He was resolute, too, but not without a sense of humor (“Lordy, I hope there are tapes”). And it was hard not to be charmed by his admission that he wished he hadn’t broken a date with his wife to have a dinner date with Trump (“In retrospect, I love spending time with my wife and wish I would have been there that night,” he said with a smile).

And so the 56-year-old, fired FBI director became a very unlikely sex symbol. Sure, he has a somewhat peaked complexion and under-eye bags that look like half-inflated tubular balloons. But he’s handsome, and as with all sex symbols–both the unlikely ones and the obvious ones–he embodies certain qualities in society that we all lust after: integrity, emotional complexity, and quiet but certain confidence.

That combined with his imposing physical stature gives him the same alluring masculinity as sex symbols like Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice (particularly Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy in the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice).