Former FBI Director James Comey now says that he regrets making fun of President Donald Trump’s appearance in his ill-received tell-all book.
“If I had it to do over again I wouldn’t put that paragraph in, just because it gave people a hand-hold who hadn’t read the book to attack the book,” Comey said during an appearance on The View, according to the Hill newspaper.
In his book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, Comey described Trump’s face, his hands, and other attributes.
Comey described Trump’s face as “slightly orange,” and said he had “bright white half-moons under his eyes where I assumed he placed small tanning goggles.” Comey did say that he thought Trump’s hair was “all his.” He also described Trump’s hands reflecting the meanspirited joke about the President’s mitts.
But, Comey claimed that if he left out his description of Trump, it would be “inconsistent” of him.
Despite saying he wished he did not include the descriptions, he defended his decision. “I really wasn’t trying to pick on Donald Trump,” Comey insisted. “I could hear my editor’s voice saying ‘bring the reader, bring the reader,’ and so that’s what I’m trying to do.”
Still, Comey went on to say that the decision to include the descriptions has been a “distraction.”
“I do see people have seized on to that as a distraction, so honestly if I had to do it over again I would tear that paragraph out,” he said.
Comey’s book was released at midnight on April 16, and the media turned out in force at the Kramer Books store in Washington, DC. But while a dozen cameras and reporters huddled in the store to chronicle the hoards of customers that were sure to flood the place, it turned out only four people lined up that night to make their purchase.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.
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