2021-01-21 at 4:31 PM UTC
Comey: 'Republican Party has to be burned to the ground'
Celine Castronuovo The Hill
Former FBI Director James Comey said in an interview published Thursday that the Republican Party must "be burned to the ground" before it can rebuild now that former President Trump's term in the Oval Office has ended.
Comey told Australia's ABC "7.30" news program that the GOP "doesn't stand for anything that is valuable to our country."
"It doesn't stand for anything, that is other than a cult of personality around a man who is a demagogue and a liar," he added.
The longtime Republican, who now describes himself as an independent, told the news outlet that "the Republican Party has to be burned to the ground, in some form or fashion."
"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," 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."
Comey told The Guardian earlier this week that the party's decline began well before Trump with Tea Party figures such as former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R).
"The Republican Party needs to be burned down or changed," Comey told the British outlet. "Something is shifting and I'm hoping it's 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.
"Who would want to be part of an organization that at its core is built on lies and racism and know-nothingism? It's just not a healthy political organization."
