Former FBI director James Comey said in a recent interview that he has “never” seen President Trump laugh.
Comey made the comment to George Stephanopoulos in a Sunday interview on ABC’s “20/20.”
“You notice something else during that dinner,” Stephanopoulos said to Comey during the interview, according to CNN. “You say the president didn’t laugh.”
“Yeah, not at all,” the former director responded. “And I was struck by it. So struck by it, it stayed with me, that I’ve never seen him laugh. Not in public, not in private.”
Comey specifically pointed to a dinner that he said sparked his interest in Trump’s apparent lack of laughter.
“I’m not a comedian, but I occasionally say something that’s funny, that people chuckle with each other,” Comey said. “But I never saw anything that resembled a laugh.”
He added that after Trump fired him last May, he stayed interested in the observation and tried to find “examples of videos” that show the president laughing.
{mosads}“I could overinterpret that,” Comey said. “Maybe he’s breaking up in stitches with other people other than the FBI director, but … I went and tried to find examples of videos where he’s laughing and I could only find [ones] that really wasn’t a genuine laugh.”
Comey has reentered the spotlight in recent weeks due to the release of his new book, “A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership.” In it, he makes several personal jabs at Trump, including mocking his hairstyle and saying that he assumes the president has white circles under his eyes due to tanning goggles.
Trump has fired back at Comey in recent days, referring to him as a “slime ball” and “slippery” in response to claims made in his book and in related interviews.
Though Trump is not necessarily well-known for his sense of humor, he has been known to make jokes during public appearances. As recently as February, Trump made a self-deprecating joke about his hair in response to a viral video that appeared to reveal a bald spot.
The White House has also passed off many of Trump’s controversial comments as “jokes,” including when he called Democrats “treasonous” for not applauding during his State of the Union address.