FBI/JAMES COMEY/MEDIA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “For decades, James B. Comey cultivated an image of purity as a lawman who stood above politics and politicians. Then came the book tour. With the release of his memoir this week and a set of high-profile media interviews to publicize it, Mr. Comey — whose firing by President Trump made him a hero to the president’s critics — has veered onto risky terrain, shedding the trappings of a high-minded referee and looking instead like a combatant in the country’s partisan battles. Mr. Comey’s description of the president as an unethical liar ‘morally unfit’ for office; his call for voters to decide Mr. Trump’s fate at the ballot box in 2020; and even his observations about Mr. Trump’s appearance — his ‘orange’ skin, his too-long ties, his hands — are stark departures from the law-enforcement mission of his old agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The personal potshots in particular have surprised some former colleagues who thought of Mr. Comey as relatively sober and serious. Observers on both the left and right — including many who count themselves as fierce critics of Mr. Trump’s — say that in embarking on his star turn, Mr. Comey may be undercutting his own indictment of the president’s character and conduct.”
–Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Jonathan Martin, “James Comey’s Attacks on Trump May Hurt a Carefully Cultivated Image,” The New York Times online, April 16, 2018