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Twitter Goes Ballistic On Trump

by Samuel Warde No Comments

Twitter responds to Trump’s latest attempt to obstruct justice, showing absolutely no mercy.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe late Friday night, a little more than 24-hours before he was set to retire and become eligible for full benefits.

The New York Times reported that Sessions released a statement late Friday accusing McCabe of having shown a lack of candor while under oath.

“The F.B.I. expects every employee to adhere to the highest standards of honesty, integrity and accountability,” he said, adding “I have terminated the employment of Andrew McCabe effective immediately.”

NBC News reported that McCabe was swift to respond – essentially accusing the Trump administration of obstruction of justice.

His statement read as follows:

“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.”

The New York Times reported that McCabe was “more blunt” in a subsequent interview stating that: “The idea that I was dishonest is just wrong,” he said, adding, “This is part of an effort to discredit me as a witness.” [emphasis added]

The New York Times went on to report that: although “F.B.I. disciplinary officials recommended his dismissal… Mr. McCabe’s last-minute dismissal was carried out against a highly politicized backdrop.”

McCabe was among the first at the F.B.I. to scrutinize possible Trump campaign ties to Russia. And he is a potential witness to the question of whether Mr. Trump tried to obstruct justice. Mr. Trump has taunted Mr. McCabe both publicly and privately, and Republican allies have cast him as the center of a “deep state” effort to undermine the Trump presidency.

As a witness, Mr. McCabe would be in a position to corroborate the testimony of the former F.B.I. director, James B. Comey, who kept contemporaneous notes on his conversations with Mr. Trump. Mr. Comey said Mr. Trump prodded him to publicly exonerate the president on the question of Russian collusion and encouraged him to shut down an investigation into his national security adviser.

Trump took to his twitter account to gloat about McCabe’s termination shortly after midnight.

“Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI – A great day for Democracy. Sanctimonious James Comey was his boss and made McCabe look like a choirboy. He knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the FBI!” he tweeted.

As one might expect, Twitter was swift to respond, with former CIA Director John Brennan tweeting that Trump will be remembered as “a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.”

Noted actor and film producer Rob Reiner weighed in, tweeting: “McCabe becomes another casualty in the war between Democracy and Autocracy. Fortunately for US Autocracy is lead by a weak moron. And since a frightened GOP refuses to defend US, this November Democracy will come roaring back. VOTE!”

Brian Krassenstein, Editor-in-Chief at Forum Advertising LLC and frequent Trump critic posted a couple of responses to the news:

David Corn, the DC Bureau Chief for Mother Jones, connected McCabe’s firing to Russia with the following response:

Even Fox News weighed in negatively on the news, posting a clip of correspondent Geraldo Rivera stating that “The firing of McCabe as it happened, on a Friday night at ten o’clock, was harsh and spiteful.”

MSNBC justice & security analyst Matthew Miller posted a spirited series of Tweets in response to the firing, at times engaging with others.

CNN Justice correspondent Evan Perez tweeted: “Former FBI Dep Dir Andrew McCabe fired about 26 hours before he was eligible to retire w full pension on his birthday. AG Sessions says McCabe lacked candor multiple times when asked about disclosures to media.“

Miller responded: “Nothing says you’re confident what you’re doing is right like rolling it out at 10 pm on Friday,” adding, “Hard to know whether McCabe deserved some punishment without seeing the IG report. But equally hard to believe this gets rushed through DOJ this quickly absent the AG feeling pressure from the president. In any normal time at DOJ, McCabe is just allowed to quietly retire.”

Fox News producer Jake Gibson weighed, in tweeting: “DOJ Officials tell Fox News the FBI has terminated 19 employees for lack of candor from March 2017 to March 2018, and those people ‘were not even under oath at the time.’“

Miller shot back: “How many of those happened two days before the employee made retirement?“

Continuing, Miller tweeted: “Thing I can’t get past on McCabe is Sessions’ role. He is both recused from the underlying case and the target of enormous pressure from POTUS. Smartest course of action would’ve been recusal – fact he didn’t shows he wanted the credit with Trump for this.“

Politico reporter Josh Gerstein tweeted that: “DOJ is taking the position that Sessions recusal covers only the investigations themselves and not employee discipline or professional responsibility issues, even if they arise directly or solely from those investigations.” And Miller responded: “This is ridiculous. Dancing on the head of a pin to justify his involvement when it’s clear recusal would’ve been prudent. He stayed in because he wanted to ensure this outcome.“

Samuel Warde
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