Right After FBI Deputy Director's Sudden Resignation, Donald Trump Jr. Issues Fiery Response
Donald Trump Jr. responded Monday to news that FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is resigning from his bureau post several months before he was originally expected to do so.
McCabe, 49, is currently on leave and will officially retire in March, CBS News reported. At that point, he will be eligible to receive pension benefits.
Trump Jr. had a lot to say about the news, taking to Twitter to post a series of questions — some of them sarcastic — that he had after learning of McCabe’s departure.
First, President Donald Trump’s eldest son sardonically wondered why McCabe had decided to step down.
“I wonder why???” Trump Jr. tweeted, seemingly referring to the questions that have arisen regarding McCabe’s ability to stay objective and politically impartial.
The deputy director has come under increased scrutiny following the release of anti-Trump text messages exchanged during the 2016 presidential election between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, two FBI officials who were having an affair.
In one of the messages, Page wrote, “There is no way (Trump) gets elected.”
Strzok then replied, “I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office … that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk. … It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
“Andy” apparently referred to McCabe.
Trump Jr. then noted that McCabe will receive pension benefits for the remainder of his life — at the expense of U.S. taxpayers — despite the fact that he will be on leave until he is eligible to get those benefits.
“So they will keep him on till then despite all this to make sure the American tax payer is stuck paying him for the rest of his life?” Trump Jr. asked.
According to CBS, FBI rules allow for soon-to-to retire employees like McCabe — who are close to 50 years of age and 20 years of service — to take any leave they have accrued, thus essentially retiring early.
Next, Trump Jr. turned his attention the “strange timing” of McCabe’s resignation. He noted that news of McCabe’s departure came the same day that the House Intelligence Committee was likely to vote to declassify and release a memo alleging that former President Barack Obama’s Justice Department wrongfully used the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on the Trump campaign.
“Strange timing. ‘Stepping down’ the day after FBI brass sees the memo,” the president’s son wrote. “I wonder what’s in there?”
Finally, Trump Jr. responded to CNN anchor Jake Tapper, who felt the need to point out McCabe has been relentlessly attacked by the president in a series of tweets.
“Yea right, that’s why he stepped down a day after the FBI saw the FISA memo and the day the house votes on its release,” Trump Jr. wrote.
“Now the other media sheep have their talking points. Go spread the gospel.”
“Who do you think you’re kidding at this point?” he asked Tapper.
McCabe has been with the bureau since 1996, serving under former Directors Robert Mueller and James Comey.
According to NBC News, last week, White House spokesman Raj Shah fanned reports of pressure from the White House to fire McCabe, saying in a statement that Trump “believes politically motivated senior leaders” of the FBI “have tainted the agency’s reputation for unbiased pursuit of justice.”
A new director will be appointed to “clean up the misconduct at the highest levels of the FBI.”
In addition to McCabe being implicated in the texts as possessing a possible anti-Trump bias, Republicans have pointed to his wife Jill being connected with Hillary Clinton through a nearly $500,000 campaign donation she received in 2015 from Democrat Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Clinton ally.
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