The president’s best morning Friends did not take CBS’s Thursday bombshell lying down.
The explosive report by 60 Minutes’ Scott Pelley on This Morning—that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe says top Department of Justice officials met to consider invoking the 25th Amendment on after the firing of James Comey—had the hosts of Fox & Friends questioning whether there was an illegal coup attempt to oust President Donald Trump.
“In your mind, were they trying to overthrow the government? Was this a coup?” an exasperated Brian Kilmeade asked noted Trump loyalist Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) after reading out some of the adapted excerpts from McCabe’s upcoming book, The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump, which The Atlantic published this morning.
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In a preview of his 60 Minutes interview, McCabe—who was abruptly fired from office last year, just days before he was eligible for federal retirement benefits and after a series of Twitter attacks by Trump—revealed he wanted to launch a Russia counterintelligence probe a day after speaking with the president in May 2017, one of the first conversations they had following the firing of Comey.
“I was very concerned that I was able to put the Russia case on absolutely solid ground, in an indelible fashion,” McCabe said to host Scott Pelley in a clip from the interview, which will air Sunday. “That were I removed quickly, or reassigned or fired, that the case could not be closed or vanish in the night without a trace.”
Nunes—the California Republican and former House Intel Committee leader who was the driving force to release a memo that alleged the FBI abused its authority to target a former Trump foreign-policy adviser just before the election—condemned the investigation into the president under “false pretenses,” but didn’t agree with the Fox News host that the move was a rebellious effort.
The lawmaker, who said he was skeptical of “anyone who was hawking a book,” did not bring up the multiple revealed meetings between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government that took place during the presidential election.
“They were opening up a counterintelligence investigation into a political party based on dirt and research from another political party,” Nunes said. “That is something we should never do in this country. Every American should be outraged by this. This is buried by the mainstream media for years. This has gone on two years. It is absolutely absurd and now you have people hawking books over the thing.”
He added: “Any talk of the 25th Amendment is outrageous.”
Later, the president responded to McCabe’s comments, claiming the former FBI official was pretending to be a “poor little Angel” and accusing him of plotting against the president.
“Disgraced FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe pretends to be a “poor little Angel” when in fact he was a big part of the Crooked Hillary Scandal & the Russia Hoax - a puppet for Leakin’ James Comey. I.G. report on McCabe was devastating,” Trump wrote. “Part of “insurance policy” in case I won…”
He continued: “Many of the top FBI brass were fired, forced to leave, or left. McCabe’s wife received BIG DOLLARS from Clinton people for her campaign - he gave Hillary a pass. McCabe is a disgrace to the FBI and a disgrace to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
