February 18, 2019

Did you watch that McCabe thing on "60 Minutes"?

I did.  I watched it very closely. With some meticulous rewinding and analysis (where McCabe declared Trump "disgusting" and it was hard to understand exactly why (Trump, campaigning, had weaponized a factoid from the Wall Street Journal)).

I thought the "60 Minutes" presentation followed a clever narrative arc, with a beginning that allowed McCabe to inflate himself, a middle that brought in his wife and complicated the story, and an ending that gave us so much reason to doubt his credibility that I said out loud, "This really isn't favorable to McCabe at all."

At first, I thought the reasons to mistrust McCabe should have been presented up front, so we could question his telling of the story as we went along, but in the end, I liked the narrative arc, which I think is typical of "60 Minutes." We're drawn in, and then things are not what they seemed, and we're challenged. Then, suddenly, it's that ticking clock on the screen. That's all you get. Figure it out!

Here's the full interview, with video and transcript. I'll just excerpt the text of the part we rewound and rewatched about 10 times:
But in the closing days of the 2016 presidential campaign, The Wall Street Journal ran an article headlined "Clinton Ally Aided FBI Wife." It was about Jill McCabe's funding the year before. The article noted, accurately, that her husband's role in the Clinton email investigation began months after she lost. But candidate Donald Trump seemed to conflate the two.

President Trump at Rally: It was just learned that one of the closest people to Hillary Clinton with long-standing ties to her husband and herself… gave more than $675,000 to the campaign of the spouse, the wife, of the top FBI official who helped oversee the investigation into Mrs. Clinton's illegal email server.

Scott Pelley: How do you feel when you see that?

Jill McCabe: Sick. Sick to my stomach.

Andrew McCabe: I think sickening is the right word. It's disgusting. To see the candidate for the presidency taking those lies and manipulating them for his own advantage, and then to hear you know, the chants and the boos of thousands of people who are just accepting those lies at face value, it's chilling.
My question was: What lies? And: How did Trump manipulate them? We even paused on the text of the WSJ article so we could read it (the "Clinton Ally" was Terry McAuliffe).

The best I came up with in answer to my question was that Jill McCabe received the $675,000 and lost her election before Andrew McCabe took on a role in the Hillary Clinton investigation, so when Clinton's ally gave the money to Jill, her husband was not yet in the position she had a huge interest having influence over. I don't think Andrew McCabe is saying the WSJ published lies, and the only "lies" I see in what Trump said is giving an impression about the time line.

I think Jill and Andrew are horrified at how effectively Trump weaponized the material. Of course he used it "for his own advantage"! Is that what Andrew McCabe is calling "manipulating"? Why isn't that just being a very effective candidate?

128 comments:

Psota said...

Remember how after 9/11 everyone was criticizing the FBI and CIA for taking their eyes out the ball?

You look at how the intelligence agencies have behaved was Trump and you realize we're in deep s***. They

Psota said...

They think Trump is the ball!

Amadeus 48 said...

The one sentence takeaway on WFMT is that McCabe said the firing of Comey and criticizing the Mueller probe were possible criminal acts by Trump.
No one ever asks this bird what he thinks of Christopher Wray, who was nominated within weeks to replace Comey, and Rosenstein, who kept control of the Mueller probe. Is he saying that they are stooges for Trump? Is he saying that Wray and Rosenstein are complicit in obstructing justice? Why doesn’t any news person flush this guy out?
I am afraid we know the answer.

gilbar said...

so, if i give money and favors to someone, and then Later;
that person is in a position to whitewash something... AND THEY DO
There's No Reason to think that the two were connected?

I think sickening is the right word. It's disgusting.

Hagar said...

Watch the video (or a part of it) without the sound.
Would you trust this man?

gilbar said...

Psota said... They think Trump is the ball!

Yes, there is an Active Coup being attempted against an elected Government
I'm pretty sure that US law prohibits the CIA doing this foreign governments;
Maybe it should be prohibited against Domestic governments too?

Temujin said...

Tar. Meet Feathers.

Narayanan said...

Until and unless CBS put up raw footage, this is not proper descriptor for this item ...

*Here's the full interview, with video and transcript*

JackWayne said...

The interesting thing about all this is that the bureaucracy is at war with the executive. And it will just get worse from here.

mockturtle said...

Is a manipulated lie worse than an un-manipulated lie?

Big Mike said...

$675,000 is s lot of money to give to a neophyte candidate for state-level office, especially starting at senator instead of delegate l, despite no campaign experience. The amazing thing is that she LOST running in one of the bluest counties of this state. For the benefit of Althouse and her hubby, if you can imagine a well-financed Democrat losing a campaign for state senator in Dane County, that’s a rough equivalent.

I’d like to know how much the couple pocketed after campaign expenses had been paid. Had to be at least a quarter million dollars and probably north of that. We also don’t know whether Comey was bribed, coerced, or manipulated into putting McCabe on the Clinton case after Mrs. McCabe received that donation. Or perhaps the quid pro quo was that McCabe would volunteer to lead an investigation the Clintons knew was coming?

Wince said...

The best I came up with in answer to my question was that Jill McCabe received the $675,000 and lost her election before Andrew McCabe took on a role in the Hillary Clinton investigation, so when Clinton's ally gave the money to Jill, her husband was not yet in the position she had a huge interest having influence over.

McCabe's exculpatory version assumes McCabe had no influence himself over his Zelig-like appearance in all the Trump-Clinton investigations.

Jersey Fled said...

I'm amazed at how little the Left cares that the FBI and DOJ conspired to remove a duly elected President.

Apparently they feel that the way it works should be:

1.Two people run for President

2. One wins

3. DOJ and FBI decide if they like him

4. If not, they conspire to remove him by any means possible.

Wince said...

Oddly, a little before 60 Minutes last night I was watching some of the movie The Paper Chase.

Professor Kingsfield uses a hypothetical involving the distinction between "two mutual promises" and "a condition on a promise".

"Could you give me the hypothetical again, I didn't understand."

gilbar said...

Here's a serious question,
Had ANY of these morons READ the 25th amendment?
Don't they Realize that it's HARDER to remove the President through the 25th, than through Impeachment?

when the President transmits ...his written declaration that no inability exists, he shall resume the powers and duties of his office unless ... the Congress ... determines by two thirds vote of both Houses that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office

Am i THE ONLY PERSON ON EARTH that has Read the amendment? All the President has to do is write a letter, and HE IS BACK IN; until More than an Impeachment takes place

Leland said...

Other than the "it was just learned"; Trump's not even conflating the timeline. It was something that happened in the past that others just learned. Sort of like all the people that just learned recently that there is no evidence that Trump colluded with Russia. Some of us knew that years ago, but others just learned of it.

