‘It’s so dumb’: Chris Cillizza unloads on James Comey over posting alleged hit on Trump

NewsNation political contributor Chris Cillizza criticized former FBI Director James Comey on Friday for uploading a picture depicting the numbers “8647” in a now-deleted Instagram post.

Comey posted a photo Thursday of seashells arranged to display four numbers, “8647,” to his Instagram account, prompting top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration to accuse him of calling to assassinate the president. Cillizza, who was guest-hosting “Rising,” said that he believed people who interpreted it as a hit on Trump were overreacting due to the multiple meanings of the term “86,” but also said it was “colossally stupid” and “idiotic” for Comey to make the post.

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“If [former National Security Advisor] Michael Flynn was walking on the beach and came across something that said ‘8646’ and posted that, the left would be up in arms,” Cillizza said. “I mean, like, there’s no question about that … I would say I think probably the left would be overreacting at that point too, but it’s not as though this is — it’s just — it’s so dumb.”

“Human nature is such that politicians and people — I know Comey is not technically a politician — but politically related people — they’re always going to be doing stuff,” he continued. “And a fair amount of that stuff is going to be dumb. And this is— this is just dumb. Why do it? Like, I just — it’s totally unnecessary … I mean, I guess he just wants to be relevant?”

Host and Daily Caller senior editor Amber Duke suggested Comey might be a “textbook narcissist,” citing his front-facing tenure as FBI director. Cillizza said he thought Duke was correct and that Comey must have made the post as an attention-grab.

Duke added that it was important to note that Trump also faced two assassination attempts, to which Cillizza agreed.

Comey later addressed the backlash in a follow-up Instagram post after deleting the original photo.

“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence of any kind so I took the post down,” the former FBI director wrote Thursday.

“Morning Joe” co-host Jonathan Lemire on Friday echoed Cillizza’s view.

“This was a stupid thing that [Comey] did, clearly. I think there’s certainly a lot of faux outrage here,” Lemire said. “But to be fair, if it had gone the other way, and somebody had posted 8646 about [former] President [Joe] Biden, there would be some on the left who would be angry as well.”

Moreover, the “Morning Joe” co-host noted that Comey had promoted his new book on social media following the attention he received.

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