Former FBI Director James Comey has said voters must use 'every breath we have' to defeat Donald Trump in the next election.

The 57-year-old, who was dismissed by Mr Trump in May 2017, told an audience in New York last night that the Democrats 'have to win.'

He told MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace: 'All of us should use every breath we have to make sure the lies stop on January 20, 2021.'

JUST IN: Comey says he won't run for president. @NicolleDWallace: Would you ever run [for president]?

James Comey: No.

Wallace: Have you ever thought about it?@Comey: "I've thought about it enough to know that I'm never going to run for office." pic.twitter.com/AEpyUoz23W — Kasie DC (@KasieDC) December 10, 2018

Mr Trump thumbs up to the media on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington before his departure for the annual Army-Navy college football game in Philadelphia on Saturday

Mr Comey said the Democrats have to chose a leader capable of beating Mr Trump. 'I understand the Democrats have important debates now over who their candidate should be,' he said. 'But they have to win. They have to win.'

He said he did not want Mr Trump to be impeached because this would 'let the country off the hook'.

Mr Comey said his preference was a Democrat landslide victory 'to rid ourselves of this attack on our values.'

He said: 'In a way I hope Donald Trump is not removed from office by impeachment because it would let the country off the hook and it would drive into the fabric of our nation.

'A third of the people believing there was a coup and we need a moment of inflection where we all get off the couch and say that is not who we are. And, in a landslide, rid ourselves of this attack on our values.

'And if, in a way, short circuited that with an important legitimate process to the Constitution. I worry that we wouldn't we be letting ourselves off the hook going away and we wouldn't have the moment of clarity that we need in this country.

But he clarified: 'That said if the facts are there and the legislative branch two houses of Congress think it's appropriate that's fine.'

Also in the interview, Mr Comey compared Mr Trump to a Mafia boss.

He said: 'I was also struck by the nature of the leadership. As I write [my] book I keep having this weird image in my head of the Cosa Nostra work I've done here in Manhattan, mafia work and with a culture of leadership that a mafia boss creates.

Former FBI Director James Comey has said voters must use 'every breath we have' to defeat Donald Trump in the next election

'And we're sitting around the table at Trump Tower and that image keeps coming into my head... the way the leader acted struck me as similar to that kind of culture and that there's something going on here that there's not an interest in protecting the country from this ongoing threat.'

He added: 'It's a fear based leadership and that just begins this journey that's entirely about lies. You can't tell the truth but it's only because you figure that'll work, but then you tell lies and lies all day long.'

Mr Comey's comments come a week before his is due at the Capitol for another closed-door interview the week of December 17 over his handling of an investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.

Republicans say that Comey and the FBI should have brought criminal charges against Clinton, while Democrats are angry that the then-bureau director announced just days before the 2016 election that the investigation was being reopened.

In June, the Justice Department's internal watchdog rebuked Comey for making a 'serious error of judgment' when he announced he was reopening the probe.

But Inspector General Michael Horowitz also concluded in a long-awaited, 500-page report that Comey did not exhibit political bias or try to influence the election; nor did he contest the decision not to charge Clinton with a crime.

Comey later headed a separate investigation into alleged ties between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.

Trump fired him as head of the FBI in May 2017, prompting the appointment of a special counsel now pursuing the Russia probe.

On Friday Mr Comey sounded exasperated when he recalled how he testified again about Clinton's emails during a closed-door interview with two House committees.

Comey says House Republicans asked about Clinton's use of a private email server while she was secretary of state.

He says GOP lawmakers focused 'a whole lot' on Clinton's emails, telling reporters that a transcript of the six-hour interview 'will bore you.'

'When you read the transcript, you will see that we are talking again about Hillary Clinton's emails, for heaven's sakes, so I'm not sure we need to do this at all,' Comey told reporters.

'But I'm trying to respect the institution and to answer questions in a respectful way.'