As for McCabe; it became obvious to me that the only thing left for those protecting Clinton, including the Clinton, is to be audacious in their lies. The lie is hardly the big crime here. It's not even the cover up. It's the cover up of the cover up; so lie big. Sadly, it is working, because I have yet to see anybody raid McCabe's home in nearly the same manner as Stone's or Cohen's.

Leland said...

Am i THE ONLY PERSON ON EARTH that has Read the amendment?

You may be the only person on Earth that believes the person lying to you, when they claim that was their intention.

MayBee said...

I'm with Big Mike here. How much of the $675,000 went to candidates of her choice after she dropped out? How much is still in her campaign "war chest"?

(I'm of the opinion that campaign donations should be taxed at a very high rate)

Fritz said...


Temujin said...
Tar. Meet Feathers.


Stocks and whippings.

Bruce Hayden said...

I didn’t, of course, watch the segment ( I have steadfastly refused to watch since their 60 Minutes franchise helped try to destroy GW Bush’s re-election with RatherGate). But whether or not there was an actual conflict of interest with the $675k contribution by long time Clinton bagman McCauliffe, there was a pretty glaring appearance of such, and it was apparently not disclosed to the FBI or DoJ. McCabe shouldn’t have been anywhere near the Clinton email investigation, and after reacting to having been caught by the Trump campaign being involved there, and reacting publicly, shouldn’t have been anywhere near the Trump Russia collusion investigation. Instead, of course, we found McCabe near the bottom of the entire hoax, even to the extent of meeting with ADAG Bruce Ohr about the Steele Dossier, and learning of its political source, then preapproving (apparently very rare), and ultimately then approving, the FISA warrant application for Carter Page that effectively allowed the electronic surveillance of much of the Trump campaign. As with the Crooked Hillary investigation, McCade ethically shouldn’t have been anywhere near any of the Trump/Russian collusion investigation, instead of effectively running it (as well as Strzok’s Insurance Policy, apparently plotted at his $70k conference room table).

As noted in earlier threads, the perps are turning at each other. With Barr in, and Rosenstein on his way out, the Mueller investigation is going to end shortly, since even insiders like Peter Strzok have admitted that there never was any there there. And with its ending, the “ongoing investigation” blanket protecting the perps behind FISAgate will be removed. Pretty much everyone knows that McCabe was at the center of it, and has already been criminally referred to the DoJ for illegal leaks, and lying about them. And, yes, he has a book to flog.

Big Mike said...

@MayBee, she didn’t drop out. She lost. My understanding of Virginia campaign law is that she is free to use unspent campaign money any way she pleases.

Something I had forgotten is that — according to a press report — McCabe was in charge of the office investigating the Clinton Emails at the time his wife received the donations, though not yet in charge of the investigation itself.

Drago said...

We have actual Clinton lawyers on Muellers team of hack dems.

The dems and their LLR lap poodles dont even feel the need to make this less obvious.

Christy said...

Thank you for watching.

I cannot bring myself to watch 60 Minutes. Back in high school at the end of the 60s, when they began, I'd watch with my bff and her dreamy older brother, a college man! Majoring in philosophy! We would watch. He would point out that they said this and then that and so the next obvious question was this other. But they never asked this other obvious follow-up. That must mean the answer didn't fit the 60 Minute narrative and the truth must lie elsewhere. The second hand philosophy class taught me much.

Later I saw the recording Illinois Power took of their interview with 60 Minutes about their nuclear power plant along side the segment CBS aired. Now I find I cannot believe anything 60 Minutes produces. Has it changed in the last 40 years?

MayBee said...

Big Mike said...
@MayBee, she didn’t drop out. She lost. My understanding of Virginia campaign law is that she is free to use unspent campaign money any way she pleases.


Well then. That certainly is a horrible lie from Trump then. $675,000 to spend on a campaign vs $400,000(?) to spend anyway you please

Ralph L said...

I hadn't realized Trump had brought it up before the election. No wonder they risked so much for their insurance policy. They wanted to keep themselves out of jail.

narciso said...

He was the second person to sign off on the fisa warrant which yielded bupkis on Carter page.

Ralph L said...

Presumably she raised other funds, too.

narciso said...

He was the no 2 at the bureau and hesd of counter terror when 14 plots went off including Orlando and San bernadino.

MayBee said...

Here is an article from 2017 about Virginia campaign funds being available for personal use.

Good catch, Big Mike. Ok, America. Tell me how this makes what Trump said a terrible lie?
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — While almost every other state and the federal government have figured out a way to make it illegal for politicians to use campaign funds for personal use, Virginia lawmakers said Thursday the issue remains too complex for them to find a consensus.

A Republican-controlled House panel voted down the last remaining piece of legislation that would put new limits on how lawmakers use their largely unregulated campaign accounts. Similar pieces of legislation have already been defeated this year, as they were the year before.

Drago said...

And by the way, commie Brennan and his obama-CIA henchmen were already targeting the Trump campaign way back in March and April of 2016 with at least 5 and possibly as high as 7 agent provacateurs planting the very lies that they (CIA/State Dept/MI6) would then launder thru other parties to frame domestic political opponents.




Chuck said...

The left wing media is promoting McCabe’s interviews as representative of serious concern that the 25th Amendment needs to be considered for Trump.

The right wing media is promoting McCabe’s interviews as proof of a Deep State coup d’etat.

I hope Althouse keeps blogging the nuances that eliminate the drama and expose the true details.

Drago said...

narciso: "He was the no 2 at the bureau and hesd of counter terror when 14 plots went off including Orlando and San bernadino."

Inga will explain how those were "spark of divinity" terrorist attacks and besides, who cares anyway? "Heather Heyer" wasnt affected by these attacks so how bad could they really have been.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

When its convenient to their conspiracy theory the Left is doing a LOT conflating of their own. Let's start with Trump saying in public at a campaign event July 16, 2016, "Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press.” This humorous aside made by Trump has been spun by the Russia hoax purveyers as their prima facie evidence he was colluding, because he asked them to hack Hillary! The Atlantic breathlessly calls this "encouraging a foreign adversary to illegally hack" Clinton. Which, if the journ-o-listers who write such crap had been paying attention they would realize is impossible. By that date all of Hillary's hardware had been destroyed, beat with hammers, bleachbitted and withheld despite a subpoena.

Hillary destroyed the evidence (except for Huma's laptop) the year before. That was a big issue for people who wanted Hillary prosecuted. So it was physically impossible for Russia to hack Hillary's emails ("at Trump's direction!") when Trump made that statement. He was clearly saying that Russia should RELEASE the emails so our Press could "reward them" with many stories mining the depths of the lost emails.

Of course that didn't happen. Yet this is also the incident cited by witch-hunter Mueller in court documents, that Trump "asked a foreign entity to hack Hillary" (which he did NOT do in the text at all). Where is the long thumb-sucker analyzing this clusterfuck of a conspiracy and how stupid the Left and Nevertrumpers are to believe in it?


Drago said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Abdul Abulbul Amir said...

