Former FBI Director James Comey on Monday called the recent backlash to his “8647” seashell photo a “distraction” and maintained that his intentions were “totally innocent” behind the now-deleted post.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” host Nicole Wallace asked whether he regrets posting the photo, which caused an onslaught of criticism from much of President Trump’s base, accusing Comey of calling for the president’s assassination. Secret Service officials also questioned Comey after the post.
“Well, I regret the distraction and the controversy around it, but again, it’s hard to have regret about something that, even in hindsight, looks to me to be totally innocent,” Comey said.
Comey, who was famously fired by Trump in his first administration, noted this is not the first time the president and his allies have targeted him.
“In the Trump era, I’ve been investigated a lot, audited a lot, and so it’s not my first rodeo,” Comey said.
“In some strange way, the relationship he can’t get over,” he continued, “maybe because I’ve lived a happy, productive life since leaving, but this has just been a distraction in that life.”
Following significant backlash online, Comey removed the seashell photo Thursday evening and clarified in a new post that he did not intend to call for violence and didn’t realize his message would be interpreted that way.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” Comey wrote on Instagram.
“I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,” he continued. “It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
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