The only subject where Andrew McCabe drew tough questions on his puffball book tour over the last week came from the left -- complaints that he and Jim Comey ruined Hillary Clinton's campaign with announcements about her email probe. See NPR's Fresh Air on Tuesday, where Terry Gross complained "a lot of people" were upset at the negative attention:
TERRY GROSS: You know, a lot of people felt that there was something very asymmetrical about how that was handled because the FBI didn't come out about Russian interference in the election or possible connections to the Trump campaign. But at the same time, James Comey, in a public statement, accused Hillary Clinton of being - of extreme carelessness in how she handled her emails through a personal email account on a personal server while serving as secretary of state.
And then days before the election, Comey made another statement saying that the investigation was continuing because of new Hillary emails that were found on Anthony Weiner's computer or server as part of the investigation into him because his wife, Huma Abedin, was a close aide of Hillary Clinton's. And her emails were on that server. Stop me if I'm getting anything wrong here.
MCCABE: No, you're spot on.
GROSS: So what were your perceptions of the asymmetry of that? - that Americans heard all about, you know, Hillary's emails. And that became just, like, a constant through the election. She was hammered by Republicans for that. She was hammered by Trump for that. Lock her up. Lock her up was the refrain, in addition to build the wall...
MCCABE: It still is.
GROSS: ...Of the Trump campaign and still is. And people want to - Lindsey Graham wants to reopen that investigation. But at the same time, Americans were kind of kept in the dark about Russian interference in the campaign and all of the true fake news that was out there.
"Kept in the dark about Russian interference"? That's not true. The Democrats and their media allies hammered the idea of Russian interference with the Wikileaks revelations about how the Democrats tilted the race against Sanders (and how the media pandered supinely to Hillary's campaign).
Gross kept pushing: "Did it eat at you to think about the asymmetry -- the investigation into Russian meddling being kept secret and Hillary Clinton's emails being so public?" McCabe said no.
The most obvious "asymmetry" before the election was the relentless media hammering of Trump. Russia may not have been as big a deal as the Access Hollywood tape (which the networks gave hours of coverage), but it was reported. On MSNBC on Wednesday, All In host Chris Hayes mentioned the Hillary probe -- but to help shore up McCabe as nonpartisan!
HAYES: I would also say to you and this is the argument I made on air before which is that if the FBI was out to get the president, they could have leaked some details about what was going on before he was elected.
McCABE: And that is a great point.
HAYES: The fact that all that stayed top secret while we learned every stroke of the Hillary Clinton investigation I think mitigates against the idea that you guys were out to get him. That`s just my own personal --
McCABE: Well, I mean that's absolutely right, Chris. And I would say you know, even more generally from having served within it for 21 years, the FBI not -- is not a place known to be a hotbed of kind of liberal leanings and anti-Republican politics.
Laugh track, anyone?