Well the Hillary investigation was likely to wind up at McCabe’s desk.

MadisonMan said...

As suggested, I did watch with no sound. McCabe did not look truthy.

Phil 314 said...

TDS is a pitiful condition. Is it not possible to be critical of the President while keeping your balance? (And then you add in the ability to impact the system like McCabe! ). Will he even in the future get a grip? And will he ever realize how much he confirms the biases of the Trumpkins?

narciso said...

James Baker, another conspirator going back to 2004, was privy to the hack of the San Bernardino plotter yet did not divulge what it was related to.

CWJ said...

"Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me."

This immediately sprang to mind at the suggestion that the timeline was in any way exculpatory.

cronus titan said...

It is wise to remind oneself that McCabe was fired for lying to investigators during the Inspector General investigation. He lied in 2016 because he had an ambition. He lied to the OIG because he had something to hide. He lies because that is who he is.

When watching McCabe, one saw a modern Daedalus, or a real-life Littlefinger, depending upon your point of view.

narciso said...

Ah yes weiners laptop delivered by the NYPD lay in the evidence vault for almost a month till tosca and co, uncovered it.

glenn said...

They call it seed money “Andy”

Ralph L said...

He's dropped those ugly 60's glasses.
As noted above, this isn't the "Full 60 Minutes Interview," it's the slices they chose to broadcast.

narciso said...

There are many angles to cover, but they only brought the pillows.

Michael K said...

Now I find I cannot believe anything 60 Minutes produces. Has it changed in the last 40 years?

"60 Minutes" has perpetrated at least one such hit job that I have personal knowledge of. They convinced a professor of Surgery to give them full cooperation for a program on surgical training. When the program aired it was about "ghost surgery" in which people having surgery in a university hospital were sometimes operated on by residents. The "victim" they presented was a hospital employee and certainly lying.

The chief resident who told me the story was black but they did not put him on camera.

Dave Begley said...

Ann's analysis of the narrative arc is spot on. I was wondering when Scott Pelley was going to follow-up or ask a tough question. Softballs all.

I laughed out loud when McCabe said the FBI HAD to investigate Trump for obstruction of justice because he fired Comey. Obstruction of what? Comey was an at-will employee and he could be fired for no reason at all.

Any first year law student knows that the FBI doesn't make decisions re prosecution. Comey's "no reasonable prosecutor" statement was good reason to fire him. And McCabe said Comey never should have been fired.

Pelley didn't once ask him about the totally false Steele Dossier and how Hillary had paid for it. I want to know if the FBI - the world's BEST cops - quizzed the hotel manager at the Ritz in Moscow about a ruined mattress. Or anything else in that pack of lies.

Trump was right to question McCabe's political ties to Hillary.

60 Minutes is a joke. Mike Wallace must be spinning in his grave.

I know one thing and that is AG Barr needs to appoint a Special Counsel to get to the bottom of this.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

"When are the jackboots and stormtroopers going to bust into McCabe's house in the dead of night to arrest him? He’s accused of lying to the feds, just like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort. Andrew McCabe, whom you might remember from Strzok/Page text message fame for hosting some sort of meeting to scheme up an insurance policy against Trump winning the presidency, went on 60 Minutes last night to pimp out his new book. Remember as you read about the interview or watch the interview that McCabe was fired for lying to the FBI.

-Liz Sheld, real American

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

More...

McCabe said in the interview that one reason the FBI opened an investigation on Trump and his possible compromise by the RUSSIANS was that Trump asked Comey to drop the Flynn investigation. "Can you give him a break?" Trump asked. 60 Minutes wants you to know that Flynn "pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with the RUSSIANS," but the agents who interviewed Flynn didn't think he lied. 60 Minutes leaves that part out. The FBI knew what Flynn had said in his calls with the RUSSIANS (the RUSSIANS being Sergey Kislyak, the then-RUSSIAN ambassador to the U.S.) because all the RUSSIAN diplomats are surveilled. Flynn knew that because he was the former director of national intelligence. So why would they interview Flynn, who didn't know he was being formally interviewed and did not have a lawyer, about the call? Because they wanted to set up the opportunity to "get" Flynn. McCabe knows that Flynn didn't lie — he has access to the 302 forms recording the interview and the agents who conducted the interview. McCabe's either a stupid idiot to believe that Trump's remarks to Comey about going easy on Flynn indicate that Trump was trying to hide some allegiance to the RUSSIANS or he just wanted some pretense to get rid of Trump. Come on, man."

any tiny thread the corrupt left can use to get Trump - they have used it. All the while the corrupt left is left untouched. The entire DOJ must be flushed of all Clinton-Obama hacks. They are all corrupt.

Rosenstien is next.

Ralph L said...

As I've said before, what did the FBI think Russia had done for Trump--that he couldn't do for himself? Why did the media never ask or try to answer that question?

Bruce Hayden said...

“He was the second person to sign off on the fisa warrant which yielded bupkis on Carter page.”

As I just noted, this was esp egregious for several reasons. The excuse that seems to be standard about why people signed off on the FISA applications is that the paperwork, prepared and signed by subordinates, was all in order. But in McCabe’s case, he can be shown to have had actual knowledge of the weaknesses and political motivation behind the Steele Dossier, after having met with ADAG Bruce Ohr, as documented by Ohr’s Congressional testimony. (Ditto probably for his DoJ counterpart, DAG Sally Yates, for whom Ohr was a direct report). Blaming their approvals on the bureaucracy probably doesn’t work, when actual knowledge the falsity of the underlying information can be shown, as I think that it can here. And, secondly, both McCabe and Yates apparently preapproved the warrant application. The supposed purpose of much of the underlying paperwork is to make sure that the top tier people signing the warrant applications for the court are doing so honestly, etc. But by preapproving the warrant applications, the two of them essentially said that they were going to sign regardless (and did). This is why the person testifying before Congress about the process that the original warrant application went through thought that it was so odd - they said that preapproval, as was done for the initial warrant application, was almost never done, partially because it encouraged the lower level people preparing the paperwork to cut corners. Which may have been part of the reason that the two of them did it in the first place, to bias the bureaucracy to approve a warrant application that they normally wouldn’t have, if they had taken their time and done their due diligence. (Potentially the other reason to expedite the original warrrant application was that the clock was ticking very quickly on NSA Dir Rogers’ report to the FISC about the rampant abuse by the FBI and their contractors of FISA Title VII searching, which was apparently filed shortly after the original Carter Page warrant application).



Lee Moore said...

On the question of timing, only a rube bribes someone when they need a service. An experienced player knows this will only increase the price.

“The great grafter does not buy government officials after they are elected, as a rule. He owns them beforehand”

Best of all is if you buy them first and remain in a position to do them favors after.

Any apparent correspondence between these general principles and Andy McCabe are wholly coincidental.

Breezy said...

