what was going on was counterintelligence investigation about possible russian interference in the 2016 election. as part of that investigation, they did have fbi assets that took stock of whether trump campaign advisers were being entangled with russia in any way. that was part of the counterintelligence investigation. president trump escalating this report into spying is making it a political weapon in 2020, and many of his advisers tell me it s effective. frank, it sounds like the fbi is being put on trial today. in a sense, it is. but it s even larger than that. the neutral objective fact finder, the ig and the fbi pause you there. geoff bennett has dianne feinstein. let s go to her real quick, ranking member. go ahead, geoff. reporter: she just walked in, chuck, but i asked her what she hopes democrats achieve with this hearing today and she said
according to the ig s report the fbi complied with existing department and fbi policies in opening the investigation and the ig, quote, did not find documentary or testimonial evidence that political bias or improper motivation influenced this decision, end quote, or any specific investigative steps taken by the fbi. that s the finding. and this is important. why? in public statements, beginning last spring, the attorney general expressed his belief that senior government officials may have, quote, put a thumb on the scale, end quote, because of political bias against trump. his comments echoed the president, who has repeatedly alleged that there is a deep state within the government against him. he has used this to the entire russia investigation as a
about his father, implicating his own father and assassination of president kennedy, that he was somehow present there with that conspiracy theory, going after ted cruz s wife and her physical appearance and now you have ted cruz emerging as a very poignant book end in the transformation we ve seen from this republican party from the campaign when you had everyone like lindsey graham, whose own statements can be turned back on him, calling the president a threat. it s striking, particularly as we watch the watchdog, horowi horowitz, who is not a household name but has become central to so many of these disputes. up until this report dropped this week, he was seen as the great hope among many on the
read it. if that s your takeaway that this was lawfully predicated, you entirely missed the report. how do you get a headline like that? you want it to be that and nothing more. and i can assure you if this had been a democratic president going through what president trump went through, that would not have been the headline. the headline would be fbi takes law into its own hands, lied to court. ignored exoneration. so the first thing i want you to know is how the cake is baked here. and my goal is when this is over, whether you like trump, hate trump, don t care about trump, you look at this as more that happen a few
i keep hoping the charade will end and people will just dump him. the problem then is that rubio will likely lose to cruz. i never quite made it. i can understand why they would not consider me a serious candidate. the republican party is utter shambles. when was the last competitive ticket they offered? march 3rd, 2016. page. god, trump is a loathsome human. strzok. oh, my god. he s an idiot. newsrooms nt all over the country people are nodding this represents the attitude of a lot of people in america and you can have that attitude, but you shouldn t be in the journalism business. you shouldn t be at the fbi. if you were in the military and you said anything like this about a commander in chief, you would be charged with a crime. remember the mcchrystal debacle where they had a bar room