Former FBI Director James Comey took his book tour to CBS and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he promoted his new novel about a violent right-wing podcaster while the eponymous host absolved him of any wrongdoing over his recent 8647 Instagram post that some interpreted as a call to kill President Trump.
Colbert began by begrudgingly bringing up the Instagram post, “You stirred up a little controversy recently. I was going to say that you landed in some hot water, but it's not hot water. It's just water because I don't know if you do this on purpose just to get attention, but you—is this Instagram? You gram-ed this. You are walking down the beach. What happened? You're walking down the beach, and you saw this on the beach?”
Comey recalled strolling down the beach with his wife and “She looked at it and said, ‘Why’d someone put their address in the sand?’ And then we stood at it, looked at it trying to figure out what it was, and she’d long been a server in restaurants, and she said, “You know, I think it is, I think it's a reference to restaurants when you’d 86 something at a restaurant.’”
Even if one grants Comey the benefit of the doubt that he was not seriously calling for Trump’s assassination, he did just admit to posting something on Instagram despite not knowing what it means. However, Comey continued, “And so I said, ‘I think it's a clever political message,’ and she said, ‘You should take a picture of it.’ I said, ‘Sure.’ She said, “You should Instagram that,’ and boom.”
After recalling the Secret Service conversation that followed, Colbert wondered, “What did they say? Did they explain why 8647 was so bad? It's better than 6947. I don’t—what did they say? Did they say, “We get it, go home”?
Comey claimed to tell the Secret Service exactly what he told Colbert, which led Colbert to claim, “Congratulations on the attention for your book. There you go. That is a hell of a viral campaign.”
Speaking of the book, later in their discussion, Colbert asked, “Let's get to the book here. As I said, it's a crime novel: FDR Drive. It’s your third book in a series of legal thrillers. What's it about? Is it a whodunit?”
Comey wants people to be charitable towards him, but his novel paints conservative podcasters as cartoonishly evil:
No. It's a story I wrote last year, not knowing what America would be like in May of this year, about a right-wing podcaster who's inspiring his followers to engage in violence against disaffected groups and their representatives, and it's about my protagonist, Nora Carleton, trying to figure out, "So when does speech become crime and how do I stop innocent people from being murdered and beaten? Because this guy is exhorting people to go after these kind of folks," and so, you know who the bad guy is. The question is, can we get the bad guy and stop him? And then there's other twists I don't want to give away, but it’s a legal thriller and a sort of police procedural.
Putting Comey’s social media habits aside, the fact that the former FBI director is essentially writing liberal fan fiction is enough to look back and see that Trump was right to fire him.
Here is a transcript for the May 20-taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
5/21/2025
12:05 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: You stirred up a little controversy recently. I was going to say that you landed in some hot water, but it's not hot water. It's just water because I don't know if you do this on purpose just to get attention, but you — is this Instagram?
JAMES COMEY: Instagram, yeah.
COLBERT: You gram-ed this. You are walking down the beach. What happened? You're walking down the beach, and you saw this on the beach?
COMEY: Yeah, my wife and I, Patrice, were walking on the beach and saw those numbers and shells on the beach.
COLBERT: You didn't do this. Somebody else did this.
COMEY: Yeah, somebody else did it. We were on a walk, preparing for this week.
COLBERT: Yeah, right.
COMEY: The rollout of my book.
COLBERT: Yup.
COMEY: She looked at it and said, "Why’d someone put their address in the sand?"
COLBERT: All right.
COMEY: And then we stood at it, looked at it trying to figure out what it was, and she’d long been a server in restaurants, and she said, “You know I think it is—
COLBERT: Yeah. Yeah.
COMEY: I think it's a reference to restaurants when you’d 86 something at a restaurant.”
COLBERT: Right. Off the menu.
COMEY: Yeah. I said, “Nah, I remember when I was a kid, you’d say 86 to get out of a place. This place stinks. Let’s 86 it."
COLBERT: I was a bartender, you would 86 a customer if they were getting drunk. Like, let’s 86 ‘em, give them a low proof alcohol or something like that, yeah.
COMEY: And so I said, “I think it's a clever political message,” and she said, “You should take a picture of it.” I said “Sure.” She said you should Instagram that,” and boom.
COLBERT: Well, the president does not think it was clever. He said "A child knows what that meant. That meant assassination." They said the Secret Service is going to call you. Have you been called by federal authorities?
COMEY: Yeah. It doesn't mean that to this child of God but I saw that he said that and Secret Service called me that night—
COLBERT: Yeah, yeah.
COMEY: — and I talked to a duty agent and they asked me if I’d come and be interviewed and I said “of course.”
COLBERT: Yeah.
COMEY: And, so I met with them and said, told them, like this interview.
COLBERT: Yeah. Yeah.
COMEY: And I hope and expect that's the end of it.
COLBERT: Like this interview? Is this like talking to a Secret Service agent? I've got to back off on my guests if I feel that federal to them. What did they say? Did they explain why 8647 was so bad? It's better than 6947. I don’t—what did they say? Did they say, “We get it, go home”?
COMEY: All they did was act like pros and they are pros. Just said "what did you intend, what did you understand, why did you do this?" And I gave them the exact same explanation, which is the truth, and I would expect it to go away.
COLBERT: Okay. Okay. Congratulations on the attention for your book. There you go. That is a hell of a viral campaign.
…
COLBERT: Let's get to the book here. As I said, it's a crime novel: FDR Drive. It’s your third book in a series of legal thrillers. What's it about? Is it a whodunit?
COMEY: No. It's a story I wrote last year, not knowing what America would be like in May of this year, about a right-wing podcaster who's inspiring his followers to engage in violence against disaffected groups and their representatives, and it's about my protagonist, Nora Carleton, trying to figure out, "So when does speech become crime and how do I stop innocent people from being murdered and beaten? Because this guy is exhorting people to go after these kind of folks," and so, you know who the bad guy is. The question is, can we get the bad guy and stop him? And then there's other twists I don't want to give away, but it’s a legal thriller and a sort of police procedural.
