While James Comey’s criticism of the president, both in interviews and in his book, has been withering, so too has the White House’s response. | Carolyn Kaster/AP Photo Comey on Trump calling for him to be jailed: 'This is not OK' The former FBI director also said he will 'never run for office. Not even a close call.'

James Comey on Tuesday denounced Donald Trump’s presidency as a threat to bedrock American values, warning that the president's calls for Comey to be jailed could erode the rule of law.

The former FBI director, whom Trump fired last spring, has been a frequent target of Trump’s criticism, especially in recent days amid the start of a publicity tour for Comey’s book, which was released Tuesday. Comey has been deeply critical of the president, characterizing him as morally unfit to occupy his office, while Trump has labeled Comey as a liar and leaker, suggesting he be sent to jail.


“President Trump, I don't follow him on Twitter, but I get to see his tweets tweeted, I don't know how many, but some tweets this past couple of days that I should be in jail. The president of the United States just said that a private citizen should be jailed. And I think the reaction of most of us was, ‘Meh, that's another one of those things.’ This is not normal. This is not OK,” Comey told NPR in an interview broadcast Tuesday morning. “The reason I'm talking in terms of morality is, those are the things that matter most to this country. And there's a great danger we'll be numbed into forgetting that, and then only a fool would be consoled by some policy victory.”

While Comey’s criticism of the president, both in interviews and in his book, has been withering, so too has the White House’s response. Trump administration officials have painted Comey as a disgruntled ex-employee looking to settle scores and an admitted leaker whose congressional testimony had to be corrected almost immediately. Trump’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said last week that “one of the president's greatest achievements will go down as firing Director James Comey,” and Trump himself wrote on Twitter over the weekend that Comey “will go down as the WORST FBI Director in history, by far!”

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“This is not some tin-pot dictatorship where the leader of the country gets to say ‘The people I don't like go to jail.’ Our Lady Justice wears a blindfold. And the reason all those statues all over the country have a blindfold is, that's the way it has to be,” Comey told NPR. “Lady Justice can't be peeking under the blindfold to see if Donald Trump wants her to convict so-and-so and not convict so-and-so. If we lose that, we've lost the rule of law, and so there's great danger in the president of the United States saying ‘You should be in jail.’”

Asked about the potential that he might one day run for office, Comey was emphatic that he has no such plans. Instead, he said he plans to teach at the university level and give speeches on ethics and leadership.

"Never. I will never run for office. Not even a close call,” he said. “I'm going to teach about leadership and ethics, and so I'm going to be a professor, which is exciting, and speak about leadership. … I'm going to use my book in the class, and I'm going to buy it for the students, because I'm not going to be one of those professors.”

