Washington (CNN)Former FBI Director James Comey called Thursday for the removal of Confederate statues in Virginia's capital in the wake of blackface scandals involving top statewide elected officials, in an op-ed for The Washington Post. "Expressing bipartisan horror at blackface photos is essential, but removing the statues would show all of America that Virginia really has changed," Comey writes. "There is no doubt that Virginia's leaders need to be held accountable for their personal history, but every Virginia leader is responsible for the racist symbols that still loom over our lives," Comey writes.