Fox Reporter Shooed Away After Barging Into James Comey’s Book Signing
Johnny Belisario asked the ex-FBI director about his anti-Trump Instagram post, which enraged the right.
A Fox News producer was escorted out of a James Comey book signing event Tuesday after he barged in to ask about the former FBI director’s attention-grabbing anti-Trump Instagram post.
Johnny Belisario, a producer for Jesse Watters Primetime, began the awkward interaction by telling Comey that Watters had a question about his photo of seashells containing the numbers “86” and “47,” which some of the president’s allies concluded was a call for the president’s assassination.
“Why do you want to ‘86’ Trump?” he asked.
Comey replied, “I’m not taking questions like that now. I’m just signing the book.”
Belisario followed up: “Why would you post that?”
After a long pause, Belisario tried again, asking about Comey’s meeting with the Secret Service.
Belisario asks Comey a question at the Barnes & Noble Upper West Side on May 19, 2025
Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images
“You want to get the book signed? Really?” Comey said. “You got it, bud.”
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Belisario, whom Watters recently sent to confront George Clooney on the red carpet, then reached forward to give him something else to sign.
“And can you sign my seashell too?” he asked. “Which beach is this that you’re going to? You found a Kamala seashell, ‘86 47’—this is a politically charged beach, director.”
“Be well,” Comey replied, clearly done with the interaction at the Manhattan Barnes and Noble. Someone who appeared to be a member of the bookstore staff then told Belisario to leave.
An apparent staff member of the bookstore asked the Fox News personality to leave.
Fox News
Comey has already explained his Instagram post, which he ended up deleting, in multiple media appearances over the past few days.
“I posted earlier a picture of some shells I saw today on a beach walk, which I assumed were a political message,” he wrote on Instagram after posting the photo. “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.”
In restaurant terminology, to “86″ something means to get rid of it, or to ban a patron. That didn’t stop Trump’s allies from freaking out about Comey’s post, though.
Watters himself went so far as to call the arrangement of seashells a crime.
“Trump’s already faced two assassination attempts,” Watters said on his show that night. “Comey should know better, and let’s be honest, he probably does.”
“He’s the former FBI director. He had the codes. He knows what it means,” Watters said. “This obviously is a threat to the president’s life, and that’s illegal.”
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