The Comey Rule (TV Mini Series)

Night One (2020)

Kingsley Ben-Adir: Barack Obama

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Quotes 

• Barack Obama : You know, uh... if you were to get this job, conversations like this would be impossible. The president and the FBI director, uh... have to be at arm's length. One day, uh, you might be called upon to investigate something someone in my party may have done or someone on my staff or...

  James Comey : You.

  Barack Obama : Well, for those investigations to be credible, well, we cannot be close.

  James Comey : Mr. President, I hope I can look forward to years of not being close with you.

• Barack Obama : What else do I need to know about you, Jim? What do you... what do you think your weaknesses are?

  James Comey : Well... um, sometimes I can be impulsive and... convince myself I'm being decisive.

  Barack Obama : Well, how's your health? Any recurrence?

  James Comey : None, sir. Clean scans for seven years now.

  Barack Obama : Hmm. Because, uh, there's no pressure in any private sector job equivalent to the burden of national security.

  James Comey : That's understood.

  Barack Obama : The director can be a whipping boy for Congress. And you certainly wouldn't make what the private sector can pay you. Given all that, why would you want to come back to government?

  James Comey : When I was, uh, 16... a man in a knit cap broke into our house and put a gun to my kid brother's head. He said, "You move, and I will blow his head off." The guy had been terrorizing our neighborhood for months. They called him the Ramsey Rapist. I showed him where my parents kept their few valuables and begged him not to kill us. For some reason, he didn't. Just locked us in the basement and left. I slept with a butcher knife in my bed for years. The guy was never caught, so I had this... "what if" tape in my head. "What if he comes back? What if my sister is home when he does?" I'd been... powerless. Money is nice. Stopping bad guys is better.

• Barack Obama : Avisor of mine says you were a... an outstanding deputy A.G.

  James Comey : Thank you.

  Barack Obama : He also says you can be self-righteous and, uh, morally superior.

  James Comey : Your advisor sounds like an excellent judge of character.

• Barack Obama : So... why... should I hire you to run the Bureau? Why shouldn't I pick, say... oh, someone who supports my criminal justice reform initiative?

  James Comey : Uh, you could, Mr. President, and that's an issue on which reasonable people can disagree. But I believe stiffer sentencing laws have, on the whole, made the country safer. A lot of Americans aren't dead today because the guys who might have killed them were locked up.

  Barack Obama : Well, still, it might be easier for me to have an FBI director who agrees with me.

  James Comey : Well, that's true, but... you've always struck me as one of those leaders who gains just as much from thoughtful disagreement.

  Barack Obama : Hmm. You garnered a lot of attention for, uh, well, taking on the mob as prosecutor and defending the DOJ in '04.

  James Comey : I suppose that's true.

  Barack Obama : Do you need a lot of attention?

  James Comey : That's not a huge driver for me.

  Barack Obama : No, uh, interest in politics down the line?

  James Comey : None.

  Barack Obama : Good. Politicians are awful.