Comey: '86 47' Photo Scrutiny a 'Distraction'

Former FBI Director James Comey asserted Monday that the scrutiny he generated by posting an image of seashells forming the shape of "86 47" last week has been nothing more than a "distraction."

Further, he told MSNBC in an interview that he has no regrets about the uproar because his intentions were "totally innocent" and he in no way was calling for the assassination of President Donald Trump.

Comey on Thursday posted the image of the seashells to his Instagram page but said he meant nothing by it and deleted the post. It did lead to an in-person interview with the U.S. Secret Service on Friday and an onslaught of criticism, either for calling for Trump's assassination, which he denied, or being dense to the connotation of "86 47."

"Well, I regret the distraction and the controversy around it, but again, it's hard to have regret about something that, even in hindsight, looks to me to be totally innocent," Comey told MSNBC.

The Trump administration, however, given the two assassination attempts on Trump in less than a year, called Comey's post "reckless."

"The former FBI director cannot hide behind the old phrase 'too cute by half' on this one," Harrison Fields, principal deputy White House press secretary, told Newsmax on Friday. "He was the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and he knows damn well what '86' means when it comes to law enforcement.

"This is not a server telling the chef [to] '86' that last meal. This is a former FBI director who has gone reckless in his derangement to what it seems to be calling for the assassination, or the getting rid of, the current president of the United States."

Comey said Monday he "assumed" "86 47" was a "political message." However, when he heard from his wife that people had linked it to "some sort of a call for assassination," which he called "crazy," he removed the post, he told MSNBC.

"I took it down. Even if I think it's crazy, I don't want to be associated with violence of any kind."