An audience member asked James Comey if he would ever run for office. Comey had an easy answer. "No, never," he said firmly. "I admire good people that run for office. We need good people on both sides of the aisle running for office. It's not my thing," he said, adding that there are other ways to contribute and to serve your community and country without running. He said he would, however, canvas for Democrats in the upcoming election because he believes in oversight of the president.<doc-sep>Two years to the date after he was unceremoniously fired from his job as head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation by Donald J. Trump, James Comey took questions Thursday night at a CNN town hall hosted by Anderson Cooper. Advertisement Comey, who has previously gone on record to say he does not believe Trump is “morally fit to be president of the United States,” took questions from a town hall audience made up of students and professionals from more than a dozen states who now live in the D.C. area. Being that it was the two-year anniversary of his firing, one question Comey fielded was how he feels about that moment—one in which he found out he was fired via a television broadcast. “I was numb because I didn’t expect to be fired,” Comey said. “I knew by that point the president didn’t like me, but I thought that’s OK because that will keep a separation. So it still feels a little bit numbing, frankly, like it happened yesterday and a lifetime ago,” he said. “And then with the help of my assistant in Washington, I figured out a guy was actually down knocking on the door of the FBI in Pennsylvania saying he had a letter for me from the president that I was fired. Long before I got the letter the media was told. That’s how it happened,” Comey said. Tacky. Comey was asked about his relationship with special counsel Robert Mueller. Comey said that he respects Mueller, but that the two men “don’t have that kind of relationship.” Advertisement “He’s certainly not obsessed with me in the way others seem to be,” Comey quipped. Comey went on to say that he was not surprised by anything in the Mueller report. Advertisement “There were a lot of facts in the Mueller report that I didn’t know, but I knew it would be high-quality work if we got a chance as a country to read it. And what he describes about Russia’s intervention in our election didn’t surprise me at all. It confirmed what I knew from when I was at the [FBI]. And what he lied out about—the president’s efforts to obstruct justice was broader in scope than I personally knew, but given what I had seen, it didn’t surprise me, honestly,” he said. Comey went on to say that it looks like Trump did obstruct justice and that based on the report, he believes there is a chargeable case for obstruction and witness tampering against the president. He suggested that the DOJ should “take a serious look” at charging Trump once he is no longer president. Advertisement And then came the hammer. When asked why voters should prioritize Trump’s personal flaws over their own economic well-being, Comey kept it all the way real. Advertisement “You cannot have a president who’s a chronic liar. I don’t care what’s your passions around tax cuts or regulation or immigration—I respect difference there. The president of the United States cannot be someone who lies constantly. I thought Republicans agreed with that. It’s one of the reasons I’m no longer a Republican. I hope the American people will realize we have to start at that values level no matter what our political background and answer that question first. And if that’s a close question in an election, then get to the important policy differences.” Advertisement Whew. Speak that truth, James Comey. Speak that truth. Of course, y’all’s little “president” caught wind of what Comey had to say, so of course, he had to get on Twitter to vent. Advertisement “James Comey is a disgrace to the FBI & will go down as the worst Director in its long and once proud history. He brought the FBI down, almost all Republicans & Democrats thought he should be FIRED, but the FBI will regain greatness because of the great men & women who work there!, ” Trump wrote late Thursday night. Advertisement It’s almost as if you could take Trump’s tweet, replace Comey’s name with his and replace references to the FBI with the United States, and you’d have the perfect description of what is happening right now in this country. But y’all’s little “president” lacks too much self-awareness to realize that.<doc-sep>CNN's town hall featuring former FBI Director James Comey James Brien ComeyThe FBI should turn off the FARA faucet Barr threatened to resign over Trump attempts to fire Wray: report 'Fox News Sunday' to mark 25 years on air MORE struggled from a ratings perspective on Thursday night, finishing third among the cable news networks, according to Nielsen Media Research. The Comey town hall, which ran from 8 p.m. to 9:15 p.m., won 1.57 million viewers, compared with 2.88 million for Fox News and 1.8 million for MSNBC. In the key 25- to 54-year-old demographic, CNN's Comey town hall won 326,000 viewers, compared with 464,000 for Fox and 301,000 for MSNBC. ADVERTISEMENT The Comey numbers were also down from CNN's first town hall with the Trump critic in April 2018. That broadcast won 1.68 million viewers and 565,000 in the key demographic. Comey blasted President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE repeatedly throughout the live event that aired from Washington, D.C., and was hosted by CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. "The president is not above the law, and I don't accept the notion that because the president is the head of the executive branch he can't ever obstruct justice in connection with executive branch activities," Comey said. "That's just crazy and a recipe for lawlessness." Trump hit back at Comey on Twitter shortly after the event in a tweet to his 60 million followers. "James Comey is a disgrace to the FBI & will go down as the worst Director in its long and once proud history," Trump wrote. "He brought the FBI down, almost all Republicans & Democrats thought he should be FIRED, but the FBI will regain greatness because of the great men & women who work there!"