Don’t expect disgraced former acting FBI head Andrew McCabe to start accepting responsibility for what is looking more and more like a conspiracy to overthrow a duly elected (whether or not you like the man) U.S. President.
In fact, McCabe says Trump himself is to blame for the bloodless coup he, Rod Rosenstein (who was reportedly trying to drum up cabinet support and figuring out how to hide a wire down his shirt), as well as other top intelligence officials cooked up to get rid of the new president in the infancy of his first term.
In an interview with CBS’ Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes,” McCabe said Trump had been speaking in a “derogatory way” about the Russia investigation for weeks, which they viewed as an attempt to “publicly undermine the investigation.” He said officials were concerned by the President’s “own words.”McCabe said officials looked at the following events:
- Trump asked former FBI Director James Comey to drop the investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
- Trump asked Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to “include Russia” in a memo the President requested outlining reasons to fire Comey (which Rosenstein did not do).
- Trump fired Comey.
- Trump made public comments linking his firing of Comey to the Russia investigation on NBC.
- Trump met in the Oval Office with Russian officials where Trump reportedly said that firing Comey relieved “great pressure.”
When asked if Rosenstein was on aboard with opening the investigations into Trump, McCabe told Pelley, “absolutely.”
McCabe’s spokesperson downplayed those comments.
“To clarify, at no time did Mr. McCabe participate in any extended discussions about the use of the 25th Amendment, nor is he aware of any such discussions,” she said in a statement. “He was present and participated in a discussion that included a comment by Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein regarding the 25th Amendment.”
No word from McCabe on why, if Rosenstein (because better him under the bus) really felt Trump was unfit there needed to be a paid-for dossier of salacious and unverified allegations to prove his lack of fitness. One would think if things were bad to invoke the 25th Amendment, no fake dossier would have been necessary.
And frankly, it’s hard to blame Trump for not speaking well of an investigation he ostensibly thought might be part of a scheme to overthrow him. Who wouldn’t be annoyed at that? What’s the old saying? “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.”
In any event, this 11th hour attempt to prove the weaponized intelligence community (thank you, Obama admin) was just looking out for the American people instead of being petty, sore losers who simply could not take the loss gracefully is fairly rich and way too late. McCabe’s likely hoping to stave off those articles talking about how maybe he should do some prison time before they crop up again.
Oh and also, he’s selling a book.
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