printHow can President Trump expect to carry out his agenda of draining the swamp and slaying swamp creatures—or simply fulfill his promises to Deplorables—when his appointees are hostile to his mission and contradict him at every turn?
President Trump attempted to shine a light, in the combative tradition of his 2016 campaign, on the crooked Federal Bureau of Investigation:
After years of Comey, with the phony and dishonest Clinton investigation (and more), running the FBI, its reputation is in Tatters – worst in History! But fear not, we will bring it back to greatness.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2017
Despite the abominable recent conduct of the FBI, Director Christopher Wray chose to shed darkness with these pat statements about the FBI “protecting the American people and upholding the rule of law in all 50 states and in about 80 countries around the world.” (Is that the FBI’s constitutional mandate? Crap.)
“Let me start by saying that it is for me the honor of a lifetime to be here representing the men and women of the FBI,” he said. “There is no finer institution than the FBI and no finer people than the men and women who work there and are its very beating heart.”
When asked about Trump’s tweets over the weekend criticizing the FBI, Wray told Rep. Jerry Nadler, “there is no shortage of opinions out there.”
“What I can tell you is that the FBI that I see is tens of thousands of agents and analysts and staff working their tails off to keep Americans safe from the next terrorist attack, gang violence, child predators, spies from Russia, China and North Korea, and Iran,” he responded. “The FBI that I see is tens of thousands of brave men and women who are working as hard as they can to keep people that they will never know safe from harm.”
Wray’s poking of the finger in POTUS’ eye is emblematic of why the Trump presidency is imperiled.