Veteran journalist Geraldo Rivera launched into a blistering critique of former FBI Director James Comey this week, accusing him of corrupting the 2016 election and betraying both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton through arrogance and political interference.
Appearing on Dan Abrams’ SiriusXM show Monday, Rivera spared no words for the former law enforcement chief. “I like John Durham — I like him a whole lot more than I like James Comey,” Rivera said. “James Comey is a piece of sh*t as far as I’m concerned. He gave the election — he stripped Hillary Clinton of her chance to win the election fair and square. His ego was so vast he couldn’t stop the temptation to go in and out of the last weeks of the 2016 election, putting his beefy hand on the scale of justice. I don’t like him at all.”
Abrams noted the irony that Rivera’s disdain for Comey mirrors, in tone if not in reasoning, the outrage that many conservatives have directed at the former FBI director. “Many on the right are insisting Comey was out to get Trump,” Abrams pointed out.
Rivera, who was once among Trump’s closest media allies before the two split in recent years, said he understood why many of the president’s supporters hold deep animosity toward Comey. “I was very close to the president in the beginning of his term, 2017, those first six months that Comey was there,” Rivera recalled. “He was a rat, he was really a total punk to the president. He was disrespectful, barely shook his hand, wouldn’t look him in the eye — because [Jeff] Sessions went belly up, the AG went belly up, the first pick, Comey stepped in there, big footing. He really made Trump’s life miserable.”
Rivera’s comments reflect a broader frustration that stretches across party lines: that Comey’s tenure at the FBI blurred the line between justice and politics. His decision to reopen the investigation into Clinton’s emails just days before the 2016 election infuriated Democrats, while his handling of the Russia investigation earned him lasting condemnation from Republicans. To Rivera, it was Comey’s towering self-regard that drove both decisions.
Despite his anger toward Comey, Rivera said he opposed the former FBI director’s recent indictment, questioning the wisdom of expending federal resources on what he sees as political vendettas. “Why are we using our precious resources to settle grudges? It’s pathetic. Who benefits?” he asked. Abrams agreed, calling the ongoing cycle of prosecution and reprisal “a symptom of a sick political culture.”
Rivera also reflected on his long and complicated relationship with Trump, which began in the 1970s but ended after the 2020 election. The journalist said the split came when he refused to endorse Trump’s claim that the election was stolen. “He made me dump him,” Rivera said.
Last year, Rivera told journalist Molly Jong-Fast that while he once admired Trump, he now believes the president is “unfit” to serve again. “I feel a loss of a friendship, but it’s been over three years in the making,” he said. “I’ve decided that it’s not enough for me just to be against Trump. I want to be for somebody, and I think Kamala Harris would be a terrific president.”
Rivera’s remarks offered a rare window into how Washington’s political and media figures, even those with long histories of proximity to power, continue to wrestle with the fallout of an era shaped by Comey’s fateful choices and Trump’s turbulent presidency.
[READ MORE: Police Arrest Suspect Outside D.C. Cathedral Ahead of Annual Red Mass]
