all of our discussions. and i couldn t have asked for really a better colleague to work with when we were doing important things like protecting the nation s security. mary, before i let you go, in the course of our conversation, the president has tweeted again, i m just going to put it up and read it for our viewers here. he says, the fake news is beside themselves that mccabe was caught, called out and fired. how many hundreds of thousands of dollars was given to wife s campaign by crooked h friend terry m. who is also under investigation, how many lies, how many leaks? comey knew it all and much more, of course talking about terry mcauliffe and andrew mccabe s wife who ran unsuccessfully for office in the state of the virginia. what is your reaction to the president s tweet? it s really unfortunate that the president involves himself in these personal attacks. his tweets on these subjects and others have not been good for the country, have not been good for the career civil s
under fbi regulations, again, the sort of haste with which this investigation and the carve-out of this particular investigation seems to have taken place again, i can t say that i know every detail about it, but just based on public reporting, it seems like a very unfortunate push to try to obtain this result right before andy s retirement. and, you know, andy is somebody who has spent two decades in the bureau and who i ve worked with for years very closely. when i was at the national security division we talked every day for almost three years. i have utmost respect for him, he s honest, he has integrity. we didn t always agree on everything, it would be surprising if the bureau and the doj agreed on every single thing. but we always worked productively toward reaching a solution. he always took very seriously
the timing of the dismissal of andrew mccabe. many are calling this politically motivated now. what led the attorney general to take this step? it started with an investigation by the inspector general, looking into how the fbi handled the entire hillary clinton matter. what the ig said in a report to the fbi is mccabe authorized fbi insiders to talk to a reporter from the wall street journal in 2016 about the clinton foundation investigation. the ig said that was improper and that when questioned about it, mccabe wasn t forthright, wasn t candid. that went to the fbi to review. the fbi s office of professional responsibility made the recommendation that he be fired. mccabe appealed that to the justice department as is his right. and late last night, about 10:00, the attorney general decided to accept the fbi s recommendation. so mccabe was fired 26 hours before he was to retire. extraordinary timing, to say
represents donald trump the man. ty cobb is a government-paid lawyer who represents the office of the presidency. so clearly they have different motivations here. i would add, though, that dowd s comments put him firmly in line with diehard trump supporters who want to see an end to the russia probe while also fueling the point that many trump critics make that, you know, mccabe s dismissal is part of a larger effort by the president and republicans on capitol hill to bring about an end to the overall russia investigation. alex, it s important to say this is apples and oranges. what the firing of mccabe is about, according to the words of the attorney general himself, is simply about talking to a reporter and the subsequent interviews by the fbi and the inspector general about those conversations. it had nothing to do with the broader investigation by bob mueller or mccabe s wife or any of the other things, because she was a democratic candidate for public office, or any of the other
full 61% of those probed believe the mueller probe is going to be either very or somewhat fair. how much does this cut into the president s efforts to try to cast a cloud over the investigation, do you think? bob mueller is someone who has had a tremendous career and is looked upon favorably by both sides of the aisle. when he was first appointed, that choice was praised by republicans too, although of course the white house and some allies on the right have tried to vilify him. we ve seen this is a pattern for months in which they have tried to chip away at the integrity of the special counsel. but as that polling suggests, they haven t been successful. the american people want to see this investigation conducted fairly. the house of course ended theirs earlier this week, which feels, mind you, like a month ago. doesn t it? and that, you know, that s sharply broken down on party