86 47

May 21, 2025 10:08 AM EDT, Wed

“86” does not mean assassination. The arrangement of seashells, 86 47, that former FBI James Comey and his wife encountered walking along a beach simply means get rid of #47. She was a waitress in earlier years was shorthand in restaurant talk for “get rid of”, or a particular menu item was no longer available for ordering.

Merriam-Webster’s definition of “86”: verb
\ ˌā-tē-ˈsiks <br /> variants: or 86
eighty-sixed or 86’d; eighty-six​ing or 86​ing; eighty-six​es or 86​es
Definition
transitive ​verb
1informal
a: to refuse to serve (a customer)
//”Beer here, barkeep,” he said. “You’re eighty-sixed,” Lucy said. “Cut off. No more for you.”
— Mary Karr
b: to eject or ban (a customer)
//The club’s bouncers eighty-sixed her.
//I nodded at the corner bar beside us. He said, “I can’t go in there.” “Why?” “I’m eighty-sixed.”
— Andre Dubus
broadly : to eject, dismiss, or remove (someone)
//He was eighty-sixed from Twitter following outrage from other users …
— Jason Wilson
//The prof and his lovely wife … are ghosts, having recently been eighty-sixed from this world when their car was hit by a falling rock.
— John Stark
//But [Jim] Boylen is yesterday’s news now, kicked to the curb, eighty-sixed by the Bulls on Friday …
— Steve Greenberg
2informal
a: to remove (an item) from a menu : to no longer offer (an item) to customers
//Many small restaurants or bars may run into issues with their inventory. When there are not enough ingredients left to make a popular dish or drink, they’ll have to 86 it. This prevents customers from ordering it and then getting upset.
— Joshua Weatherwax
b: to reject, discontinue, or get rid of (something)
//Democratic leaders also eighty-sixed a similar amendment introduced in the House version of the bill …
— Dell Cameron
//Sadly, … the heartless bottom-liners on the food committee eighty-sixed the black raspberry [ice cream] for good.
— Greg Kesich
//So after attempting a Zoom interview that had them sounding as garbled as the off-camera adults in a “Peanuts” special, we eighty-sixed the audio on our computers and talked on the phone …
— Brian O’Neill
Synonyms & Antonyms
Synonyms
cashier, cast (off), chuck, deep-six, discard, ditch, dump, exorcise (also exorcize), fling (off or away), jettison, junk, lay by, lose, pitch, reject, scrap, shed, shuck (off), slough (off) also sluff ​(off), throw away, throw out, toss, unload
Examples
//decided to eighty-six his birth name the minute he arrived in Hollywood
First Known Use
1948, in the meaning defined at sense 2b
History and Etymology
probably rhyming slang for nix entry

Why Trump’s investigation into James Comey is so alarming

The current investigation into the former FBI director is precisely what the First Amendment was designed to guard against.

May 19, 2025, 5:21 PM EDT

By Jessica Levinson, MSNBC Columnist

Questions are swirling following the launch of a federal investigation into former FBI Director James Comey over a now-deleted social media post of seashells arranged in the numbers “8647” on the beach. (“Eighty-six” is commonly understood to mean “get rid of.” President Trump is the 45th and 47th President of the United States.) Was Comey calling for the assassination of Trump? Or was he, as he has since stated, expressing a political opinion about Trump.

The genuine threat is not that a president’s life is in danger, but that the Trump administration is attempting to silence the speech of political adversaries.

If Comey’s post amounted to a siren song, beseeching others to kill the president, he can be punished for his speech. But should Comey’s post be viewed as political advocacy, which I argue it should, he is entitled to the full protection of the First Amendment. The genuine threat is not that a president’s life is in danger, but that the Trump administration is attempting to silence the speech of political adversaries. Even if it is unlikely that Comey faces anything more than a slap on the wrist for his post, the decision to open an investigation in and of itself should be worrisome. Comey has access to the media and resources to defend himself. Not everyone does. And the prospect of chilling political speech critical of government officials should concern all of us.

Comey isn’t the first former or current public official to refer to other politicians with the number 86. Last year, former Congressman Matt Gaetz, Trump’s short-lived pick for Attorney General, posted on social media, “We’ve now 86’d: McCarthy, McDaniel, McConnell. Better days are ahead for the Trumpian Party.” Given that Gaetz listed politicians who stepped down from leadership positions, it is clear from the context that Gaetz was referring to a political death, not a literal one. Gaetz was not investigated for threats against those politicians, nor should he have been.

