Presidential historian Jon Meacham commented James Comey had evolved from being the left's "bête noire" to its "hero" during an appearance on MSNBC Friday.
The ex-FBI Director's new book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies and Leadership, savages President Donald Trump as "untethered to truth and institutional values," likening him to a mob boss whose leadership style is entirely transactional. Trump called Comey a "slime ball" on Friday.
Meacham, who cautioned he hadn't read Comey's book, said Comey had a "Sir Thomas More" quality where he "enjoyed martyrdom."
"James Comey has done something remarkable," he said. "He has gone from being the bête noire of the Left, because of the announcement about the [Clinton] emails in late October of 2016, to being the hero of the Left. It's a sign of the tilt-a-whirl nature of politics in the era of Trump, and his account of what it was like to actually try to serve this president, to do your job under this president, is disturbing."
The contemporary opinion of Comey among Democrats has evolved over the past two years. Comey was bathed with praise after announcing he would not recommend criminal charges against Hillary Clinton in the summer of 2016, despite calling her "extremely careless" with classified material through her private email server use.
However, he was blasted by Democrats—and continues to be blamed to this day by Clinton for her loss to Trump—after his October 28, 2016, letter to Congress announcing newly discovered emails related to Clinton's server during an investigation into ex-congressman Anthony Weiner. Several called for his resignation; Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) at one point declared he "has no credibility."
Comey seemed to re-enter the left's favor when he was unceremoniously fired by Trump last May and leading up to his Capitol Hill testimony in June.