White House Pretends Donald Trump Doesn’t Tweet, Insists POTUS Not Part Of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe Exit
January 29, 2018
White House Pretends Donald Trump Doesn’t Tweet, Insists POTUS Not Part Of Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe Exit
President Donald Trump “wasn’t a part of the decision-making process” that led to Monday’s exit of Deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders insisted shortly after word broke of the exit. McCabe exited the FBI building around noon on Monday after more than 20 years with the bureau.
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Trump’s not-involvement dates back at least to May, when, according to Washington Post, he asked McCabe who he voted for in the presidential election. McCabe’s exit follows WaPo’s report by one week.
In May, Trump’s not-involvement included tweeting:
Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 25, 2017
By December, Trump’s not-involvement extended to:
How can FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, the man in charge, along with leakin’ James Comey, of the Phony Hillary Clinton investigation (including her 33,000 illegally deleted emails) be given $700,000 for wife’s campaign by Clinton Puppets during investigation?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2017
Sanders insisted the only pressure Trump has applied in this process was intended to make sure everyone got “Russia fever out of their system” and to drive home the point “there was no collusion.”
NBC News noted Trump’s “unusual” attacks on the high ranking FBI official stem from support of former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton ally, in McCabe wife’s run for state office in 2015.
Asked about Trump’s confidence in Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosentein, who is expected to be the next to go, clearing the way for Trump to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, Sanders told reporters, “When the President no longer has confidence in someone, you’ll know.”
In June, Trump tweeted, of Rosenstein: “I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt.”
Monday’s presser comes just a few days after New York Times reported Trump tried to fire Mueller last June, backing down when White House counsel Don McGahn declined to do the deed and threatened to quit. Trump dismissed the report as “Fake News.”