James Comey, the partisan, dishonest, unethical former FBI Director whom Trump was right to fire (but he should have fired him earlier) posted on Instagram, with approval, a message that consisted of the numbers 8647, meaning “rub out the 47th President,” Donald Trump, delineated with sea shells. …
Nice! It didn’t take long for Comey to realize that this was, to say the least, a tactical error, and he took down the post. In doing so, Comey proved what a mendacious creep he is again by claiming that it never occurred to him that 8647 might be interpreted as a call to have the President of the United States eradicated, offed, murdered, killed…you know assassinated. Never mind that there have been two near misses by the “Kill Trump” club already, that some Democrats and “the resistance” have openly advocated violence, and that for a former head of the FBI to join their ranks is, to put it mildly, unseemly. Comey said he was sorry.
Not good enough. Not nearly good enough. A former high law enforcement official calling for the assassination of the sitting President is a big deal, attention should be paid, and Comey should suffer more than the indignity of having to channel Emily Litella (“Never mind!”)
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote on X on Friday evening that the Secret Service had “interviewed disgraced former FBI Director Comey regarding a social media post calling for the assassination of President Trump.” Good. There is no valid justification for taking criminal action against Comey (who wrote coyly under his shells photo, “Cool shell formation”), but there also is no good reason not to thoroughly humiliate this Ethics Villain either.
Naturally, because they are the enemy of the people, most journalists reporting on the incident adopted the reflex “Republican pounce” approach rather than the well-earned “Can you believe that Trump was attacked for firing this guy in his first term?” framing.
Ethics Alarms 
He just couldn’t STFU, and just go away. Next we will hear, he will launch a go-fund-me for his legal defense funding. Loser!
I may be just an ignorant sod who didn’t know what 86 meant, but that cannot possibly apply to Comey. It may not be an actual creditable threat, but it’s an invitation to someone who is unhinged to start with.
Three very unhinged guys (counting the guy who tried to grab a gun from a cop in the 2016 campaign) have already tried and failed. No one actually tried for GWB that I am aware of, but if you go back and look at the then fledgling social media, you will find plenty of posts saying that not only should he have been thrown in jail by the world Court but that he should have been assassinated for the sake of the world. Heck, someone even made a movie where a veteran of the first Gulf War assassinates him in revenge for the death of his son during the war on terror.
Never underestimate the power of hatred combined with certitude. They say that absolute power corrupts absolutely, and it often does, but absolute hatred also destroys the brain absolutely. Two men assassinated presidents because of hatred. Booth killed Lincoln because he wanted revenge for the defeat of the south, and Czolgoz killed McKinley because he thought he could bring down the capitalist world where he had failed by killing its leader. I will not say that Charles Guiteau killed Garfield out of hatred because he was a lunatic, and no one really knows what Oswald’s motivation was.
This isn’t 1910 Portugal and it isn’t 19th century Italy, where assassinating the leader is going to throw everything into chaos and clear the way for some radical government to take power. Unfortunately that does not stop crazy people full of hate with hero complexes from doing crazy things.
In 2005, a grenade was thrown at GWB that didn’t detonate due to being wrapped in a handkerchief. The fact the thrown-shoe incident was even possible three years later is remarkable.
In September, 1975 two women tried to shoot Gerald Ford, of all presidents. One didn’t load her gun and the second shot but missed. Ford, to his credit, refused to change his behavior in response, although the Secret Service did make some changes to their SOP.
Looking at a couple of pictures of these incidents, I was struck that the men surrounding Ford (and they were all men) looked much different than one is used to today. I’m not sure what the difference is except the hair styles and perhaps lack of facial hair. Do today’s Secret Service agents still all wear coats and ties?
As I said it is hard to define, but there definitely seems a distinct difference from a typical 2025 crowd shot.
One other attempt that comes to mind was when someone shot at FDR before his inauguration (actually killed a Florida mayor if memory serves).
The latter two were attempts to change the world via assassination but they failed.
Mayor Cermak of Chicago. Some believe that he was the intended target, not FDR.
What a strange coincidence. He has a book coming out: https://x.com/Comey/status/1923128648082571685
And, of course, his post carries the “union label” used by most resistance weasels: no replies allowed.