Politics

What Is The Feud Between Trump And McCabe About?

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images and JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Caitlin McFall Video Journalist
Font Size:

Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe has come out this week in a number of explosive interviews to talk about his recently released book, “The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terrorism and Trump.”

He is speaking out on his time with the FBI before, during and after former FBI Director James Comey was fired by President Trump on May 9, 2017.

McCabe and President Trump met at the oval office just hours after Comey was fired. And by the next day, McCabe initiated the process to begin the special counsel’s investigation — which involved two separate investigations. Firstly, to see if he fired Comey to obstruct justice and secondly, if so was he working on behalf of the Russian government. (RELATED: ANDREW MCCABE: DECISION TO INVESTIGATE TRUMP AS A RUSSIAN AGENT WAS BASED ON PUBLIC INFORMATION, NOT SECRET INTEL)

McCabe reportedly took steps to secure the investigation to make sure that if he was fired, the case could not be shutdown or silenced without there being a record of them doing so. Robert Mueller was named the special counsel on May 17, 2017.

McCabe has come out saying that in the days following Comey’s firing, he had a number of discussions with Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on enacting the 25th Amendment, a process in which the vice president with a cabinet majority can remove the president from office. McCabe even stated that Rosenstein offered to wear a wire to the White House on multiple occasions. However, the deputy attorney general has adamantly denied this.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, led by Chairman Sen. Lindsay Graham, has said they will be launching an investigation of their own into these allegations. But McCabe has already responded to this by saying, “I look forward to working with the committee. We haven’t received a request yet and we will certainly take a hard look at that and talk to the committee when the time comes.”

McCabe was interviewed by President Trump for the FBI director role during his interim service as the acting director. However, McCabe has said the interview did not go very well as he informed President Trump that he did not vote for him for the presidency, but instead felt he should reframe from voting at all due to the fact that he was involved in both the initial investigation into Russian intereference in the campaign and the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails.

“I wasn’t willing to lie to keep it,” he said in a “60 minutes” interview he gave earlier this week.

Trump ended up nominating Christopher Wray in as new FBI director in June 2017.  By July of that year Trump started attacking McCabe’s wife, Jill McCabe, on Twitter for campaign donations she received in her Virginia state senate race in 2015.

During her campaign she reportedly received nearly $500,000 in contributions from then-Democratic Governor Terry McAuliffe’s Super Pac – who also supported Hillary Clinton. Trump used this as leverage to call out the McCabe’s on Twitter, and has posted:

“….Many of the top FBI brass were fired, forced to leave, or left. McCabe’s wife received BIG DOLLARS from Clinton people for her campaign – he gave Hillary a pass. McCabe is a disgrace to the FBI and a disgrace to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Christopher Wray became FBI director in August 2017, and Andrew McCabe returned to his previous role as deputy director.

Despite this, the contentious relationship between Andrew McCabe and President Trump continued.

Tune in to see what exactly took place between the two.