Former FBI Director James Comey said that he and President Trump once stared each other into silence during a one-on-one dinner at the White House. The bizarre story is one of the stranger details to come out of the opening remarks Comey prepared for his testimony Thursday before the Senate Intelligence Committee but released to the media on Wednesday.
As Comey describes it in his remarks, he met Trump for a dinner in the White House Green Room on January 27, during which Trump asked if Comey planned to stay on as FBI director.
Comey said the question surprised him because Trump “had already told me twice in earlier conversations that he hoped I would stay, and I had assured him that I intended to.”
Trump continued, according to Comey, by saying that “lots of people wanted my job,” and considering “the abuse I had taken] in 2016,” Trump would understand if Comey wanted to quit.
At this point, Comey said he determined that “the dinner was, at least in part, an effort to have me ask for my job and create some sort of patronage relationship.”
Comey further said he told Trump that he’s “not on anybody’s side politically” but would act honestly. According to Comey, Trump responded, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”
It was at this point that the staring contest — “awkward silence,” as Comey puts it — started.
“I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence,” Comey wrote in his prepared statement.
“The conversation then moved on, but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner… Near the end of our dinner, the President returned to the subject of my job, saying he was very glad I wanted to stay,” Comey continued.
Things got weirder after that, according to Comey’s statement.
“[Trump] then said, ‘I need loyalty.’ I replied, ‘You will always get honesty from me.’ He paused and then said, ‘That’s what I want, honest loyalty.’ I paused, and then said, ‘You will get that from me.’ As I wrote in the memo I created immediately after the dinner, it is possible we understood the phrase ‘honest loyalty’ differently, but I decided it wouldn’t be productive to push it further. The term — honest loyalty — had helped end a very awkward conversation and my explanations had made clear what he should expect,” Comey wrote.
Comey will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday at 10 a.m. ET