Scarey that this guy could not only start these investigations, but he was not derailed by others in leadership in this exercise. They were all so obsessed, as in a cult. Mueller, being on the outside initially, then brought in as SC, should have seen this for what it was and stopped it in a measured way. That he didn’t makes him him the most culpable, in my view. They all need to be held accountable.

Earnest Prole said...

“Weaponized” is even more irritating than “garnered.”

JZ said...

I laughed when Pelley said that McCabe and Rosenstein are both life-long Republicans.

Leland said...

what did the FBI think Russia had done for Trump--that he couldn't do for himself? Why did the media never ask or try to answer that question?

I'm still waiting for anyway that claims to believe the Russian collusion to answer that question with just some detail. Instead, it is usually answered by "isn't it obvious, how else did he become President?" So obvious, yet no detail. Nothing in the dossier even explains it.

tim in vermont said...

Trump pounced!

Paul said...

McCabe and Rosenstein...none call it treason.

Their 'reasons' were just warmed over Democrat accusations with no evidence.

Something out of the French Revolution and Robespierre.

Dave Begley said...

Here's another thing. We keep hearing these vague stories about how "Russia" funds Trump's buildings. Why doesn't a reporter go to the records at the Register of Deeds. See what company has the mortgage. Is it a fair amount compared to the value? What are the terms? This is all innuendo. Then I hear D Bank lends the Trump Organization money. How is D Bank controlled by "Russia?"

Rory said...

"Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me."

From the novel: "Get everyone on it even if they can't help us right now. I believe in friendship, and I am willing to show my friendship first."

Ironically, in the Godfather novel the FBI was considered to be unbribable.

Dave Begley said...

Limbaugh will carve this interview up today.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

When Hillary faces jail time - that's a start. This is all bullshit.

Original Mike said...

So they're claiming that because the campaign was over they didn't owe Clinton a favor?

Would you double cross a Clinton?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Is it illegal for Trump to listen to Limbaugh?

Yes!

Just like it's illegal to dig into the Clinton's dirty international pay-to-play secret scheming money grubbing existence.

Who works for the Clinton Foundation? Lets start there - shall we? Where is the media on this?

Bruce Hayden said...

“Pelley didn't once ask him about the totally false Steele Dossier and how Hillary had paid for it. I want to know if the FBI - the world's BEST cops - quizzed the hotel manager at the Ritz in Moscow about a ruined mattress. Or anything else in that pack of lies. ”

Again, note Bruce Ohr’s Congressional testimony. McCabe, or at least his high level reports like Peter Strzok, had apparently been told by Ohr about Steele and the Clinton campaign connection.

“I know one thing and that is AG Barr needs to appoint a Special Counsel to get to the bottom of this.”

Agree 100%. Special Counsels are supposed to be limited to investigating when conflicts of interest prevent adequate internal investigations. What is a greater conflict of interest than the involvement of former FBI Director and Deputy Director, and at least one DAG (Yates), and possibly a second DAG (Rosenstein, at least for his involvement in the 25th Amdt plot)? It may even reach into the Obama White House (some of the released communications suggest that someone in the WH wanted to be in the loop AND there still hasn’t been an investigation of the rampant, likely illegal, FISA unmaskings done using credentials belonging to Samantha Powers). And it wasn’t just DDir McCabe, but a number of the people he brought in with him, and were at the top of the National Security Branch, or reported directly to him, that were apparently involved. We are 2 1/2 years since this plot really got moving, and the FBI, in particular, is still in coverup mode (which is probably why Bruce Ohr was so much more forthcoming to Congress than any of the FBI people they interviewed - he is DoJ, and so didn’t have FBI attys constantly telling him what not to tell Congress).

If any investigation calls out for a special counsel, this is it.





Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

McCabe is dirty dirty dirty. He and his wife are dirty and he should be frogmarched for lying to the FBI.

Instead? - the DNC hack press give him a fluff interview.

Marty said...

Waiting for Inga to cut and paste MSM exculpations of Mr. McCabe.

Bruce Hayden said...

“Scarey that this guy could not only start these investigations, but he was not derailed by others in leadership in this exercise. They were all so obsessed, as in a cult. Mueller, being on the outside initially, then brought in as SC, should have seen this for what it was and stopped it in a measured way. That he didn’t makes him him the most culpable, in my view. They all need to be held accountable.”

Turns out that Mueller was never really on the outside, having worked with many of the perps as a FBI Dir of questionable ethics, but making things worse, his team of investigators surely weren’t. Two of them, including the odious Andrew Weismann, his lead prosecutor, were involved starting in probably August, 2016, when they were included in meetings by (formerly) ADAG Bruce Ohr, as he met with FBI, warning them about Steele and the Clinton money behind his Dossier. And one of Mueller’s attorneys came straight from the Clinton Foundation.

PB said...

Still waiting for the pre-dawn, no-knock raid on McCabe's house for lying under oath.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

“When are the jackboots and stormtroopers going to bust into this lying dirtbag’s house in the dead of night to arrest him? He’s accused of lying to the feds, just like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort. Andrew McCabe, whom you might remember from Strzok/Page text message fame for hosting some sort of meeting to scheme up an insurance policy against Trump winning the presidency, went on 60 Minutes last night to pimp out his new book. Remember as you read about the interview or watch the interview that McCabe was fired for lying to the FBI.”

-- Liz Sheld

M Jordan said...

My take: CBS (and other media) are doing what the FBI has been doing all along ... trying to tiptoe out of the room they lit afire. Pelley was handing McCabe garment after garment to cover his nakedness. Two vipers hissing at the camera.

I despise both of them with complete contempt.

William said...

The biggest problem with this entire thing is Michael Horowitz. Sessions was useless—that spineless rodent allowed himself to be gelded—but even today, as IG of DOJ, Horowitz has the power to name names and recommend action. He's said nothing —— nada, zilch, Ø —— either about the very REAL conflicts of interest among the players at DOJ or about the appearances of conflict of interest that are ALL over the place at DOJ. Doesn't that bother you? It bothers the h_ll out of me.

Snoop around Lisa Barsoomian a little with your search engine. She's Rosenstein's wife and very much a swamp lawyer. Rosnestein's WIFE!! No conflict of interest there. Nah.

File this whole thing under Epic Fail.

Mike Sylwester said...

It's been a few years since I've watched 60 Minutes.

Does each show still end with Andy Rooney making a humorous commentary?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The democrat party press will not ask tough questions of a fellow democratic.

and yes - the false cover of "but but but... Life long republicans" is total bullshit.

buwaya said...

You can't clean up a bureaucracy so easily.
The things are created by layers of processes and filters.
The people involved in this mere surface manifestation of treason were themselves one layer of the filters, selecting and promoting their proteges, who are still there running things. And under them, those THEY chose, and so on down.
And then there are the filters for those hired out of universities or transferred laterally from either other government agencies or the private sector.