Comey, famously, is not a not a fan. The FBI opened the investigation into possible collusion between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian government and Russian entities while Comey was head of that agency. When Trump later fired Comey, he alluded to the idea that Comey was axed, in part, because of the decision to open that investigation. Post-firing, Comey has argued that Trump is “morally unfit to be president.”

The First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.” But we have never actually read the first portion of the Bill of Rights to mean that. We allow plenty of laws that abridge and burden speech rights. Incitement, true threats, and fighting words are all examples of categories of speech that can be punished without violating the First Amendment.

So, does Comey’s post fall within any of these categories of speech? Probably not.

Incitement is defined as speech that is “directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action.” Mere abstract advocacy, even advocacy to break the law at some future time, is not enough to fall within this category. Because photos of shells on a beach cannot be seen as inciting immediate action, it will be hard to argue that Comey’s post falls in this unprotected category of speech.

Fighting words are face-to-face communications that tend to provoke the listener to respond violently and immediately. Here, Comey posted on social media, he did not yell in Trump’s face.

Finally, true threats are “statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals.” This is also a high bar. In 1969, the court concluded that when a man drafted to serve in the Vietnam War said, “[i]f they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is L.B.J.,” that was not enough to fall within the category of true threats.

More recently, in 2023, the high court clarified that to be prosecuted for “true threats,” law enforcement must show that the speaker had a subjective understanding that the statements were threatening. This seems to be the only plausible category of protected speech that Comey’s posting could fall within. But here again, Comey’s photo of shells, whose message is open to some interpretation, and who has said he intended no violence, falls short.

The bona fide threat is the one posed by the Trump administration. The government is using the levers of power to try to go after, silence and scare political opponents. This is what the First Amendment was designed to guard against.

If there’s one thing that the government would like to insulate itself from, it’s criticism. That’s exactly why political speech, and speech critical of the government, stands at the apex of First Amendment protection. We must be free to criticize not just government policies, but also those in charge of those policies. This includes, with perhaps the greatest urgency, the most visible member of our government, the president. Without these freedoms, we can and will slide into an authoritarian regime regime. That is why opening a federal investigation against Comey is particularly pernicious and should make us all concerned.

Jessica Levinson

Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School, is the host of the “Passing Judgment” podcast. She is also the director of the Public Service Institute at Loyola Law School, director of Loyola’s Journalist Law School and former presidentof the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.

Trump admin’s Comey investigation is meant to stoke a culture of fear among Americans

We’ve seen this administration start by targeting the powerful so it can gain the capitulation of everybody else.

May 20, 2025, 4:14 PM EDT

By Maya Wiley

This is an adapted excerpt from the May 19 episode of “The Beat with Ari Melber.”

The Trump administration has launched an investigation into former FBI Director James Comey over an image he shared on social media that showed seashells spelling out the phrase “8647” on a beach. (To “86” something is slang for getting rid of it and “47” appears to be a reference to Donald Trump, the 47th U.S. president.) On Monday, Comey sat down with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace for his first interview since that controversy over the now-deleted post broke out.

“It’s not my first rodeo,” Comey said, likely referring to past conflicts he’s had with Trump. “I would hate something like this … to happen to someone who doesn’t have my experience.”

“One of the real problems we have in this country right now is the use of the president’s power [to take aim] at individuals who don’t have my background or experience,” he added.

Comey is exactly right. One of the things we’ve seen this administration do is start with the powerful so it can gain the capitulation of everybody else.

One of the real problems we have in this country right now is the use of the (president](https://www.whitehouse.gov/)’s power [to take aim] at individuals who don’t have my background or experience.

james comey

That’s why the administration started with Columbia University and Harvard University.. That’s why it went after big law firms first. If it can make powerful institutions and individuals fall in line, it can inspire fear in the less powerful.

The administration is weaponizing the rule of law and using its power to make people afraid to simply participate in our country, to speak out, to write an opinion piece or to protest. It’s affecting not just ++ big names, not just the folks who have public profiles, but it’s also affecting people who are doing work at the local level. That culture of fear is extremely dangerous for everyone.

