As the deadline approached for the Attorney General to decide whether to fire former Acting Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, the media have ramped up the hysterics. On Friday, the hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe lost their tempers and bashed White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for "not being a good American" when she described McCabe as a "bad actor."
During the end of the show's first hour, a clip played in which Sanders answered a press question about whether the President would support McCabe's termination from the FBI. "That's a determination we would leave up to Attorney General Sessions," she replied. "But we do think it is well documented that he has had troubling behavior and by most accounts a bad actor."
Host Joe Scarborough bristled at the description. "That bad actor," he began icily, "was key in the Boston marathon bombing investigation." He listed a series of duties McCabe had performed throughout his years of service at the Bureau, concluding, "I mean, this guy has been a hero."
"Yeah," co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed. Scarborough repeated the "law enforcement hero" epithet and spat that the remark by Sanders, whom he characterized as a "White House flack," was " a disgrace to every man and woman that wears the uniform."
After an uncomfortably long and platitudinous speech about the FBI, Scarborough ceded the spotlight to Brzezinski. Staring theatrically into the camera and jabbing her finger in accusal, she launched into a monologue of her own:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, how can you do this? How can you do this when you know it’s wrong? You know it’s wrong, what you’re saying. You know every word you're saying is wrong, and that you're not being a good person and you're not being a good American. You're not.
A bit of context: McCabe has been accused of making false statements during an interview with Inspector General Michael Horowitz – which is a crime – and as a result the FBI's ethics office has recommended he be fired. Because he has already resigned, McCabe's firing would only result in his losing his pension, as the FBI have never prosecuted one of their own for making false statements.
Such charges are reserved only for private citizens, like General Michael Flynn, whose own misleading statements to federal investigators received 18 times as much coverage as McCabe's did. Additionally, his prosecution for this act, which investigators working under James Comey had advised against pursuing, met with full-throated approval from the same pundits who now anxiously wring their hands about disciplinary action against McCabe.
For those perplexed about why Scarborough, Brzezinski, and their cohorts seem so deeply concerned for McCabe's pension, bear in mind that any perceived enemy of Trump will inevitably become a darling of the media. Their adoration for McCabe has little to do with respect for law enforcement, or even with McCabe himself.
