Donald Trump reacts to Comey's 8647 message and clarification: 'A child knows what that meant'

President Donald Trump reacted to the 'assassination' call by former FBI chief James Comey through his cryptic '8647' message that he later deleted, and said Comey knew exactly what that meant. Even a child knows the meaning of 8647, Trump told the Fox News after Comey said it was not a call for assassination, but a political message, nonetheless. “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant,” Trump told Fox host Bret Baier in an interview airing on Friday. “If you’re the FBI director and you don’t know what that meant, that meant ‘assassination.’ It says that loud and clear.”

Calling him a 'dirty cop', Trump said the decision on whether to prosecute him over this will be taken by Attorney General Pam Bondi. The Donald Trump administration strongly condemned the 8647 message and the Secret Service is investigating this. FBI director Kash Patel assured the agency's support for this. DNITulsi Gabbard called it “a veiled call to action to murder the sitting president of the United States” and suggested Comey should be immediately imprisoned.“James Comey should be held accountable and put behind bars for this,” Gabbard told Fox News last night.

What does 86 47 mean?Comey posted a picture of seashells formed in the shape of 86 47. He captioned it at "cool shell formation on my beach walk". This was interpreted as an assassination call for 47, the 47th president, Donald Trump, as 86 stands for getting rid of. In the restaurant and bar industry, the phrase is used to indicate to staff that a menu item has run out, or that a customer is banned.

“Just James Comey casually calling for my dad to be murdered. This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!!” Donald Trump's eldest son Donald Trump Jr posted.

Comey deleted the image amid the controversy and said he thought it was a political message and he did not realize that it would get interpreted with violence. “I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message. I didn’t realize folks associate those numbers with violence,” Comey wrote on Instagram.

Several Democrats claimed that for Joe Biden, 86 always meant 'impeach' for the Republicans but for Donald Trump, it means 'assassination'.

Donald Trump vs James Comey

Comey was fired by Donald Trump in 2017 and since then Comey became a vocal Trump critic. In his 2018 book A Higher Loyalty, he described Trump as “unethical” and “untethered to truth,” calling him “morally unfit”. Trump retaliated, labeling Comey a “liar and leaker” and claiming his firing was a “great service” to the country. Comey’s 2021 book Saving Justice continued his critique, arguing Trump’s administration undermined truth and justice.