait to be asked to my boss sure maybe but I really don't think so even in hindsight should have been a discussion about whether she should be involved in the matter but what she did was say I'm gonna stay involved but I'll accept his recommendation which put me in the FBI in a terrible spot third strand of criticism that's come in is um I guess it's a critical it ireri style a lot of people saying that you put too many petty personal details in the book about president Trump talking about his hair is hand-sized speculation about the tanning goggles a lot of critics that say that struck them as beneath you getting down to the sandbox with President Trump any regrets no my only regret is that those folks likely haven't read the book because if you read the whole book you'll see I'm trying to be an author and bring the readers with me into a room and so I described all kinds of people in great detail to try and create a vivid image for the reader I'm not trying to make fun of President Trump I'm not trying to make fun of anybody but if you read the whole book you'll see I'm trying to give you that picture since we last talked last week the president has pardoned Scooter Libby who is an ADA Vice President Dick Cheney convicted of lying about leaks of information during the Bush administration what was it you actually worked on appointed a special prosecutor to look at Scooter Libby back when you were at the Justice Department what was your reaction to the pardon it's an attack on the rule of law there's a reason President George W Bush for whom Scooter Libby worked refused to pardon him after looking at all the facts in the case it was an overwhelming case there's no reason that's consistent with justice to pardon him and so it's an attack on the rule of law in my view also since you since we talked last week the Inspector General of the just departments come out of a report on your deputy at the FBI Andrew McCabe it's it says that he was not candid in his interviews did you read the report and do you agree with the decision of the Attorney General made to fire Andrew McCabe I read the report and I think this report demonstrates the life of an institution that cares about the truth and investigates that holds people accountable I think the process inside the Justice Department worked well where it was tainted was by the President of the United States calling for the firing or imprisonment of someone like Andrew McCabe that tainted an institution that pursues the truth and imagine if that kind of accountability was applied at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue so he didn't deserve the discipline he got Andrew McCabe no I think the process I don't have a view on what the ultimate discipline should have been but this is the system working separate apart from the president's effort to Tainted this is the Justice Department holding accountable its employees to the truth and that's really important while we were sitting down last Monday the FBI conducted those raids of the offices of michael cohen offices and home of my co co and the president's personal attorney that you're a very strong reaction from President Trump let's look so I just heard that they broke into the office of one of my personal attorneys good man and it's a disgraceful situation it's a total witch hunt and I have this witch hunt constantly going on for over 12 months now and it's a disgrace it's frankly a real disgrace it's a an attack on our country and a true sense it's an attack on what we all stand for called those FBI raids an attack on our country yeah it shows me either doesn't know or doesn't care what the rule of law looks like nobody broke into anybody's office it doesn't happen the FBI gets a search warrant from a federal judge and conducts itself professionally completely and politely by the accounts of the people involved so I it's a total distortion of the way things work James Comey thanks very much he'll be back in our next half hour answering your questions of course that's right here on GMA hi everyone George Stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the ABC News YouTube channel if you'd like to get more video show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our Channel and don't forget to download the ABC News app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching

Channel: ABC News

Views: 104,918

Keywords: James Comey, reaction, interview, ABC News, President Trump, GMA

Id: BIwhUS9vV74

Length: 6min 10sec (370 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 17 2018