Former FBI director James Comey is under investigation for sharing an image on Instagram spelling out “86 47,” a numerical sign calling for the assassination of President Donald Trump.
Comey said he stumbled across the message, spelled out with shells in the sand, while walking on the beach earlier this week and just “assumed” it was a “political message” - but claims he had no idea it could be seen as a call for violence against the president.
"Cool shell formation on my beach walk," Comey wrote in a caption accompanying the image.
Users immediately pointed out that "86 47" was a clear call to "86" - i.e., scrap, or even kill - Donald Trump, commonly referred to as "47" due to his being the 47th President of the United States. Comey immediately denied ever thinking that the message could be a call for violence against Trump, but did say he knew it was a "political message" against the president.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” Comey wrote in a follow-up Instagram post on Thursday night, just after deleting the original post.
“I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence,” he claimed, adding that “It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
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Asked whether he believes Comey’s claim that he didn’t mean to encourage violence against the president when he shared the image, Trump told Fox News’ Brett Baier that anyone - particularly the former head of a federal law enforcement agency - should know that "86" means.
“A child knows what that meant. If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know...that meant ‘assassination,’ and it says it loud and clear.”” said the president, who was grazed by a bullet during an assassination attempt during a political rally just last year.
“Our country’s become respected again, and all this, and he’s calling for the assassination of the president,” he added.
When asked whether he thinks Comey should face legal consequences for the post, Trump said he’s leave that up to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“I don’t want to take a position on it because that’s going to be up to Pam and all of the great people, but I will say this - I think it’s a terrible thing,” Trump said.