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Attorney General Jeff Sessions Fires Andrew McCabe
From the Washington Post:
Published in PoliticsAttorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night fired former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, a little more than 24 hours before McCabe was set to retire.
Sessions announced the decision in a statement just before 10 p.m., noting that both the Justice Department Inspector General and the FBI office that handles discipline had found “that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor — including under oath — on multiple occasions.”
This is a really easy example of I’ve been thinking about. Max Boot makes his living writing about war and defense and so forth. He has to have a great big centralized government run by “experts”. That has to “work”. That is integral to his worldview. The problem is that stuff is getting in the way of solving other real problems. So people don’t vote the way he likes. Then he freaks out.
You mean they will cast off their vague noncommittal geographic ambitions, settle on a solid ideology and political base in the industrial Midwest, conquer half the country and rule for the balance of the century as the GOP.
I’m okay with that.
Hate to say it, but the only Trump opponent who has shown tactics, patience and an eye for the jugular of Trump is Lindsey Graham. I have gained a great deal of respect for his political chops. If he had managed to convert Trump to comprehensive immigration reform he would have defanged Trump.
Win or lose, the guy knows how to play the game.
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So, for the Democrats in 2010, Barry “swept” the Dems out of the House and the Senate. Did the craziness of Barry represent an existential danger to the Democrat Party? Did the Dems go the way of the Whigs?
The “crazy” part was the primaries. The fact that Trump beat an permanently weak candidate in Hillary isn’t by itself remarkable. The fact that those two were our presidential choices, at the same time, was probably the craziest part. Two controversial candidates, both with seriously high negatives, were the best we could cough up.
It’s much more about pop culture than it ever was before, even when it really wasn’t much about policy in prior elections. The beauty contest idea (and not literal beauty here, obviously).
That the result is some sort of governmental chaos afterward is the inevitable outcome. In some ways, it’s exposing a great deal of what I’ve always considered to be the biggest danger to liberty, which is an oversized, overbearing, over-involved-in-everyday-lives-of-Americans government.
And we talk about this stuff, endlessly. We shouldn’t be, because it shouldn’t exist. For the significant number of positives Trump has delivered, he’s still mostly a Democrat. “Draining the swamp” doesn’t seem to really mean “reduce the size and scope of government in your daily lives”.
Not to any degree of significance, anyway.
By your standard both Bushes were Democrats.
Wonderful post.
Conservatism and libertarianism will never work or sell very well with this much central bank activism and government.That’s the starting point of better thinking about this stuff.
Exactly. I can’t even get that excited about Reagan like most do.
So now we are getting Trump good and hard.
Your error is in confusing your desire to get rid of Trump with support of an outrageous attempt by the bureaucracy and Democratic Party to improperly depose an elected president. Analytically you may be correct that Trump is a long-term political disaster for the GOP, but you completely fail to see the danger in Mueller’s rogue operation and what the long-term implications are for America if they get away with it.
There was collusion. There was collusion between Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin during the 2012 election. There was collusion between the Clinton campaign and the Kremlin in assembling the Steele dossier. There was collusion between the DOJ, high ranking FBI officials, and Barack Obama on the sham investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails. There was collusion between high ranking FBI and DOJ officials, and the Democratic Party after the election to set up Donald Trump (which Trump stupidly played into). There is ample justification for investigation of all of these activities to determine whether laws were broken in the course of these collusion activities. However, with Mueller focused on protecting the FBI and DOJ, supported by his team of Democratic Party activist lawyers, I doubt that will happen.
And hear the lamentations of their women!
Go Donald, I’m not sick of winning yet.
Now that is funny. The contrarian speaks.
Moderator Note:
CoC--abbreviated obscenity and vulgarity.Look, you people are acting like this took place when it did and how it did as just the normal churn of bureaucracy.
As my father-in-law would say, [redacted].
This guy got fired 26 hours before he was set to retire. Nice timing.
That was petty vindictiveness from above. That sounds like Trump to me.
If you mean the federal bureaucracy will only act against one of its own after a great deal of pressure is applied, and then only at the last minute, that sounds like the normal churn to me.
Fred, you adhere to Klavan’s Law faithfully. If conservatives are right on the facts, ignore the facts and focus on process.
Here is McCabe’s statement:
I have been an FBI Special Agent for over 21 years. I spent half of that time investigating Russian Organized Crime as a street agent and Supervisor in New York City. I have spent the second half of my career focusing on national security issues and protecting this country from terrorism. I served in some of the most challenging, demanding investigative and leadership roles in the FBI. And I was privileged to serve as Deputy Director during a particularly tough time.
For the last year and a half, my family and I have been the targets of an unrelenting assault on our reputation and my service to this country. Articles too numerous to count have leveled every sort of false, defamatory and degrading allegation against us. The President’s tweets have amplified and exacerbated it all. He called for my firing. He called for me to be stripped of my pension after more than 20 years of service. And all along we have said nothing, never wanting to distract from the mission of the FBI by addressing the lies told and repeated about us.
No more.
The investigation by the Justice Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) has to be understood in the context of the attacks on my credibility. The investigation flows from my attempt to explain the FBI’s involvement and my supervision of investigations involving Hillary Clinton. I was being portrayed in the media over and over as a political partisan, accused of closing down investigations under political pressure. The FBI was portrayed as caving under that pressure, and making decisions for political rather than law enforcement purposes. Nothing was further from the truth. In fact, this entire investigation stems from my efforts, fully authorized under FBI rules, to set the record straight on behalf of the Bureau, and to make clear that we were continuing an investigation that people in DOJ opposed.
