An Air Force veteran and congressional candidate in Florida is defiantly selling merchandise emblazoned with the numbers '8647' after the Justice Department indicted former FBI Director James Comey for posting a photo featuring the same digits. Mark Davis, an unaffiliated candidate for Florida's 16th district, drives a car with an '8647' licence plate, wears a hat with the numbers, and sells hats and T-shirts on his campaign website.
The numbers have become a rallying cry for opponents of President Donald Trump: '86' is slang for getting rid of something, while '47' refers to Trump as the 47th president. The Justice Department indicted Comey for allegedly making threats against the president by posting an Instagram photo of seashells arranged to read '86 47'. Davis told NBC News: 'Arrest us all. I dare you. I am done staying quiet.'
Davis has used '86 47' to express his disdain for Trump since announcing his congressional campaign last year. After Comey's indictment, Davis posted a photo of himself wearing an '86 47' hat and posing with his licence plate, captioning it: 'Thanks a lot DOJ… You just made this a little awkward.' He plans to wear the merchandise daily until the election.
Trump claimed '86' is a mob term for 'kill him', but Davis dismissed this interpretation as 'silly', describing it as a restaurant term. Hundreds of similar items are available on Amazon, Redbubble and Etsy. Comey, first indicted last year on charges of lying to Congress, pleaded not guilty; a judge later dismissed the case over an unlawfully appointed prosecutor.
