In an explosive interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, former FBI Director James Comey tore into the moral character of President Trump, saying that he’s “morally unfit to be president.”

During the interview, Comey addressed the numerous scandals enveloping the White House, not limited to the “pee tape” dossier and Trump’s penchant for paying for the silence of women he’s had extramarital affairs with.

The widely anticipated interview comes just ahead of the release of Comey’s new book, Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership. The book, which has already sold almost 200,000 copies, is getting rave reviews from critics who are praising it for its straightforwardness.

But that kind of positive press was bound to be an issue for Trump who didn’t waste time taking to Twitter to slam the former FBI Director, calling him an “untruthful slime ball” who was “a terrible Director of the FBI.”

As the interview continued, Comey’s distaste for Trump was front and center.

My book is about ethical leadership & draws on stories from my life & lessons I learned from others. 3 presidents are in my book: 2 help illustrate the values at the heart of ethical leadership; 1 serves as a counterpoint. I hope folks read the whole thing and find it useful. — James Comey (@Comey) April 15, 2018

“The challenge of this president is that he will stain everyone around him. And the question is, how much stain is too much stain and how much stain eventually makes you unable to accomplish your goal of protecting the country and serving the country?” he told Stephanopoulos.

If he had not been fired last May, Comey said he’s still be working in law enforcement.

At one point in the interview, Stephanopoulos asked Comey if Trump is unfit to be president.

“Yes,” Comey replied.

“But not in the way I hear people often talk about it,” he continued. “I don’t buy the stuff about him being mentally incompetent or in the early stages of dementia. He strikes me as a person of above average intelligence who’s tracking conversations and knows what’s going on. I don’t think he’s medically unfit to president — I think he’s morally unfit to be president.”

Comey then brought up Trump’s rhetoric when it comes to neo-Nazis.

“A person who sees moral equivalence in Charlottesville, who talks about and treats women like they’re pieces of meat, who lies constantly about matters big and small and insists the American people believe it, that person’s not fit to be president of the United States, on moral grounds,” Comey said.

In regards to the infamous Steele dossier which contains unverified claims that Trump was secretly videotaped in a Moscow hotel room engaging in urine-soaked sex acts with prostitutes, Comey said he doesn’t know if it’s true, but it wouldn’t surprise him.

“I honestly never thought these words would come out of my mouth,” Comey said. “But I don’t know whether the current president of the United States was with prostitutes peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013. It’s possible, but I don’t know.”

Just hours before the interview was set to air, Trump took to Twitter again and lashed out at Comey, saying, “Slippery James Comey, a man who always ends up badly and out of whack (he is not smart!), will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!”

Comey shot back at Trump with a tweet of his own, saying his book was “about ethical leadership & draws on stories from my life & lessons I learned from others.”

“3 presidents are in my book,” he continued. “2 help illustrate the values at the heart of ethical leadership; 1 serves as a counterpoint.”

Featured image via screen grab