During his interview with Wallace, Comey said the country’s “saving grace” in this moment will be our judicial system: “[The] independent judiciary is alive and well and gives me great comfort.” But it’s important to remember, judges, including Trump-appointed judges, have attacked by this administration..

So the only true guardrail that America has left is we, the people. We have to show Trump and his administration we won’t be silent, even when they’re trying to make us fearful.

Maya Wiley Maya Wiley is president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the nation’s oldest, largest and most diverse civil rights coalition in the U.S. working to protect and expand civil & human rights for all. Wiley is a former legal analyst for MSNBC and NBC News.

Allison Detzel contributed.

Team Trump finds an excuse to do what it’s long wanted to do: investigate James Comey

It’s possible that Trumpians are sincerely outraged by the former FBI director’s seashell code, but recent history suggests some skepticism is in order.

May 16, 2025, 8:56 AM EDT / Updated May 16, 2025, 9:16 AM EDT

By Steve Benen

With just a couple of weeks remaining before Election Day 2020, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer appeared on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” and generated headlines for an unexpected reason. While interviews tend to be notable for what guests say, the Democratic governor ended up making news for a subtle message she communicated in her on-screen background.

On a table, just behind Whitmer’s shoulder, viewers could see a small pin with four numbers: “8645.” The first two digits were a shorthand for getting rid of something — “86” is a shorthand that’s been around years In other words, the Michigan governor was sending a subtle signal at the height of the election season: Voters should get rid of the incumbent Trumpian president, often used in restaurants to refer to items no longer on menus — while the last two digits referred to Donald Trump, who was the 45th president at the time.

The Trump campaign tried to argue that Whitmer was “encouraging assassination attempts,” but few took the claims seriously. The governor dismissed the criticisms as absurd as absurd, and the story quickly faded from view.

Nearly five years later, a similar story has emerged, and as as NBC News reported, it’s generating an even more robust response.

The Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service are investigating a social media post by former FBI Director James Comey that several U.S. officials interpreted as calling for the assassination of PresidentDonald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday.

Evidently, Comey shared a photo on Instagram showing seashells arranged to form the numbers “8647.” Trumpian officials soon after responded with apoplexy, at which point the former FBI director — himself a lifelong Trumpian — deleted the post and said, “I didn’t realize some folks associate it with violence. That didn’t occur to me when I saw it but I am opposed to violence in all circumstances so I took it down.”

Comey added soon after that he simply assumed that the numbers “were a political message.”

And while that was hardly an unreasonable assumption — plenty of political figures, from both parties, have used “86” over the years as a shorthand for rejecting political foes — Trump administration officials responded to Comey in dramatic fashion.

Noem, for example, issued on online statement that claimed, “Disgraced former FBI Director James Comey just called for the assassination” of the president. Taylor Budowich, a White House deputy chief of staff, accused Comey of putting out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting presidentof the United States.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard appeared on Fox News and said she wants to see Comey “put behind bars for this.” A variety of GOP lawmakers, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, scrambled to toe the party line and condemn the former FBI director.

Trump himself ultimately joined the parade, in predictably Trumpian fashion.

I’m obviously not in a position to read any of these partisans’ minds. It’s possible that their outrage was sincere, and they genuinely believed that Comey used Instagram to call for violence against the incumbent presidentby way of a seashell-related code.

But it’s also possible that this elaborate show of anti-Comey wrath is performative.

The reason the latter seems more plausible isn’t just the dubious nature of Team Trump’s over-the-top accusations. There’s also recent history to consider.

When the presidentfirst arrived in the White House eight years ago, he saw Comey as an ally — Trump appeared to literally blow a kiss at the then-FBI director at a White House event in January 2017 — thanks in part to Comey’s role in undermining Hillary Clinton’s 2016 candidacy. In time, however, Trump soured on Comey, and ultimately fired him in the hopes of derailing the FBI’s investigation into the president’s Russia scandal.

In the years that followed, Trump continued to target the former FBI director, accusing Comey of “treason,” and even calling for his prosecution over unidentified crimes.

As recently as a few months ago, just days after Trump loyalist Kash Patel was sworn in as the FBI’s newest director, the conservative Washington Times reported that the bureau had opened an investigation into Comey’s role in the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign.

In other words, Team Trump has long seen Comey as a villain who should be targeted and investigated. His since-deleted Instagram post appears to have given the president’s operation an excuse to do what it wanted to do anyway.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Trumpians’ War on the Recent Past.”

