FBI director Kash Patel launched a scathing rebuke against James Comey in an interview in which Patel warned, “I won’t be lectured on how to run the FBI by that man.”
Patel ranted about the former Trump administration FBI director in an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, claiming the former FBI chief’s “beachside venture,” in which he posted a photo of seashells that spelled out the numbers “86″ and “47,″ has led to “copycat” threats against President Donald Trump.
MAGAworld went into a frenzy earlier this month after Comey posted the picture of the seashells with the caption, “Cool shell formation on my beach walk.” He explained in a follow-up statement after deleting the image that he thought the shells displayed some kind of nonviolent political message.
Multiple Trump officials perceived it as a threat to “86,″ or take out, the 47th president, and opened an investigation. Comey deleted the post. He later explained he “didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence” and has criticized Patel for his lack of expertise for the role.
“In a way, I feel a little sorry for the guy,” Comey told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Friday.
Patel claimed in his Wednesday Fox News interview that Comey “is a private citizen and he can walk around the beach and talk about seashells and Crayola crayons for all I care about, and talk about how we’re the conspiracy theorists,” but, he added, “if he wants to come after me, no problem.”
He added: ““I won’t be lectured on how to run the FBI by that man.”
Comey, who was fired by Trump in 2017, said last week he was interviewed by the Secret Service about the post but doesn’t expect the investigation to go anywhere.
“I expect it’ll go away cause there’s nothing there,” he told Psaki last week.
Patel, however, claimed Comey’s Instagram post is still causing him headaches.
“Do you know how many copycats we’ve had to investigate as a result of that beachside venture from a former director?” he asked Baier. “Do you know how many agents I’ve had to take offline from chasing down child sex predators, fentanyl traffickers, terrorists?”
“Because everywhere across this country, people are popping up on social media and think that a threat to the life of the president of the United States is a joke, and they can do it because he did it,” he continued, adding: “that’s what I’m having to deal with every single day … because he thought it was funny to go out there make a political statement.”
Trump has stacked top law enforcement roles with loyalists—including Patel as FBI chief, Pam Bondi as attorney general, and former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro as the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C.
