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Comey: 'It Sucked' to Be Me in Final Days of 2016 Campaign, 'Everybody Hated Me'

April 15, 2018

Former FBI Director James Comey said "it sucked" to be him the final 10 days of the 2016 presidential campaign and he felt "everybody hated" him after his late October letter to Congress about the reopening of the Hillary Clinton email investigation.

"What did it feel like to be James Comey in the last 10 days of that campaign after you sent the letter?" ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked in an interview airing Sunday night.

"It sucked," Comey said. "I walked around vaguely sick to my stomach, feeling beaten down, felt like I was totally alone, that everybody hated me, and that there wasn't a way out, because it really was the right thing to do."

Comey's Oct. 28, 2016, letter to Congress announcing newly discovered emails related to Clinton's private email server is still viewed by Clinton and her allies as one of the key reasons for her loss. Clinton has even remarked that if the election had been held Oct. 27, she would have been the 45th president.

Comey continued to defend his decision to send the letter about reopening the investigation during his interview with Stephanopoulos, saying he didn't see any other course of action. The emails were discovered on the computer of Anthony Weiner, the estranged husband of Huma Abedin.

"We know there are hundreds of thousands of Hillary Clinton's emails there. That's an affirmative act of concealment," Comey said.

Stephanopoulos, a former top communications aide to President Bill Clinton, scolded Comey over his decision, saying he appeared to be alone in his conclusion to send the letter.

"If you knew that letter would elect Donald Trump, you'd still send it?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"I would," Comey said.

Comey has also said his belief that Clinton would defeat Trump regardless of his actions possibly played a role in his decision to send the letter.