The OIG investigation has focused on information I chose to share with a reporter through my public affairs officer and a legal counselor. As Deputy Director, I was one of only a few people who had the authority to do that. It was not a secret, it took place over several days, and others, including the Director, were aware of the interaction with the reporter. It was the type of exchange with the media that the Deputy Director oversees several times per week. In fact, it was the same type of work that I continued to do under Director Wray, at his request. The investigation subsequently focused on who I talked to, when I talked to them, and so forth. During these inquiries, I answered questions truthfully and as accurately as I could amidst the chaos that surrounded me. And when I thought my answers were misunderstood, I contacted investigators to correct them.
But looking at that in isolation completely misses the big picture. The big picture is a tale of what can happen when law enforcement is politicized, public servants are attacked, and people who are supposed to cherish and protect our institutions become instruments for damaging those institutions and people.
Here is the reality: I am being singled out and treated this way because of the role I played, the actions I took, and the events I witnessed in the aftermath of the firing of James Comey. The release of this report was accelerated only after my testimony to the House Intelligence Committee revealed that I would corroborate former Director Comey’s accounts of his discussions with the President. The OIG’s focus on me and this report became a part of an unprecedented effort by the Administration, driven by the President himself, to remove me from my position, destroy my reputation, and possibly strip me of a pension that I worked 21 years to earn. The accelerated release of the report, and the punitive actions taken in response, make sense only when viewed through this lens. Thursday’s comments from the White House are just the latest example of this.
This attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not just to slander me personally, but to taint the FBI, law enforcement, and intelligence professionals more generally. It is part of this Administration’s ongoing war on the FBI and the efforts of the Special Counsel investigation, which continue to this day. Their persistence in this campaign only highlights the importance of the Special Counsel’s work.
I have always prided myself on serving my country with distinction and integrity, and I always encouraged those around me to do the same. Just ask them. To have my career end in this way, and to be accused of lacking candor when at worst I was distracted in the midst of chaotic events, is incredibly disappointing and unfair. But it will not erase the important work I was privileged to be a part of, the results of which will in the end be revealed for the country to see.
I have unfailing faith in the men and women of the FBI and I am confident that their efforts to seek justice will not be deterred.
Fred, does it give you personal satisfaction to always attribute rank stupidity to conservatives who disagree with you? You really believe that anyone in this thread believes that the normal timeline of review and adjudication resulted in a last minute Friday evening decision? There was a review process and a deadline and a decision. It was made just before the deadline. Like 90% of tough calls.
Does it make a significant political difference if McCabe skates and utters his future pronouncements as a former Acting Director or as the fired, and perhaps disbarred, FBI official who lied under oath?
You are the only one in this lengthy thread who imagine that anyone else in this lengthy thread believes this was just the normal timeline of events.
Can you try to be less insulting man.
Well, at least it proves that it’s not impossible to fire a federal employee.
One of the most irritating things over the last decade is watching all these bureaucrats caught up in scandal, but never facing the law and retiring with the full package of benefits. For this citizen of flyover country, it’s nice to see someone finally get smacked down, even if it’s largely symbolic.
More of this, please. I’m sick of the political class never having to face consequences for lawbreaking, while the citizen class is abused.
Statute of limitations just passed for Clapper’s perjury. It’s a slap in the face of the citizenry that he was never prosecuted.
Okay. Take it down a notch.
What needs to be pointed out is the campaign to demonize this man and anyone else in the government who dares to oppose Donald Trump.
That’s why we’re hearing about the “deep state” all the time. It’s not that Donald Trump is a habitual liar and a crook, he’s clean and pure as the wind driven snow. It’s the “deep state” that’s out to get him.
Look, it’s an old game. Democrats attacked the White Water investigation. Republicans attacked the Watergate investigation.
Just be aware you’re being manipulated.
Strzok has a Lisa Page. Does McCabe have a Mrs. Miller? I’m not trying to start a rumor here, but . . .
Thanks Fred. Now that I know that politicians and their allies, left, right and center, are trying to manipulate me I hope I can be more discerning.
Again Fred, who at Ricochet (the “you people”) believes this nonsense and why do you pretend this nonsense exists outside of your condescending thoughts about others.
Looks like McCabe just lost his ring…..
You beat me to the reference:
You know, in all the excitement, I’m continually dumbfounded that the FBI continues to rely on written “notes” taken down in longhand. I know tape recorders only became practical in the 1950s (thanks Mr. Crosby, wherever you are) but still.
Sessions should have waited until two hours before. It would have been much sweeter. Trump said in an interview that if you hit him, he’ll try to hit back twice as hard. There is nothing petty in that; just honesty about how he behaves. Good for him.
As far as McCabe is concerned, losing part of his pension should be the least of his worries if the reports are accurate. And I hope he is only the first.
Funny, people are using the phrase “Saturday Night Massacre”.
As part of his Senate confirmation to Attorney General, Elliot Richardson was asked to promise he would not fire or otherwise interfere in the Watergate investigation of Archibald Cox. Even though, by law, Cox was an appointed officer who could be terminated by the President, Richard Nixon. I expect most of you remember how that turned out. Richardson and his deputy Ruckelshaus, resigned in response to Nixon’s demand that Cox be fired leaving the poisoned chalice to Robert Bork.
I think this is why it’s highly unlikely Trump will fire Sessions. Regardless of who might be nominated, you can bet your sweet donkey, the Senate would extract the same promise from the next AG nominee. And considering the tenor of the times, it would likely be a blood oath.
Discuss
If there’s any justice he writes the book in Leavenworth.
Isn’t it amazing how the Love Birds are at the nexus of so many of these tangled threads….
I’m still waiting for Comey, McCabe, Strzok, Ohr etc. to face criminal charges. I thought being a liar and a leaker was serious at the FBI.
Mr. Cole’s mind-reading ability is remarkable. He should consider going into show business as a mentalist. By the look of it, he’s already got the right outfit.