<doc-sep>WASHINGTON – James Comey looked straight into the camera in June 2017 as he uttered his first public denunciation of President Donald Trump. “Those were lies, plain and simple,” the former FBI director said, as millions of Americans watched his dramatic testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Comey still uses that word – “lies” – when he talks about Trump, most recently on Thursday in a CNN town hall where he called Trump a “chronic liar” who should not be in office. His penchant for metaphors came through in a recent New York Times op-ed in which he described the president as an “amoral leader” who devours the souls of better men. And in a scathing interview with USA TODAY last year, he declared Trump “morally unfit to be president.” Comey's outrage has spilled onto the party to which he once belonged – he has urged Americans to vote for Democrats in 2020. He’s a quirky Twitter celebrity whose page is an amalgam of pensive nature photos, dad jokes and urgent calls for the public to remove the president who removed him. The CNN forum, which coincided with the second anniversary of his firing by Trump, was only the latest instance in which he garnered the spotlight. Though the town hall format is usually reserved for presidential candidates, Comey dismissed the notion that he is considering a run for public office, saying he'd "never" do so. Still, Comey's immersion into politics is a stark contrast to the world of secrecy and discreetness at the FBI, making him a more polarizing figure in the Trump era. Supporters see his voice as a check on a commander-in-chief whose behavior they find disturbing. But Comey's detractors believe the former FBI director's disdain for Trump influenced the counterintelligence investigation on Russia and the president's campaign. They contend the FBI was biased against Trump. Views on impeachment:Comey says voters should hold Trump accountable in 2020 'landslide,' opposes impeachment Exclusive:James Comey strikes back against 'morally unfit' Donald Trump in scathing interview Comey isn't just a former FBI director. He's a former FBI director whose actions are consequential to the president. He wrote memos detailing his private conversations with Trump, some of which he found troubling. He orchestrated the release of those memos' contents, hoping to prompt a special counsel's appointment. And those memos became part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation that ultimately begat a damaging inside account of Trump's behavior. During the CNN town hall, Comey said Trump would have been prosecuted for obstruction of justice if not for the office he holds. For Comey’s critics, every public condemnation risks reinforcing the perception that he – and therefore the FBI – played in favor of one side over the other. And every criticism places the bureau in a perilous place: in the cross hairs of partisan politics. “He is telling the world now that he thinks the president is amoral. That opinion just didn’t come out of thin air on the day he was fired,” said Mark Morgan, a career FBI official who was an assistant director under Comey. “As a former director of the FBI, when he speaks, he still brings the full force of credibility of that position, and so he’s not an average citizen when he speaks, and he knows that … Every time he speaks, every time he does an op-ed, he continues to do damage to the FBI.” Unchartered waters Comey declined to be interviewed. His supporters say he found himself in unchartered waters from the moment the president asked him to “lift the cloud” of the Russia investigation that has loomed over the administration. A voice like Comey’s, supporters say, is critical at a time when the president attacks and spreads falsehoods about the country’s institutions, including the FBI. “Clearly, he could stay out of the spotlight. He didn’t have to write a book, doesn’t have to write speeches, doesn’t have to speak out,” said Greg Brower, who was the FBI’s assistant director for the Office of Congressional Affairs. But, Brower said: “He just feels strongly that people need to know what he knows and what he experienced.” “I admire the fact that he’s not afraid to be public about this,” Brower said. Friction between Comey and Trump has only intensified. Views on whether the public needs to keep hearing from the controversial FBI director is just as divided as today’s partisan government. Where there seems to be consensus is that Comey’s post-FBI persona could have a lasting impact on the institution he once led, whether or not he intended to. A ‘self-serving’ endeavor or a public service? Comey was a beloved FBI director lauded by rank-and-file employees, according to an annual survey of employees. Even for some of his harshest critics, he was a decent leader. He valued diversity in hiring and won the support of women and minorities at the agency, said Bobby Chacon, a former special agent who retired in 2014, during Comey’s second year as director. He was intelligent, affable, and an effective communicator, said Morgan, who left the bureau in 2016 and whom Trump recently tapped to lead the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The turning point, at least for some, happened on July 5, 2016, when Comey departed from FBI policy by delivering a blistering criticism of Hillary Clinton, even as he announced that the then-Democratic presidential candidate would not face charges for her use of a private email server as secretary of state. Comey's decision to share his memos with a friend, who then shared their contents to a reporter, is “when he absolutely lost me,” said Morgan, who sees his former boss's public life as a “self-serving” endeavor. Comey town hall:'No doubt' Trump would be charged with obstruction if not president Like what you're reading? :Download the USA TODAY app for more “I have no problem with him pushing back on Trump’s criticism of the FBI, but he has taken it way, way beyond that point,” Chacon said. Comey defended the FBI again on Thursday, pushing back against notion that the bureau spied on the Trump campaign, a claim that president had made repeatedly.<doc-sep>
President Trump Donald TrumpTrump lashes out after grand jury seated for New York criminal probe Schumer tees up vote on Jan. 6 commission bill Senators struggle to save Jan. 6 commission MORE tore into James Comey James Brien ComeyThe FBI should turn off the FARA faucet Barr threatened to resign over Trump attempts to fire Wray: report 'Fox News Sunday' to mark 25 years on air MORE on Thursday night, hours after the former FBI director suggested in a wide-ranging CNN town hall that he be prosecuted. Trump knocked Comey in a tweet as "a disgrace to the FBI" while predicting that he "will go down as the worst Director in its long and once proud history." "He brought the FBI down, almost all Republicans & Democrats thought he should be FIRED, but the FBI will regain greatness because of the great men & women who work there!" he added. James Comey is a disgrace to the FBI & will go down as the worst Director in its long and once proud history. He brought the FBI down, almost all Republicans & Democrats thought he should be FIRED, but the FBI will regain greatness because of the great men & women who work there! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 9, 2019 ADVERTISEMENT The remarks were the latest salvo in the pair's fractious relationship and came exactly two years after Trump fired Comey, the law enforcement official who at the time was leading the federal probe into the Trump campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election. Comey said during the appearance that he had "no doubt" Trump would have been charged with obstruction if he were not president, adding that the Justice Department would have to take a "serious look" at whether to pursue charges after he leaves office. "Whether it's a wise thing to do to a former president, I don't know, that's a harder question — a much bigger question — than the facts of the case," Comey said.