In the wake of the former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s firing from the FBI for misleading Inspector General investigators, the liberal media were rife with misinformation of their own. During the Sunday morning news programs, NBC’s Chuck Todd misled their viewers on why McCabe was fired and ABC’s George Stephanopoulos lied about the messages sent by pro-Hillary Clinton FBI agents investigating her and President Trump.
According to Todd’s warped retelling of Friday’s firing, and the events leading up to it, President Trump and conservative media were to blame for McCabe getting canned by Attorney General Jeff Sessions:
What I would say is this, I think the fact that how the President made the McCabe firing happen, I mean, it is an extraordinary -- if you go back 18 months, the systemic campaign against McCabe to delegitimize him to raise questions about him, to a deputy FBI director that nobody had ever heard of and the president using his bully pulpit to do that.
Of course, the real reason McCabe was fired was that he leaked information about an investigation to the press he wasn’t supposed to and then lied to investigators about it. But then again, when that revelation was leaked on Wednesday, NBC couldn’t be bothered to report it that evening. Nor the following morning.
A cautious sounding Todd had a dire warning for viewers, claiming a rhetorical “war” was on the horizon. “I think that's most significant because I think it signals this president is no longer cooperating with Mueller, it's time for war, and I think this thing is about to come to a head and it's either going to go radically one way or radically in another direction, Willie,” he feared.
Meanwhile, on ABC’s Good Morning America, Clinton lackey George Stephanopoulos was spreading lies about the political bias of FBI investigators. Co-anchor Paula Faris feared McCabe was tainted as a witness in the Russia probe because of his firing and his ties to pro-Clinton agents investigating the President.
Stephanopoulos quickly scolded Faris for “mixing up a lot of different things there.” He admitted that McCabe was fired for a “lack of candor,” but tried to discredit the findings of career investigators by asserting Trump was “interfering.” He also claimed the findings were, “set against the backdrop of an entire process that has been politicized by the President calling for several months for Andrew McCabe to be fired.”
“Those messages you're talking about are actually private text messages which probably should have never been leaked in the first place and there were also anti-Clinton and anti-politician messages wrapped up in that as well,” Stephanopoulos added. “So I think that's separate from Andrew McCabe.” Yet that too was just more misinformation.
As the Media Research Center previously reported back in December, ABC was one of the networks that were hiding a highly damaging text message from their viewers. The message was between pro-Clinton FBI staffers Agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page. During the 2016 election, Strzok sent Page a cryptic message referencing “Andy’s office” and an “insurance policy” if Trump won.
The idea Strzok and Page were “anti-Clinton,” as Stephanopoulos suggested, was totally laughable. As their text messages showed, the lovers slammed all of her opponents while showing a particular preference for her. Earth to George! Strzok texted: “God, Hillary should win 100,000,000-0.’’
And Stephanopoulos’ whining that their private texts shouldn’t have been leaked was hypocritical since he and his liberal media cohorts touted the leaking of private conversations with Trump.
Transcripts below, click expand to read:
NBC
Sunday Today
March 18, 2018
8:04:54 AM EasternWILLIE GEIST: Chuck Todd is NBC's political director and moderator of Meet the Press. Chuck, good morning. Good to see you. Another busy week in the city where you live and work. Let's go through a few of the headlines. Rex Tillerson, the secretary of state was fired, he says learned about it over Twitter. The President's attorney counter sued pornstar Stormy Daniels. Bob Mueller subpoenaed the Trump organization, that is a red line the President had said he didn’t believe Mueller ever would cross. Andrew McCabe fired and in the background of all this former FBI director Jim Comey tweeting sort of ominously and dramatically about what's going to be in his book. Which of these headlines, Chuck, do you think will be the most important?
CHUCK TODD: And you can make a case for all of them. They're all very important. What I would say is this, I think the fact that how the President made the McCabe firing happen, I mean, it is an extraordinary -- if you go back 18 months, the systemic campaign against McCabe to delegitimize him to raise questions about him, to a deputy FBI director that nobody had ever heard of and the president using his bully pulpit to do that. He gets Sessions, who some believe is firing McCabe quickly in order to save his own job, which would preserve the Mueller probe.
I think the reaction by the President's attorney that this McCabe firing means time for the probe to end. I think that's most significant because I think it signals this president is no longer cooperating with Mueller, it's time for war, and I think this thing is about to come to a head and it's either going to go radically one way or radically in another direction, Willie.
(…)
ABC
Good Morning America
March 18, 2018
8:08:15 AM Eastern(…)
PAULA FARIS: So let's start out with Andrew McCabe, the former deputy FBI director. He appears to be an important cog in the Russia investigation, but is he not tainted as well by recent revelations? We learned his senior adviser who was investigating Trump was sending anti-Trump messages, and also the fact that the FBI's own Office of Professional Responsibility recommended his firing.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you're mixing up a lot of different things there. There are two big strikes against Andrew McCabe. Number one, the Inspector General said -- faulted him for lack of candor and the firing was recommended by veteran FBI officials. That’s set against the backdrop of an entire process that has been politicized by the President calling for several months for Andrew McCabe to be fired, interfering in an FBI process which is highly unusual.
Those messages you're talking about are actually private text messages which probably should have never been leaked in the first place and there were also anti-Clinton and anti-politician messages wrapped up in that as well. So I think that's separate from Andrew McCabe.
But he is a key witness here in the entire Mueller investigation. We now know that he's turned over notes to Mueller. He has potential information that could back up James Comey's stories about the firing of James Comey, the potential firing, and interference with Michael Flynn, so he is a key witness, and you have to ask the question, is President Trump trying to taint him as a witness in the Mueller investigation.
DAN HARRIS: Well, he does have some powerful allies as we reported earlier, John Brennan, the former head of the CIA had some extraordinarily strong words after the firing of McCabe. We can put up his tweet. He tweeted, this is him talking to the President: “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history.” Does this to your ears intimate that Brennan has some sort of inside information here?
(…)
