As of Wednesday evening, as Nicholas Fondacaro at NewsBusters observed, the three broadcasting networks were not reporting the content of the most damning text messages exchanged between now-former Robert Mueller investigative team members Peter Strzok and his mistress Lisa Page. Meanwhile, coverage seen Wednesday evening at the Associated Press predictably treated the matter as a Republicans-attack dispute. Almost no one seems to be interested in hearing from what other veteran or former FBI officials think about the Mueller team's and Bureau leadership's conduct.
One exception is Elizabeth MacDonald at the Fox Business network, who interviewed former FBI Assistant Director Jim Kallstrom on Thursday's Risk and Reward show. The dead giveaway that the AP's Wednesday dispatch was hopelessly biased is that the following three words are not present: "insurance," "protect," and "McCabe."
Those two words, plus an overwhelmingly likely reference to Assistant FBI Director Andrew McCabe, are present in the two most damning of the text messages sent between Strzok and Page, specifically (bolds are mine throughout this post):
Page – And maybe you’re meant to stay where you are because you’re meant to protect the country from that menace. To that end comma, read this:
Page – Trump Enablers Will Finally Have to Take A Stand http://nyti.ms/2aFakry
Strzok – Thanks. It’s absolutely true that we’re both very fortunate. And of course I’ll try and approach it that way. I just know it will be tough at times. I can protect our country at many levels, not sure if that helps.
Strzok — 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 ...
The first text makes it clear that Strzok and Page felt that he was on a mission to prevent Trump's election.
It would be impossible for any objective person to downplay the potential significance of these two texts — so the AP's Sadie Gurman and Eric Tucker chose to keep them out of their story in an obvious attempt to keep as much of America as possible in the dark.
Instead, the pair focused on how the Strzok-Page texts and other revelations "provided a line of attack" for President Trump, while giving the impression that only Republicans are contending that "the team is biased against" him. They really want readers to believe that all of this just another boring partisan dispute.
One would expect that FBI agents in the rank and file aren't seeing things this way, and that they are appalled that the top leadership of the once-respected agency has squandered its reputation and national goodwill by taking sides before last year's election, and by working to undermine the new administration before and since it took office.
Kallstrom, in his telephone interview with MacDonald, essentially confirmed the accuracy of that perception, and minced no words about what has happened at the FBI in the past year and what should happen to Strzok, based on what it known.
The three interview snips which follow were taken from a longer segment from of the interview posted here:
Transcript (beginning at 0:06):
(Snip 1)
ELIZABETH MacDONALD, FOX BUSINESS: ... And here’s the thing, can FBI agents check their politics at the door? I mean, do you believe FBI agent Peter Strzok was taking active measures to stop Trump from winning and measures to help Hillary Clinton?
JIM KALLSTROM: Yes, I do. And I’ve come to that conclusion after reading these text messages. Now people send text messages, I realize that, but the depth and scope and just nasty hatred that was expressed in those messages — you know, this Lone Ranger riding to the rescue of America. I mean, nothing could be further from the truth.
(Snip 2)
KALLSTROM: ... You know, I’ve talked to some legal minds recently here, and I think a good — an investigation would bring a strong, strong obstruction of justice case against him and many others.
I think this is a cabal. I think it's a conspiracy. That whole thing, the dossier, is B.S., and if they took that to the FISA court and knew it was B.S., then they’re in a lot of trouble. And if they didn’t know it was B.S., then they are totally incompetent.
But let me say something. It’s not the FBI agents. You know, 99.9% of the people in the FBI are honorable, patriots, helping the United States, helping the people of this great country. And how big this cabal is, I don't know if it’s 8 people or 20 people or — but it’s a small number, a number of people in the Justice Department.
You know, that wife of that guy on the justice Department on the shortwave radio talking over there to this guy over in Great Britain. What a disgrace. This thing is an absolute fraud.
You know, and the Attorney General of United States should either resign or should do something about it.
(Snip 3)
MacDONALD: ... Peter Strzok said, "I can protect our country at many levels." What can an FBI official and FBI agent do to stop a president from getting elected?
KALLSTROM: Well, I think you can do what this guy tried to do. He can fabricate things, he can make up stuff, he can lie. He can be a total moron, he can recruit others. He belongs in Leavenworth this guy, in my personal view. I don’t have all the facts, but from what I know he belongs behind bars, this guy. These things cannot happen in a democracy, particularly in the FBI.
But it’s not the FBI. I beg the American people, don’t condemn the FBI, condemn these people that have went way, way off the rails here and you know, need to be dealt with severely in my view.
I don't imagine that anyone at CNN or MSNBC will be inviting Kallstrom onto their shows anytime soon.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
