Former FBI Director James Comey provoked a wave of mockery after revealing in a recent video that he listens to pop star Taylor Swift while “cutting the grass” and, occasionally, to cope with the fact that President Donald Trump still exists.
In a video shared via Substack, Comey first announced that he’d just recovered from a bout of COVID — “quite a flashback” — and complained about the fact that Trump is president before pivoting to talk about a “truly inspirational public figure.”
That public figure, of course, was Swift — and Comey, in addition to keeping the pop star’s music cued up on his headphones, admitted to being part of a family text group solely for Swifties.
WATCH:
“Taylor Swift has grown up with my family and provided us a soundtrack, really, as we’ve grown ourselves and learned and adapted and dealt with adversity and celebration,” Comey claimed, going on to add that Swift herself had set an example he tried to follow when he resisted the temptation to engage with bullies on social media.
Comey, who recently caught a wave of backlash for a post that was interpreted by many as wishing death on President Trump, said that Swift inspired him to be less “like Trump and his followers” — by which he meant less like the “mean jerks” out there — and said that even satirical posts that he found “funny” could also be a bit troubling.
“But I gotta be honest, it also leaves me with a strange feeling at times, because I don’t want us to become like Trump and his followers. There are far more decent, honest, kind people in America than there are mean jerks. And don’t get me wrong, we have our jerks, millions of them.”
“Of course, we need to stand up to jerks and defend what matters, but I think we have to try to do that without becoming like them, which is what makes me think about Taylor Swift,” he said. “She’s made clear that she sees Donald Trump for what he is. Last year, she urged Americans not to make the serious mistake of electing him. Of course, we’re now living with the consequences of that mistake. But while our elderly makeup-covered president is posting about whether Taylor Swift is still hot and declaring that he can’t stand her, what’s she doing? Living her best life, producing great music and, as she urged all of us to do during the podcast, not giving the jerks power over her mind.”
Critics were quick to mock Comey once the video began to make the rounds on social media.
“James Comey is a 64 year old man, and he just put out a video saying that listening to Taylor Swift helps him deal with another man. This is now confirmation that Trump Derangement Syndrome is the worst and funniest mental disorder on planet Earth,” James Langman posted.
The “Ruthless” Podcast hosts weighed in on Comey as well, saying, “It all started when he became famous for trying to take down Martha Stewart, and he never stopped that appetite for publicity.”
“I will repeat what I have said many times: there is something fundamentally off about Comey,” Jerry Dunleavy added.
“They said it couldn’t be done. They said the celebrities singing Imagine was the summit of second-hand embarrassment. And if not that then definitely the Binder Brigade,” another posted. “But then Jim Comey came along and said hold my beer, I’m gonna talk about Taylor Swift.”