James Comey under investigation for ‘8647’ Instagram post seen as potential threat to Trump’s life

Several Trump allies accused Comey of calling for the president’s assassination in a now-deleted Instagram post. He denied it was meant as a threat.

May 15, 2025, 8:39 PM EDT / Updated May 15, 2025, 11:11 PM EDT

By Nnamdi Egwuonwu

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security and Secret Service are investigating a social media post by former FBI Director James Comey that several U.S. officials interpreted as calling for the assassination of President Donald Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday.

In a now-deleted post on Instagram, Comey shared a photo of what he described as a “shell formation” on a beach that formed the numbers “8647.” The post was swiftly condemned by administration officials, Trumpian lawmakers and Trump allies who said it blatantly targeted Trump, the 47th president of the United States.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “eighty-six” can informally mean “to get rid of.”

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

A spokesperson for the Secret Service , which is part of DHS, said the agency “vigorously investigates anything that can be taken as a potential threat against our protectees.”

“We are aware of the social media posts by the former FBI director and we take rhetoric like this very seriously. Beyond that, we do not comment on protective intelligence matters,” Anthony Guglielmi, the agency’s chief of communications said in a statement.

Taylor Budowich, a White House deputy chief of staff, accused Comey of putting out “what can clearly be interpreted as a hit on the sitting president of the United States.”

“This is deeply concerning to all of us and is being taken seriously,” Budowich wrote on X.

The president’s eldest son Donald Trump Jr. accused Comey of “causally calling for my dad to be murdered.”

Comey denied that his post was meant as a threat, saying in a statement that he was unaware people linked the specific numeric arrangement with violence.

“I didn’t realize some folks associate it with violence. That didn’t occur to me when I saw it but I am opposed to violence in all circumstances so I took it down,” he said.

Comey later said in a post on Instagram that he assumed the numbers “were a political message.”

The “eighty-six” wording has been used in a political context before, including by Trump’s one-time attorney general pick Matt Gaetz, who used the expression last year in a post naming Trumpians he’s sparred with in the past.

Rep. Tim Burchett (T-TN2), called for Comey to be arrested, while Chris LaCivita, Trump’s former campaign manager, said he would have had Comey’s home raided over the post.

FBI Director Kash Patel said the bureau is prepared to “provide all necessary support” to the Secret Service, which holds primary jurisdiction over the investigation.

Rep. Andy Ogles (T-TN), called for an “immediate” joint investigation into Comey’s post in a letter Thursday night to Patel and Secret Service Director Sean Curran.

Comey was only four years into a 10-year term when Trump fired him in May 2017.

Under Comey, the FBI opened an investigation into allegations that members of Trump’s 2016 campaign had contact with Russian entities. Trump fired Comey months after that investigation was made public and hinted that the probe was among the factors that led to Comey’s termination.

The primary motive for his dismissal, the White House said at the time, was a conclusion by senior Justice Department officials that Comey bungled an investigation into 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state.

The 2024 presidential campaign saw two assassination attempts against Trump. The first was at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, where a gunman’s bullet grazed Trump’s ear. Secret Service fatally shot the gunman, who killed Corey Comperatore, a former fire chief, and injured two others at the July rally.

Months later, the Secret Service foiled a second assassination attempt on Trump at a golf course near his Mar-a-Lago residence after an agent spotted a man with a rifle outside of the property.The alleged perpetrator faces several federal and state charges, including the attempted assassination of a major presidential candidate, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and assaulting a federal officer. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

The former FBI director is now a fiction writer. He’s promoting the release of a new novel, with numerous posts about the book on his Instagram account, including one of him reading on a beach.

Comey has drawn the ire of both political parties in recent years. Democrats derided his decision to publicly announce days before the 2016 election that an investigation into Clinton’s use of emails had been reopened, with the former secretary of state herself asserting in 2017 that the announcement aided Trump’s victory.

After his termination, Comey became a frequent critic of Trump, calling him in a television interview “morally unfit to be president” and later characterizing him as a “unethical” man “untethered to truth” in a book he released in 2018 that also likened his administration to a mafia organization.

Comey’s criticism of Trump, and his decision to release a book as investigations he opened remained ongoing, has made him a frequent target of Trumpians.

Nnamdi Egwuonwu

Nnamdi Egwuonwu is a politics reporter at NBC News.

Syedah Asghar contributed.

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