If you’re a Boomer, you surely know what “86” means. So when former FBI Director James Comey — a Boomer and career intelligence officer, to boot — posted “Cool shell formation on my beach walk” on Instagram along with a photo of seashells arranged to read “8647,” few people should have had trouble deciphering that he meant “get rid of President 47.”

The reaction tsunami was certainly instant.

“Just James Comey causally [sic] calling for my dad to be murdered,” posted Donald Trump Jr. on X. “This is who the Dem-Media worships. Demented!!!!”

“Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination of @POTUS Trump,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem also wrote on X. “DHS and Secret Service is investigating this threat and will respond appropriately.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard argued that Comey should be “put behind bars” for “issuing a call to assassinate” President Donald Trump. She added, “The rule of law says people like him who issue direct threats against the POTUS, essentially issuing a call to assassinate him, must be held accountable under the law.”

President Trump himself weighed in this morning, saying, “He knew exactly what that meant. A child knows what that meant. … That meant ‘assassination.’”

Current FBI Director Kash Patel posted, “We are aware of the recent social media post by former FBI Director James Comey, directed at President Trump. We are in communication with the Secret Service and Director [Sean] Curran.”

Comey eventually removed the post, pleading ignorance. “I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” he said in a follow-up. “I didn’t realize some folks associate those numbers with violence. It never occurred to me but I oppose violence of any kind so I took the post down.”

James Comey is a Trump-hating partisan. No one doubts his animosity for the man he surveilled under false pretenses, investigated to hamstring his presidency, and now resents for firing him as a result. Believe it or not, there are people out there who didn’t know what “86” means, or even if they did, wouldn’t ascribe violence to it. But I simply don’t buy Comey’s “never occurred to me” defense.

In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if he put the shells there or saw and/or conversed with the person who did, all while getting a good chuckle out of starting an uproar.

Still, I think Comey meant Merriam-Webster’s definition: “Eighty-six is slang meaning ‘to throw out,’ ‘to get rid of,’ or ‘to refuse service to.’ It comes from 1930s soda-counter slang meaning that an item was sold out.” Public figures use “fighting words” to mean figurative things all the time.

However, Wikipedia says, “According to Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang, ‘to 86’ also means ‘to kill, to murder; to execute judicially,’ likely referring to the size of a standard grave being 2.5 feet wide by 8 feet long and 6 feet deep. Other slang dictionaries confirm this definition.”

Google said the same thing when Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer put an “8645” sticker behind her in a video call during the 2020 election. The uproar was similar, although that was before two men actually tried to kill Trump.

Leftists are both violent and grotesquely supportive of violence these days, so looking out for what they love to call “dog whistles” isn’t unreasonable. They also peddle insane lies like the one about Trump’s “bloodbath” comment to pretend like the only possible meaning of figurative language is literal violence.

However, at the risk of getting my Team Player badge revoked, though Comey surely knew what his post could be construed to mean, I actually don’t think he meant it as a call to violence. The reactions from Trump, his son, and his team are fainting couch theatrics meant to gin up the base. In a sense, they’re playing by Democrat rules of the game — though who can blame them? But the former director of the FBI is simply not openly calling for the assassination of the American president.

That doesn’t mean some unhinged lunatic wouldn’t be inspired to take it that way, but Comey should be publicly shamed and ruined, not prosecuted and jailed.

“That’s not to say that he doesn’t belong in jail for a whole host of other reasons,” opines Hot Air’s David Strom. “He does. He abused his power as FBI Director to overturn an election, leaked classified information, and pushed a hoax that led to years of impeachment talk. His FBI lied to the FISA court, and I am pretty sure we could get him for jaywalking if we wanted to.”

Jail also isn’t right for a MAGA firebrand like Jack Posobiec, who took offense at Comey’s call for “left-wing assassins” but who, three years ago, posted “86 46” about Joe Biden. Oops. Ditto for anyone who quotes Psalm 109:8 in a political context: “May his days be few; may another take his office!” None of that is calling for murder.

As a final thought, I’m reminded that Sarah Palin lost her defamation case against The New York Times — twice. The paper’s editorial board accused her of using “stylized cross hairs” [sic] on a map of congressional districts, including Gabby Giffords’s, and the sages on the Times editorial board divined that these crosshairs incited the man who murdered a judge and shot Giffords in the head.

Palin lost her case, even though it was a good one. Let’s not pretend we’re going to win the argument here by using the same tactics as Democrats and The New York Times.

Follow Nate Jackson on X/Twitter.

(Updated)

---

Note: Predictably, some readers take exception to this, arguing I shouldn’t give Comey the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps that’s right. I can’t read his mind, and it’s certainly possible he meant it the way he knew some people would take it. He absolutely has not earned the benefit of the doubt, whether anyone gives it to him or not.