In a case like this a cleanup simply isn't feasible. Everyone in the chain of command is tainted, or at least cannot be vetted and so cannot be trusted.

This applies, pretty much, to all of official Washington. The scale of the problem, when projected out, becomes apparent. To say that the repair of this situation is daunting is an absurd understatement.

In cases like this the only feasible solutions are Alexandrian, vis the Gordian knot. But you Americans aren't ready for that yet.

Mike Sylwester said...

The Strange Case of McAuliffe & McCabe

[quote]

.... In February 2015, Dr. McCabe receives a phone call from Virginia’s lieutenant governor. Would she consider running for a state senate seat?

Less than two weeks later, in March 2015, McCabe and his wife drive to Richmond for what they thought was a meeting with a Virginia state senator to discuss Dr. McCabe’s possible run for office.

In Richmond, according to the OIG report, they are told there had been “a change of plans” and that “Governor McAuliffe wanted to speak to Dr. McCabe at the Governor’s mansion.”

It’s around this time that a veteran FBI agent’s radar might start blinking.

McCabe and his wife meet with McAuliffe for 30 to 45 minutes, according to the OIG report. Fundraising was discussed. “Governor McAuliffe said that he and the Democratic Party would support Dr. McCabe’s candidacy.” McAuliffe asked McCabe about his occupation and “McCabe told him he worked for the FBI but they did not discuss McCabe’s work or any FBI business.” McCabe later described it to an FBI official as a “surreal meeting.”

After the meeting, the couple rode to a local event with the governor, then returned to the mansion with the governor to retrieve their car.

McCabe informed FBI ethics officials and lawyers about the meeting and consulted with them about his wife’s plans. No one raised strong objections. McCabe recused himself from all public corruption cases in Virginia and Dr. McCabe jumped into the race.

In July 2015, the FBI opened an investigation into Mrs. Clinton’s email practices.

Let’s pause to note here that while the official FBI investigation was opened in July 2015, Mrs. Clinton was known to be in hot water as far back as March 2015, when the State Department inspector general revealed her widespread use of a private, non-government email server.

Swamp cats will notice that March 2015 is also when Andrew and Jill McCabe got their surprise audience with McAuliffe, the longtime Clinton money man.

The McCabe fortunes rose in the autumn of 2015. Mr. McCabe was promoted to associate deputy director of the FBI. Dr. McCabe received $675,000 from two McAuliffe-connected entities for her state senate race. They were by far the biggest donations to her campaign. ...

[end quote]

Kevin said...

narciso: "He was the no 2 at the bureau and hesd of counter terror when 14 plots went off including Orlando and San bernadino."

To be fair, we may never know the motivation for those attacks.

cronus titan said...

@BruceHayden:

Mueller is rife with conflicts, and you are correct to point out that members of his team were the same players involved in the scheming in 2016 -- Weismann, Sztrok, and Page. Mueller then staffed his team with Democratic operatives and donors. One unexplored question is how Mueller got picked (and shortly after the President passed him over as the next Director of the FBI). Who picked Mueller? Who were the other candidates? What role did McCabe play in Mueller's selection? What expectations were explained to Mueller during the selection process? How many members of Mueller's team were involved in the attempted coup? Was Mueller aware of he attempted coup? Lots of questions about Mueller no one seems to be asking.

buwaya said...

Who picked Mueller is also, I assume, one of those things that fall out of the layers and networks with which the system works. It is naive to think that the whole thing functions, or can be expected to function, as if from the operating manual or a civics text. These things never do; indeed, the best guide are whatever official standards apply, and to assume that none actually do.

No-one not picked or approved by this system can operate it. These are not the mechanisms by which a representative government can function. They aren't the servants but the masters.

Birches said...

So what happened to all those campaign donations?

Fen said...

"In cases like this the only feasible solutions are Alexandrian, vis the Gordian knot. But you Americans aren't ready for that yet."

Agreed.

The corruption is systemic and Americans lack the will to act.

I propose term limits for federal employees. 10 years max. Obviously not viabke in every case, but drain the swamp where you can.

tim in vermont said...

I like to say that the New York Times motto is really “All the news we see fit to print,” or at least that’s more honest. The Washington Post’s real motto is “Our case against Trump withers in sunshine."

Skeptical Voter said...

Not quid pro quo. More like quid ante quo. Still not seemly.

bleh said...

So McCabe admits to having a strong anti-Trump bias before Trump became president and long before he proudly opened an investigation into the president for firing his pal ...

"I think sickening is the right word. It's disgusting. To see the candidate for the presidency taking those lies and manipulating them for his own advantage, and then to hear you know, the chants and the boos of thousands of people who are just accepting those lies at face value, it's chilling."

hombre said...

McCabe is a criminal who corrupted the FBI and lied about it. Anyone who thinks McCauliffe’s donation to his wife wasn’t “insurance” for Hillary has rocks in his head. FOIA inquiries eventually exposing her email server were in the works long before the “investigation” began and obviously Hillary and her cohorts would have been aware of her vulnerability.

It is shocking that 60 Minutes is pimping for this guy - even in a world where the infamy of the mediaswine is well known.

Mike Sylwester said...

cronus titan at 10:18 AM
One unexplored question is how Mueller got picked

Rod Rosenstein picked Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller -- and Mueller accepted -- because both men knew that that Mueller was the one person in the world who was most motivated and able to whitewash the FBI.

Ann Althouse said...

"Limbaugh will carve this interview up today."

No Rush today.

rcocean said...

The idea that the FBI has the right to "Investigate the POTUS" because he fired the Director is insane. This interview, like Comey's Books, just show the FBI was completely politicized and out-of-control. Note that McCabe was fired for lying under oath, so I don't trust a word he says.

I want to see a 60 minutes interview of Jeff Sessions. He's the one responsible for this entire mess. Sessions is the one who pick Rosenstein. Did he do any background on him? Why did he pick him? Why did Sessions recuse himself based on nothing, and then stay recused over EVERYTHING that went on with Mueller and the FBI? As far as I can tell Sessions hasn't uttered a peep since he was fired. Supposedly, Sessions was one of the "possible" votes for the 25th Amendment according to someone in the room with McCabe and Rosenstein. I wonder if that's why Jeff is so silent. Or maybe, he's just still asleep.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Autopsy of a dead coup

Journalists themselves consulted with the Clinton campaign to coordinate attacks. From the Wikileaks trove, journalistic grandees such as John Harwood, Mark Leibovich, Dana Milbank, and Glenn Thrush often communicated (and even post factum were unapologetic about doing so) with John Podesta’s staff to construct various anti-Trump themes and have the Clinton campaign review or even audit them in advance.
ADVERTISING

Some contract “journalists” apparently were paid directly by Fusion GPS—created by former reporters Glen Simpson of the Wall Street Journal and Susan Schmidt of the Washington Post—to spread lurid stories from the dossier. Others more refined like Christiane Amanpour and James Rutenberg had argued for a new journalistic ethos that partisan coverage was certainly justified in the age of Trump, given his assumed existential threat to The Truth. Or as Rutenberg put it in 2016: “If you view a Trump presidency as something that’s potentially dangerous, then your reporting is going to reflect that. You would move closer than you’ve ever been to being oppositional. That’s uncomfortable and uncharted territory for every mainstream, non-opinion journalist I’ve ever known, and by normal standards, untenable. But the question that everyone is grappling with is: Do normal standards apply? And if they don’t, what should take their place?”

