Former FBI director James Comey on Tuesday predicted he would still be head of the FBI if Hillary Clinton had won the 2016 presidential election over Donald Trump.
Comey, who critics say mishandled the investigation into Clinton's private email server, spoke at a book signing hosted by Axios and the Politics and Prose bookstore for his new book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, at George Washington University.
Axios executive editor and co-founder Mike Allen asked Comey, who was fired by President Trump last May, whether he wished Clinton had won the 2016 election.
"Do I wish she had won?" Comey said. "That's one I am not going to answer, I don't think."
Allen then clarified whether his family supported Clinton, prompting Comey to say, "Yeah. That's for sure." He followed up by asking Comey what his life would be like if Clinton had won.
"I think I would still be the FBI director," Comey said. "And the reason I say that is, someone asked me to compare the two, and it's too hard for me to compare the two, except Secretary Clinton is someone deeply enmeshed in the rule of law, respect for institutions, a lawyer. So given that background, I'm reasonably confident that even though she was unhappy with the decisions the FBI had made, she would not fire the FBI director as a result."
Comey followed up with an equivocation, as he has often done in recent interviews, frequently saying different outcomes are "possible."
"But again, I don't know that for sure," Comey said.
Clinton and some former campaign aides responded to their 2016 loss by rehashing the election and blaming several factors for their loss to Trump. Clinton released her 2016 campaign book, What Happened, last September, where she blamed Russia's election meddling, Comey, and numerous other external factors for her defeat.