Early Tuesday night, Daily Caller media reporter Justin Caruso flagged some Grade-A insanity on MSNBC’s Deadline: White House as Clinton-era Deputy Assistant Attorney General Harry Litman compared criticism of the Trump-Russia probe and calls for oversight to the Nazis bombing campaign on London in World War II (known as The Blitz).
So, to get this straight, that would make the Mueller team Londoners and that would leave President Trump and Republicans to be...Nazis? Give me a break.
Anti-Trump Republican and host Nicolle Wallace runs an insufferable show, but it’s safe to say she wasn’t exactly looking for that kind of answer when she asked Litman for “the effect of how having a discussion in public about an FBI informant” has on our national security.
She noted: “[L]ast Wednesday, the head of the FBI, Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, testified that when we reach the day that we can no longer protect confidential informants and their families, America is less safe.” Not surprisingly, she opined that “in less than a week’s time, we have reached that day.”
Litman must have been watching Jim Acosta, Carl Bernstein, Brian Stelter, Chuck Todd, or someone else in the liberal media with hyperbolic tendencies as he immediately unloaded, declaring that “America is less safe” and “[i]t’s a bone-chilling development.”
“Look. the Justice Department is under a shelling from the White House. It's like London 1941 there and some bombs are hit big, some bombs hit small. This one, to my mind, is the biggest bomb of all. A confidential informant is the coin of the realm for the FBI,” he added, dropping in a dose of lunacy.
Of course, he wasn’t done:
It was astonishing to me, with all respect to Phil [Rucker], to be reading in the newspaper biographical details about someone who has been there for years and you can only guess what sort of job the bureau now has and the CIA around the world trying to persuade people to help the United States ferret out dangers to them. This, I think, is the most dangerous development in the ongoing war between the White House and the Department of Justice we have had so far.
Instead of chiding Litman for comparing those not supportive or skeptical of the Russia investigation to Nazis, Wallace defended Rucker and The Washington Post because they only published Stefan Halper’s name “after several other news organizations had published his name.”
Litman responded, in part, that this latest push by House Republicans to view documents related to the Russia investigation “really puts the lie to the notion that this is any kind of legitimate oversight” and exposed them as “shills” shielding “a suspect in a criminal investigation” (aka the President), which “feels really troubling.”
On Monday, Litman tweeted his feelings about House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), telling followers that he’s “a confirmed cheater and anti-patriot.”
Talk about unhinged.
To see the relevant transcript from MSNBC’s Deadline: White House on May 22, click “expand.”
MSNBC’s Deadline: White House
May 22, 2018
4:08 p.m. EasternNICOLLE WALLACE: Okay, so, Harry Litman, I had Phil Rucker take us through all the facts because the President didn't have many in what was shown at the top of the show, but I want you to take me through cause and effect. So, what is the effect of how having a discussion in public about an FBI informant when last Wednesday, the head of the FBI, Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, testified that when we reach the day that we can no longer protect confidential informants and their families, America is less safe. It seems like, in less than a week’s time, we have reached that day.
HARRY LITMAN: America is less safe. It's a bone chilling development. Look. the Justice Department is under a shelling from the White House. It's like London 1941 there and some bombs are hit big, some bombs hit small. This one, to my mind, is the biggest of bomb of all. A confidential informant is the coin of the realm for the FBI. It was astonishing to me, with all respect to Phil, to be reading in the newspaper biographical details about someone who has been there for years and you can only guess what sort of job the bureau now has and the CIA around the world trying to persuade people to help the United States ferret out dangers to them. This, I think, is the most dangerous development in the ongoing war between the White House and the Department of Justice we have had so far.
WALLACE: Let me just quickly defend The Washington Post. I think they were —
LITMAN: Yeah.
WALLACE: — after several other news organizations had published his name, then they went ahead and did so. But let me press you a little bit, Harry.
LITMAN: Okay, yes. Of course.
WALLACE: Do you think this was Rod Rosenstein trying to keep his job so he could live to fight the bigger war to protect Bob Mueller so he could finish his probe or do you think he sacrificed too much in this concession?
LITMAN: Well, both maybe. I mean, that is the conventional wisdom. I have criticized the Deputy Attorney General before for kind of playing ball, especially with Nunes and the House Republicans here, but in general, I thought his move to — to refer the other matter to the Inspector General was shrewd and sound. This one really seems like a different kind of rubicon for the Department of Justice. We don’t know what else he’s dealing with, how — how much time he’s bargained for with Mueller, but to Department former insiders, this is really a — a line never before crossed and especially to the House Republicans, who the fact that it's only they and not the Democrats, really puts the lie to the notion that this is any kind of legitimate oversight. They're just being shills for what is, after all, a suspect in a criminal investigation. This feels really troubling.
