The Watergate scandal has been long forgotten, but Trump could easily have won in a Trumpian election with no scandal, according to former FBI director James Comey.
In a speech on Monday at Harvard Law School, Comey argued that Trump could’ve lost the election with a “lesser of two evils” scenario.
He said the president’s political and moral failings were so obvious that even a “much less egregious” alternative was possible.
“In my view, a lesser of two evil scenario,” Comey said, “would be to have a less of two people [in the White House] that had not committed criminal or unethical acts.”
The former FBI chief said that “if a candidate who had never committed a crime, had never violated the law, and was not impeached, had been elected, that would have been the outcome that I would have expected.”
“It would be a lesser evil,” Comey added, “if the president had not been impeached.”
Comey did not offer an alternative to Trump’s impeachment, but he did call it “an option that we had not considered.”
He said he was not “prepared to give up any of our core principles.”
“We will not allow a president to be convicted on a felony, and then lose the presidency on a lesser-of-two-evil theory,” Comey told the audience at Harvard.
“We will make sure he never has a chance to lose again.”
