CNN anchor John Berman flat-out requested former FBI Director and present political fiction creator James Comey whether he ever idea “perhaps I just shouldn’t publish” a photograph that President Donald Trump and others construed as an “assassination threat.”

Comey is in hot water over an Instagram publish featuring a photograph of seashells spelling out the numbers “86” and “47” and the caption, “Cool shell formation on my beach stroll.”

Trump instantly lashed out at Comey, and on Friday evening the Secret Service performed a chance interview with Comey at his house.

On Tuesday night’s adaptation of CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360, visitor-host Berman pressed Comey about the message, again and again asking if he ever did or must have thought better of it, and connecting the incident to Comey’s fiction writing:

BERMAN: All proper the Deputy Director of FBI, Dan Bongino, is warning of copycats sending threats to public figures mimicking a now deleted social media publish from former FBI Director James Comey. Comey shared this image of seashells spelling out “86 forty seven” which the President and his allies say quantities to a call for his assassination, something the former FBI Director denies.

He used to be interviewed by using the Secret Service on Friday. Now, whereas there’s some debate about the origins of the phrase, the number 86 extra typically refers to working out a restaurant menu item or banning anyone from a bar. Donald Trump is the forty seventh president. For his part, Comey says he got here throughout the shells already arranged, and while he identified them to be a political message, it had nothing to do with violence, he stated.

He is additionally the creator of a brand new felony thriller, “FDR Power”, and the previous FBI Director James Comey joins me now. We’ll get to your book in a moment, “FDR Force.” But when you posted this message, “86 forty seven” and I mentioned, there are different interpretations of it, but one interpretation of it is to finish anyone or something. Was there anything at the back of your mind that said, perhaps I just shouldn’t submit this?

JAMES COMEY, FORMER FBI DIRECTOR: No, literally nothing, as a result of it appeared completely harmless and suave to me. I have by no means and actually nonetheless have don’t affiliate 86 with violence, however as a result of I heard that some folks were, whether or not they’d do that reasonably or no longer, I don’t need any part of it. And so, that’s why I took it down from my Instagram account.

BERMAN: You recognize that you are held to a unique same old, that you’re within the spotlight in a method that lots of people aren’t. Do you assume that makes it much more incumbent on you to watch out about issues like this?

COMEY: Sure, when you’ve got any inkling that there’s a problem. But they have been speaking about seashells on the seashore that my wife and I stood over seeking to be aware what it was, and she or he said, simply what you stated in the intro, which is she was once a longtime server when we were at school. And she stated, sure, that used to mean it used to be a kitchen phrase to say 86, which means to get it off the menu. And I believed, well, that’s a clever political message. By no means took place to me and in truth still doesn’t that its related to violence.

BERMAN: It nonetheless doesn’t, even supposing people have pointed it out that it has been used in that context. COMEY: Sure, I’ve by no means considered it used in that context or heard it used in that context — nonetheless.

BERMAN: How was once your interview with the Secret Carrier about this?

COMEY: Oh, excellent, they’re whole pros. I’ve worked with Secret Carrier for a lot of, many years, they usually requested the suitable questions, trying to be mindful why I did it. We had a very an identical dialog to the one you and I simply had.

BERMAN: Did you permit pondering that they believed you, or did you leave considering they nonetheless had concerns?

COMEY: I — neatly, I don’t have any cause to imagine they don’t consider me. And so, I feel like they requested the best questions, and I can’t imagine there’ll be any further on it.

BERMAN: Your e-book is set type of protected speech when secure speech turns into political violence. Is that a fair strategy to symbolize it? It’s about an extreme podcaster, right, who talks about issues. And then there are acts of political violence.

COMEY: Proper, it’s about a proper-wing extremist trying to motivate followers to violence through his words and his broadcast.

BERMAN: It’s fascinating that your e-book is about that and now there is this dialogue about speech, things said, and whether it may be motivating toward violence, Sure?

COMEY: Yes, not fascinating to me. A bit of a distraction, actually. However the book is set the most important question, and I don’t see the seashell thing as a very powerful issue, but I’m hoping folks will learn the book and spot that it’s a perfect thriller, nevertheless it’s also about issues which can be vital and current.

Watch above by means of Anderson Cooper 360.

The put up CNN Anchor Flat-Out Asks Comey About 86 Trump Pic: ‘Possibly I Just Shouldn’t Put up This?” first seemed on Mediaite.