Fox News producer Johnny Belisario confronted James Comey at a book signing to ask about his attention-grabbing anti-Trump Instagram post.
But the former FBI director remained tight-lipped until Belisario was led away wanting more.
The Jesse Watters Primetime producer led off by telling Comey that Watters had a question about his photo of seashells containing the numbers “86″ and “47,” which some of the president’s allies concluded was a call for the president’s assassination.
“Why do you want to ’86′ Trump?“ he asked.
Comey replied, “I’m not taking questions like that now. I’m just signing the book.”
Belisario followed up: “Why would you post that?”
After a long pause, Belisario tried again, asking about Comey’s meeting with the Secret Service.
“You want to get the book signed? Really?” Comey said. “You got it, bud.”
Belisario, whom Watters recently sent to confront George Clooney on the red carpet, then reached forward to give him something else to sign.
“And can you sign my seashell too?” he asked. “Which beach is this that you’re going to? You found a Kamala seashell, ”86 47″—this is a politically charged beach, director.”
“Be well,” Comey replied, clearly done with the interaction at the Manhattan Barnes and Noble. An apparent staff member of the bookstore then came up to Belisario and told him to leave.
Comey has already explained his Instagram post, which he ended up deleting, in multiple media appearances over the past few days.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” he wrote on Instagram after posting the photo. “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”
In restaurant terminology, to “86″ something means to get rid of it, or to ban a patron. That didn’t stop Trump’s allies from freaking out about Comey’s post, though.
Watters himself went so far as to call the arrangement of seashells a crime.
“Trump’s already faced two assassination attempts,” Watters said on his show that night. “Comey should know better, and let’s be honest, he probably does.”
“He’s the former FBI director. He had the codes. He knows what it means,” Watters said. “This obviously is a threat to the president’s life, and that’s illegal.”
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