James Comey's 'Oh Lordy' statement to the Senate Intelligence Session is the new 'bigly' on Twitter

Ousted FBI chief James Comey accused Donald Trump’s White House of lies and defamation Thursday in a sworn testimony that plunged his already troubled presidency deeper into peril.

During almost three hours of extraordinarily frank televised statements, Comey described himself as “stunned” by Trump’s “very disturbing” and “very concerning” behaviour in several private meetings. Detailing one-on-one talks with a sitting president — which under normal circumstances would never see the light of day — Comey said he took painstaking notes for fear Trump might “lie” about the unusual encounters.

Testifying before a Senate committee, Comey said he felt the need to document the interactions — during which he says Trump urged him to drop a probe into a former aide — for fear the president might “lie” about their meetings.

Three days after he fired the FBI chief last month, Trump tweeted: “James Comey better hope that there are no ’tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

He directly addressed Trump’s suggestion, saying: “I’ve seen the tweet about tapes. Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”

And it’s as if that word, ‘Lordy’ echoed with thousands of Twitter users — a collective expression of surprise.

Merriam Webster, known for its tongue-in-cheek dictionary recommendations for the Trump presidency was quick to latch on.

📈 Trending now: probative, fuzz, Lordy, recuse, dais, and contemporaneous (still very high) #ComeyHearing

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) June 8, 2017

'Lordy', in particular, has received quite the workout today.

— Merriam-Webster (@MerriamWebster) June 9, 2017

Michael Moore, who had predicted the Donald Trump win didn’t seem surprised.

Lordy, indeed.

— Michael Moore (@MMFlint) June 8, 2017

Former US attorney Preet Bharara echoed similar sentiments. He was also fired by the Trump administration.

We can all agree with Jim Comey that, Lordy, we hope there are tapes.

— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) June 8, 2017

Singer Jonathan Mann took to his medium of songwriting and put up a lovely song.

♫ Lordy, I Hope There Are Tapes ♫

cc @xeni @ShaunKing pic.twitter.com/UCUQ4TnkGY

— 16 years of song a day (@songadaymann) June 8, 2017

Chris Evans or as many now only know him as Captain America tweeted that he wants those words on a T-Shirt.

Zach Braff, popular actor and well known for his role in Scrubs and Garden State went into the territory of puns.

Newsrooms, apart from reporting on the Comey hearing, had to also figure out the spelling for Lordy. Was it with a y or an ie?

Newsroom email: NPR style will be "lordy," not "lordie." (Apparently 'lawdy' not in consideration)

— Scott Detrow (@scottdetrow) June 8, 2017

Some just felt that Comey was speaking on everyone’s behalf.

Then there were some people, who couldn’t care less about these tapes because the ‘p***y grabbing’ tapes were enough.

Trump: You had better hope there are not tapes.

Comey: Lordy, there may be tapes.

Me: Heard the only tape I need to hear #PxxxyGrabber pic.twitter.com/RZXlTBV4Yy

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) June 8, 2017

And some British folk took a moment to combine the strangeness of Comey’s words and the Hung Parliament in the UK.

With inputs from AFP