I suppose Rutenberg never considered that half the country might have considered the Hillary Clinton presidency “potentially dangerous,” and yet did not expect the evening news, in 90 percent of its coverage, to reflect such suspicions.

The Democratic National Committee’s appendages often helped to massage CNN news coverage—such as Donna Brazile’s primary debate tip-off to the Clinton campaign or CNN’s consultation with the DNC about forming talking points for a scheduled Trump interview.

So-called “bombshell,” “watershed,” “turning-point,” and “walls closing in” fake news aired in 24-hour news bulletin cycles. The media went from fabrications about Trump’s supposed removal of the bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. from the Oval Office, to the mythologies in the Steele dossier, to lies about the Trump Tower meeting, to assurances that Michael Cohen would testify to Trump’s suborning perjury, and on and on.

CNN soon proved that it is no longer a news organization at all—as reporters like Gloria Borger, Chris Cuomo, Eric Lichtblau, Manu Raju, Brian Rokus, Jake Tapper, Jeff Zeleny, and teams such as Jim Sciutto, Carl Bernstein, and Marshall Cohen as well as Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau, and Lex Harris all trafficked in false rumors and unproven gossip detrimental to Trump, while hosts and guest hosts such as Reza Aslan, the late Anthony Bourdain, and Anderson Cooper stooped to obscenity and grossness to attack Trump.

Both politicos and celebrities tried to drive Trump’s numbers down to facilitate some sort of popular ratification for his removal. Hollywood and the coastal corridor punditry exhausted public expressions of assassinating or injuring the president, as the likes of Jim Carrey, Johnny Depp, Robert de Niro, Peter Fonda, Kathy Griffin, Madonna, Snoop Dogg, and a host of others vied rhetorically to slice apart, shoot, beat up, cage, behead, and blow up the president.

..."

VDH

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I love Rush Limbaugh's guest hosts. I prefer them to Rush.

Guy who is on now is on fire.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Ted Matthews.

oooo - Is Rush being arrested for mind crime in our new corrupt leftwing banana republic? AM raid on his home? at gunpoint?

rcocean said...

Do people understand how crazy it is to have the FBI and DAG start an investigation of their own President? . FDR told Hoover what to do, and Hoover did it. JFK had his brother as AG. Mark Felt was deep throat, but he never considered investigating Nixon! Comey/McCabe weren't like Hoover in the 1960s , they had no independent standing with the American people. No one really knew who they were in Jan 2017.

If you had told me about all this in January 2017, I would have said you were crazy. The nuttiest conspiracy nut couldn't have dreamed this up.

rcocean said...

Looking back, we can see McCabe should have been fired at the same time Comey was. Who lead Trump to believe McCabe was OK and "on his side" unlike Comey? Rosenstein or Sessions?

cronus titan said...

@Mike SYlvester:

You may be right but Mueller's selection is much deeper than that. It is really looking like Mueller was picked to cover up what the FBI and DoJ did (maybe CIA and NSA too). He was picked right after the attempted coup -- McCabe glibly talks about the coup but does not explain why it stopped. THe only logical explanation is Mueller's appointment.

Frankly, I read McCabe's interview as saying "I know I am on the legal limb. If I fall, I am taking a lot of people with me." Remember, during the OIG investigation, McCabe said he would take people down with him if he were fired.

If this were movie no one would believe it.

rcocean said...

Notice how incurious and calm the Liberal/Left is over this. Once again, it shows they have NO principles except Decmocats Uber Alles. Same with the disgusting Never Trumpers. Anytime they talk about the Constitution or "the rule of Law" I want to vomit.

rcocean said...

Remember when "we" all laughed at Trump being "Wiretapped". Hahaha.

Not so funny now, is it?

rcocean said...

I Trump has worn out Rush. There's NEWS and controversy hitting the news cycle every 24 hours it seems. And this had been going one since Fall 2015. There's some much to discuss and some much outrage, Rush is getting overwhelmed. He was really getting into criticizing AOC because that's like shooting fish in a barrel.

narciso said...

Mueller wrote the talking points for fitz and Comey re the hospital bed scene in 2004, after the fact, since he wasnt actually there. Goldsmith (lawfare) Baker caproni wray (in reserve) prietap was in training laufman was the us atty in Alexandria having berm in Ashcroft's staff.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The leftwing Democratic-Clinton media cabal wanted Trump so they could beat Trump.
When that failed, - Insurance policy and coup.

cronus titan said...

"Mueller wrote the talking points for fitz and Comey . . . "

THey all know each other at senior levels in DoJ and FBI, and have strong personal and professional relationships. It's basically the courthouse crowd at the national level. In the end they will protect each other.

If Barr appoints a SPecial COUnsel to investigate the FBI and DoJ, they should be picked from a retired state AG from the West staffed with state investigators. There is no other way to avoid the corruption.

William said...

His wife is another Virginia pediatrician. Has anyone checked her yearbook? I do not like to stereotype people, but I have my doubts about Virginia pediatricians. She looks just like the kind of person who would dress up as Diana Ross on Halloween. And Scott Pelley never directly asked her about wearing blackface. Is CBS covering something up?

Drago said...

Now that more coup-news is coming to light, there is a concerted effort on the left and the LLR left to keep portraying unlimited Stasi-like "investigation"/Frame-ups as just ho-hum and typical business as usual, instead of the biggest political scandal in our nations history whereby one party, with its lackeys spread throughout the law enforcement and intelligence agencies, sought to frame an opposing candidate and then, when the unthinkable happened anyway, attempted to use their frameup to remove the duly elected President.

One way to tell if you are dealing with a lackey who is infecting blog sites with the intent to paint the actions of McCabe et al as "normal" or "understandable", is to watch for how they characterize those who understand precisely what all this is about: dem power.

One tactic we have seen repeated lately is the hearkening back to yesteryear and attempt to paint anyone with eyes and 2 brain cells to rub together as a modern day "John Birch" society.

This ludicrous. far left smear-laden tactic has already found its way to Althouseblog. Not that it surprises anyone.

Bruce Hayden said...

