Friday, February 02, 2018 7:46:29 PM
Trump’s Brazen War on the FBI Defies History
"Part 134, some of Russian meddling..."
Trump, Attorney General Jeff Session, and FBI Director Christopher Wray. AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The president is attacking one of the government's most conservative institutions—and the Republicans have his back.
By Jeet Heer
February 3, 2018
In announcing the release of a declassified four-page memo prepared by the House Intelligence Committee, which he chairs, Representative Devin Nunes said, “The committee has discovered serious violations of the public trust, and the American people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes. Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies exist to defend the American people, not to be exploited to target one group on behalf of another.”
As The New Republic’s Matt Ford explains, the memo does not support Nunes’s allegations, let alone justify the hype that preceded it from Fox News and other right-wing outlets. But its release on Friday is still an important event: the latest skirmish in the war that Trump and his allies in Congress are waging against the FBI.
FBI Director Christopher Wray had told the White House he opposed making the memo public, and the FBI released a statement saying it has “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.” But Trump had other ideas. Early Friday morning, he tweeted an attack on the FBI and the Department of Justice:
-
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice
Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in
favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which
would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File
are great people!
10:33 PM - Feb 2, 2018
-
Hours later, Trump revealed that he had approved the memo’s release, saying, “I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on in this country.”
[Wrong on the FBI, but, on it's own, Donald, right on the quote just above. Your venal attacks on all institutions which have been paramount in creating American greatness, before you, are a disgrace. Your incivility to anyone who disagrees with you is a disgrace.Your dishonesty is a disgrace. Your attack on the integrity of long-term and widely respected career F,B.I. people is more of your generally disgraceful behavior.]
[...]
Trump claims the FBI has “politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans,” but historically, the FBI has been a very conservative, and often reactionary, institution. The first and longest-serving head of the agency, J. Edgar Hoover, was notorious for his right-wing politics, often using the agency to target Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King and other political radicals. The FBI reformed itself, but remains conservative in orientation. Every non-interim director of the agency has been a Republican, even those appointed by Democratic presidents.
As the HuffPost notes, “The key law enforcement figures in what President Donald Trump and his allies have characterized as a ‘deep state’ conspiracy against him are not lefties or even Democrats: They are Republicans. And Trump picked a number of them himself.” Special counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and current FBI head Christopher Wray are all Republicans. Former FBI Director James Comey was a Republican until a few years ago.
With links .. https://newrepublic.com/article/146932/trumps-brazen-war-fbi-defies-history
See also:
At least one Republican gets it right: Ole John McCain
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138248765
"Part 134, some of Russian meddling..."
Trump, Attorney General Jeff Session, and FBI Director Christopher Wray. AP Photo/Evan Vucci
The president is attacking one of the government's most conservative institutions—and the Republicans have his back.
By Jeet Heer
February 3, 2018
In announcing the release of a declassified four-page memo prepared by the House Intelligence Committee, which he chairs, Representative Devin Nunes said, “The committee has discovered serious violations of the public trust, and the American people have a right to know when officials in crucial institutions are abusing their authority for political purposes. Our intelligence and law enforcement agencies exist to defend the American people, not to be exploited to target one group on behalf of another.”
As The New Republic’s Matt Ford explains, the memo does not support Nunes’s allegations, let alone justify the hype that preceded it from Fox News and other right-wing outlets. But its release on Friday is still an important event: the latest skirmish in the war that Trump and his allies in Congress are waging against the FBI.
FBI Director Christopher Wray had told the White House he opposed making the memo public, and the FBI released a statement saying it has “grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.” But Trump had other ideas. Early Friday morning, he tweeted an attack on the FBI and the Department of Justice:
-
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
The top Leadership and Investigators of the FBI and the Justice
Department have politicized the sacred investigative process in
favor of Democrats and against Republicans - something which
would have been unthinkable just a short time ago. Rank & File
are great people!
10:33 PM - Feb 2, 2018
-
Hours later, Trump revealed that he had approved the memo’s release, saying, “I think it’s a disgrace what’s going on in this country.”
[Wrong on the FBI, but, on it's own, Donald, right on the quote just above. Your venal attacks on all institutions which have been paramount in creating American greatness, before you, are a disgrace. Your incivility to anyone who disagrees with you is a disgrace.Your dishonesty is a disgrace. Your attack on the integrity of long-term and widely respected career F,B.I. people is more of your generally disgraceful behavior.]
[...]
Trump claims the FBI has “politicized the sacred investigative process in favor of Democrats and against Republicans,” but historically, the FBI has been a very conservative, and often reactionary, institution. The first and longest-serving head of the agency, J. Edgar Hoover, was notorious for his right-wing politics, often using the agency to target Civil Rights leaders like Martin Luther King and other political radicals. The FBI reformed itself, but remains conservative in orientation. Every non-interim director of the agency has been a Republican, even those appointed by Democratic presidents.
As the HuffPost notes, “The key law enforcement figures in what President Donald Trump and his allies have characterized as a ‘deep state’ conspiracy against him are not lefties or even Democrats: They are Republicans. And Trump picked a number of them himself.” Special counsel Robert Mueller, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and current FBI head Christopher Wray are all Republicans. Former FBI Director James Comey was a Republican until a few years ago.
With links .. https://newrepublic.com/article/146932/trumps-brazen-war-fbi-defies-history
See also:
At least one Republican gets it right: Ole John McCain
https://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=138248765
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
Join the InvestorsHub Community
Register for free to join our community of investors and share your ideas. You will also get access to streaming quotes, interactive charts, trades, portfolio, live options flow and more tools.
