{"id":49143,"date":"2021-01-21T16:21:56","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T20:21:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=49143"},"modified":"2021-01-21T16:22:24","modified_gmt":"2021-01-21T20:22:24","slug":"republican-party-has-to-be-burned-to-the-ground-former-fbi-director","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=49143","title":{"rendered":"‘Republican Party has to be burned to the ground’ — Former FBI Director"},"content":{"rendered":"

Comey: ‘Republican Party has to be burned to the ground’<\/strong><\/h1>\n

BY CELINE CASTRONUOVO
\nThe Hill<\/p>\n

Former FBI Director\u00a0James Comey<\/a><\/span>\u00a0said\u00a0in an interview published Thursday\u00a0that\u00a0the Republican Party must \u201cbe burned to the ground\u201d before it can rebuild now that former\u00a0President Trump<\/a><\/span>‘s term in the Oval Office has\u00a0ended.<\/p>\n

Comey told\u00a0Australia\u2019s ABC \u201c7.30\u201d news program<\/a>\u00a0that the\u00a0GOP \u201cdoesn’t stand for anything that is valuable to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn’t stand for anything, that is other than a cult of personality around a man who is a demagogue and a liar,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The longtime Republican, who now describes himself as an independent, told the news outlet that \u201cthe Republican Party has to be burned to the ground, in some form or fashion.”<\/p>\n

“If it’s going to survive, and we need two healthy parties to have a healthy democracy, it has to be rebuilt in some way,\u201d he added. “I think you may see principled Republicans splitting off or finding a way to push the Trumpers off, so they can reconstitute the Republican Party on a set of real values.”<\/p>\n

Comey\u00a0told The Guardian<\/a>\u00a0earlier this week that\u00a0the party’s decline began well before Trump with Tea Party figures such as former Speaker\u00a0Newt Gingrich<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(R-Ga.) and former Alaska\u00a0 Gov.\u00a0Sarah Palin<\/a>\u00a0(R).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Republican Party needs to be burned down or changed,\u201d Comey told the\u00a0British outlet. \u201cSomething is shifting and I\u2019m hoping it\u2019s the fault breaking apart, a break between the Trumpists and those people who want to try and build a responsible conservative party, because everybody should know that we need one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho would want to be part of an organization that at its core is built on lies and racism and know-nothingism? It\u2019s just not a healthy political organization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comey, who led the FBI from 2013 until Trump fired him in 2017,\u00a0became a vocal critic\u00a0of the now-former president and has repeatedly called on Republicans to move on from him.<\/p>\n

As many called for Trump to face retribution for his role in the\u00a0deadly riot by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month, Comey said in\u00a0an interview on \u201cToday\u201d<\/a>\u00a0last week that while he believes it is \u201cimportant\u201d for Trump to be impeached, the worst punishment would be to ignore him completely once he leaves office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think it would be better for this country if we move past a fallen and corrupt president, and turned off the television lights on him, which in some ways, would be the greatest punishment he could imagine,\u201d Comey said.<\/p>\n

The House last week voted to impeach Trump, charging him with inciting the violence at the Capitol with his repeated\u00a0unproven\u00a0claims that the 2020 presidential election was \u201cstolen\u201d from him through widespread voter fraud.<\/p>\n

Trump now faces an impending Senate impeachment trial, even as President\u00a0Biden<\/a>\u00a0was sworn into office on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In an excerpt from Comey\u2019s new book released this month, the former federal investigator\u00a0argued that Trump should not be prosecuted<\/a>\u00a0after leaving the White House, as \u201cthe mission of the next attorney general must be fostering the trust of the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n

___
\nhttps:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/535195-comey-republican-party-has-to-be-burned-to-the-ground<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Comey: ‘Republican Party has to be burned to the ground’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49143\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}