I don’t think that Mueller picked his team, or at least not the key players like the odious Weissman. Rather, they appear to have been picked first, and then Mueller was brought in later as the figurehead. Weissman is there because he was at those meetings of (former) ADAG Bruce Ohr and the FBI starting in August 2016, where Ohr was acting as a backdoor conduit between them and Steele and Simpson from Fusion GPS. I seem to remember some Strzok/Page text messages that discussed staffing the special counsel team, and then the two of them getting assigned to it. In Mueller’s favor, he did remove the two of them, after he was made aware of their animus toward Trump evidenced in their text messages, and it is good that he did, because Strzok was still, at that time, apparently authorized to issue National Security Letters to banks, telcos, etc. (having just been #2 in the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division).

Drago said...

Bruce: "In Mueller’s favor, he did remove the two of them, after he was made aware of their animus toward Trump evidenced in their text messages,..."

Mueller hid this fact from Congress while Muellers team was "accidently" deleting texts and destroying the physical phones.....hmmmmmm, similar to how Hillary's team and the state dept destroyed physical evidence AFTER subpeona's had been issued.

What an amazing, astonishing, really coincidental-coincidence about which no "reasonable" person should ever draw any negative conclusions.

Heaven's no. Not a smidgen of corruption....

Why, just ask anyone knowledgeable about the "magnificent" obama admin. Not a whiff of scandal.

buwaya said...

Part of your problem is that it is so vast that there are no provisions in your laws, traditions or culture up to the challenge. Everything is inadequate.

There is no American precedent for dealing with a malicious and inimical state structure, especially when this thing amounts to the entire Federal government.

The only suggestions on how to deal come from foreign experience, and these are unpleasant things like military coups, revolutions and civil wars, which may amount to cures worse than the disease - or worse than the disease is so far.

Yancey Ward said...

It is remarkably difficult to find out what position Andrew McCabe held before becoming Deputy Director of the FBI on February 1st 2016- try Googling it if you don't believe me. As far as I can tell, he worked in the New York City field office at the beginning of his career, but since his wife was running for Virginia Senate from a D.C. suburban county, he must have been a high Associate Director in the FBI at FBI headquarters in Quantico.

What one also can't find on Google is exactly which office of the FBI was handling the Clinton investigation in the Fall of 2015. If McCabe was an Associate Director, was he in the chain of command that handled the Clinton investigation? This should be an easy question to answer with Google alone, but surprising I can find zero information anywhere. In any case, as the Clinton investigation "revved up" in early 2016, McCabe was put in charge of it undeniably in February of 2016. I suspect, given the lack of publicly available information, that he was probably technically in a position of control over it in 2015, but just not directly at that point in time- i.e. details would flow up through him and then to the Deputy Director McCabe reported to at the time.

I am willing to bet that if you could access the chain of command, you will find that whoever was handling the Clinton investigation in the Fall of 2015 reported to Andrew McCabe, either directly or indirectly via some other intermediate manager. I am willing to make this assertion because McCabe and his allies seem to carefully write that he wasn't "in charge" of the investigation rather than write that he had "no connections to the investigation at all." For example, here is the Wiki description:

"McCabe did not oversee (Y.W. emphasis) the Clinton email server probe while his wife was running for office and he was excluded from FBI investigations into public corruption cases in Virginia."

That description raises my suspicions. The investigation wasn't a Virginia corruption case since Clinton did not live in Virginia- she lived in New York and the server resided there, too. That little detail about Virginia corruption cases seems like a tell to me- it was written by someone trying to finesse exactly what connections McCabe had to the Clinton investigation in 2015. In any case, he should have been recused whether or not the money was given to his wife's campaign before or during his control of the investigation. I mean, seriously, this is a clear case of potential bias and is the reason you have such rules in the first place.

Yancey Ward said...

And, additionally, who is to say that Comey didn't select McCabe for Deputy Director precisely because he was the guy the Clintons wanted? Comey doesn't even have to be a knowing participant in a conspiracy- it isn't like he was entirely to free to choose anyone.

Molly said...

It's a little interesting to explore McCabe's motivation, but I am much more interested in actual activities of the "deep state" (DoJ, FBI, and intelligence). I'm sure I'll leave something out but:

1. They failed to follow normal investigative practices in investigating the HRC emails, and whether or not laws were broken in failing to protect secure documents. This failure seems to be motivated by a desire not to contribute to headlines that would embarrass the HRC campaign and reduce the probability of an HRC victory.

2. They failed to follow normal investigative practices in investigating the emails in the possession of Huma Abedin and Anthony Weiner. This failure seems to be motivated by a desire not to contribute to headlines that would embarrass the HRC campaign and reduce the probability of an HRC victory.

3. They failed to follow normal investigative practices in announcing the decision not prosecute HRC or any associates on the emails. (and then announcing a reopening, and then announcing a second closure of the investigation.)

4. They failed to follow normal investigative practices in seeking a FISA warrant based on the Steele dossier.

5. They failed to consider the funding of the Steele dossier as a violation of campaign finance law by the HRC campaign.

6. They failed to follow normal investigative/administrative practices in a effort to keep control of the Russia/Trump investigation out of the hands of a Trump loyalist.

7. They failed to follow normal investigative practices in collecting information about Russia/Trump from sources connected to the HRC campaign.

8. The whole wearing a wire to a meeting, and trying to gin up interest in the 25th amendment.

Feel free to expand or refine the above; I'm certain I've made mistakes or left things out. My point is that it's easy to find articles on any one of these, or perhaps two or three, but there needs to an overarching, comprehensive understanding to fully understand how seriously the deep state undercut the basic operation of US governing system.

Michael K said...

The biggest problem with this entire thing is Michael Horowitz

That is why Mueller keeps going. It blocks Horowitz's report,

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Hillary lost, despite all the manipulations to keep her out of trouble and erase and downplay her secret criminal actions.

The Clintons destroy whole lives. That's what they do.

iowan2 said...

Am i THE ONLY PERSON ON EARTH that has Read the amendment?

You may be the only person on Earth that believes the person lying to you, when they claim that was their intention.


This

It is very easy to get lost in all the leaks from the FBI. Was that even covered in the interview? McCabe was leaking like crazy. When I say 'leaking' I'm saying "the FBI was using the media to set the public narrative.

There was never a 25th amendment attempt. That is the leak the FBI gave to the media to get it into the public narrative...to crash President Trumps approval numbers. There was never any plan to remove the President. The plan all along was to get his approval numbers low enough that McConnel and Ryan, could go the White House (ie Nixon) and explain he could no longer govern and for the good of the country he should resign.

It's still going on, just as strong today.

Gas Lighting the American voter

Bushman of the Kohlrabi said...

I laughed when Pelley said that McCabe and Rosenstein are both life-long Republicans.

The script is always the same but you're not supposed to notice.

rcocean said...

"McCabe and Rosenstein are both life-long Republicans."

Comey used to be a LLR - but now he's a LL-Democrat. When Trump hear about Rothenstein being a LLR - He said "He's from Baltimore. How many Republicans come from Baltimore?"

rcocean said...

