Former FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday that President Trump is “spraying gasoline” on the fire of White supremacy with his comments in this week’s debate, and called on him to correct himself if he didn’t mean to.
“It will attract more people to their warped view of the world,” Mr. Comey said in testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mr. Trump on Tuesday, when asked if he would condemn White supremacists, told them to “stand back and stand by.”
Those comments have been interpreted by many as expressing support for White supremacists.
Mr. Comey, who was fired as FBI director under Mr. Trump’s direction in 2017, said those comments gave a “free pass” to White supremacists.
“It gives them license and it makes them cool in the eyes of the people who make up that radioactive stew,” he said.
“The FBI’s fighting a fire of racist violence and with words like that, the president is using a fire hose to spray gasoline on that fire,” he said. “Maybe he misspoke. Maybe when he said ’stand down and stand by,’ he meant something else. I sure hope for the sake of our country he’ll say what he meant and condemn these groups.”
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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