"It is remarkably difficult to find out what position Andrew McCabe held before becoming Deputy Director of the FBI on February 1st 2016- try Googling it if you don't believe me."

From what I've read: McCabe's elevation to 2nd in command was surprising and unusual since his prior experience was dissimilar to previous FBI No. 2 guys. He wasn't really a "nuts and bolts" or an old FBI hand. He didn't start with the FBI till 1996, was a lawyer, and worked in the CTD. He was only 48 when he was promoted, which is pretty damn young.

Sebastian said...

"It's disgusting. To see the candidate for the presidency taking those lies and manipulating them for his own advantage."

Even his talk about lies is a lie.

What McCabe et al. did is unconscionable, of course. But one silver lining is the exposure of the swamp creatures for all to see. Even 60 Minutes couldn't hide the rot.

Unknown said...

My viewership of 60 minutes took a huge hit in the early 90's when "Dateline" did a piece on GM vehicles being unsafe, due to their supposed propensity to easily roll over in low speed maneuvers. I did a lot of work for GM at the time and knew the PR guy at the time who was responsible for uncovering NBC's corrupt collusion with the "testing" company that had rigged an explosive device under GM's pickup and filmed it when they triggered the device under the chassis to roll the vehicle over while it made quick turns at a proving ground. This, they broadcast, was visual proof of the claims of crooked ambulance chasing personal injury lawyers' against GM for injuring their clients with "defective" products. Dateline knew the test was rigged and broadcast it anyway. Later they paid GM a handsome settlement, once my friend had uncovered their dishonesty.

From that point forward, I knew that programs like Dateline (and 60 Minutes) had an agenda, and serving that agenda would always be more important to them than any quaint idea of so-called journalistic integrity.

My sentiments for the deep state plotters who have mired Trump for two years, in a swamp of their own always unethical and mostly illegal conspiracy, lies, deceptions, misdirections and exaggerations - shame, contrition and hard jail time. This soft coup attempt is probably the worst government scandal in US history.

Gk1 said...

I watched a few clips and my take is he's a complete dumb fuck. He's making himself a nice juicy target for retribution by the FBI and the DOJ who want to get his stink off them. I am sure they are overjoyed to be thought of as den of deep state coup planners and the most anyone will ever get is an early retirement and slap on the wrist.

Jim at said...

My viewership of 60 minutes took a huge hit in the early 90's when "Dateline" did a piece on GM vehicles being unsafe, due to their supposed propensity to easily roll over in low speed maneuvers.

Mine was before that. When they flat-out lied about Alar.

Lied.

Rosalyn C. said...

I tried to watch the entire interview but met with technical difficulties about half way through, both with Safari and Chrome browsers. I had no problem getting hit with ads though. After about the 15th ad I gave up.

Reading the transcript doesn't give the same information, it lacks McCabe's tone of voice, his beady eyes, and his anxiousness to be believed. I found McCabe to be "deranged" in the sense of how he was looking at Trump in a skewed way and interpreting Trump based on that bias. McCabe believed there was no way Trump (our worst adversary) could have won unless he was colluding with the Russians (our worst adversary) and then worked to prove that. What else could he as a dedicated public servant do?

Meantime the FBI managed to let Omar Mateem (after interviewing him twice) slaughter and wound over 100 people in the Pulse Nightclub on 6/12/2016 and in another snafu sent no security or agents when two jihadis, followed by a FBI informant, attacked a Mohammed Art Exhibit in Garland, TX 5/3/2015. The jihad was foiled by local law enforcement and private security who had received no intel from the FBI about the imminent attack.

McCabe and Rosenstein interviewing the cabinet in order to invoke the 25th Amendment was absolutely surreal. His excuse was that they were all under a lot of stress at the time. Comey's interference prior to the election with his announcements about Clinton emails and absolving her of guilt was enough of a reason for him to be fired. That had nothing to do with the Russia investigation but that was the only reason McCabe could think of. Strange.

Did Pelley ask McCabe how he feels now that no evidence of collusion has been revealed? Does he still expect that happen? Is he still friends with Rod Rosenstein?

grackle said...

Our not-so-Deep State has decided to brazen it out. So far it has worked for Comey. Right? It was all going to come out in due time … so why not get out ahead of it?

But when Comey let Hillary off the hook at his now-famous presser Comey wasn’t ostensibly doing it for his own benefit. McCabe is trying to save his own ass with the book and the interviews. Will it work? Can he get away with plotting a coup detat against an American POTUS?

Drago said...

rcocean: "Comey used to be a LLR - but now he's a LL-Democrat."

Not really.

It was just a label.

Comey was Team Dem going back 30 years. However, its good to sometimes fake being a republican when republican administrations come to town.

Comey. Was. Always. A. Dem. Which is why Mueller and the rest of the hacks knew they could trust him to carry out their wishes.

buwaya said...

You certainly have tens of thousands of McCabes, Comeys and Muellers throughout your government, or outside waiting in the wings. You have the proto versions, no doubt, infesting the FBI lower ranks right now.

I repeat, and I am quite boring, yes, I know, that this is not a matter of individuals but institutions and systems.

walter said...

Ralph L said...
As I've said before, what did the FBI think Russia had done for Trump--that he couldn't do for himself?
--
Russia, Russia, Russia was/is a means to an end, not the actual concern.

Gk1 said...

Another reason why the questions were so softballish is the fact McCabe is still under threat of lawsuits and disciplinary action for lying to the FBI so it probably was one of the ground rules not to ask obvious questions of McCabe that he would have to defer since he's subject litigation. Even so I don't understand the upside of this just to gin up sales for a book when he could be looking at hard time. If its hunting season, better to shut up and try to blend into the background.

buwaya said...

Note Lara Logan interview with Mike Ritland (video hosted on Breitbart) re the MSM.
Vicious, and entirely true of course.
At the end she says "this interview is professional suicide for me".

She was always a brave woman, regularly going where angels fear to tread. It takes more guts for women to break with the pack, to buck consensus, than men. It sounds like she's done.

traditionalguy said...

Trump has been slowly unwinding the carefully woven Bribed Controller Bureaucrats installed for 40 years in every agency as Senior Executives. It will take his full two terms. Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama/ Hillary ran a criminal scam to enrich themselves and pay huge bribes to Bureaucrats to keep the scam going.

Trump actually takes no bribes, which is his only crime to DC. He is cleaniing out the place with. The help of Q and his Military Intelligence buddies that is still commited to the Republic.

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James Sarver said...

I hadn't watched a 60 Minutes segment in years (or a full show in decades).

I had hoped to see an interview of McCabe. Instead I got a CBS produced infomercial for his new book. I won't be back for any more of that action.

Kirk Parker said...

buwaya,

it is indeed a matter of institutions.

HOWEVER.

If a few higher apps like McCabe got strapped across the barrel of a cannon... Well a meaningful percentage of those waiting in the wings would have a change of heart, don't you think?