Number One - Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, who was "removed" from his position last week. It seems that last year, (this according to Howard Kurtz in his book Media Madness: Donald Trump. The Press, and the War Over Truth), Mr. McCabe privately told President Trump’s then-Chief of Staff Reince Pribus that the there was nothing there to a New York Times story claiming that Trump administration's officials had had repeated contact with the Russians. Mr. Priebus asked Mr. McCabe if it would be all right if the FBI could say that in public. Mr. McCabe, and his boss, FBI Director James Comey, declined, but then a few days later, CNN broadcast the following: "According to multiple U.S. officials the FBI rejected a White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between President Trump’s associates and Russians known to U.S. intelligence.” So the FBI leadership told the White House the President was in the clear, refused permission to allow that word to be made public, but leaked the “news” that the White House had “pressured” them to clear them. Pretty sleazy, and, if we recall, Mr. Comey played almost the identical trick on President Trump – privately telling him he was not the target of an investigation but refusing to do so in public.
Number two - CIA director Mike Pompeo met with his Russian counterpart, and US Senator Chuck Schumer decided to make some political hay - so he did a little grandstanding, and released a letter he sent to Mr. Pompeo asking for an explanation. Mr. Pompeo's response included this: “We periodically meet with our Russian intelligence counterparts for the same reasons our predecessors did, to keep Americans safe.” This soon appeared on CNN, but the story left out the words “for the same reason our predecessors did," which made it appear that the CIA director was a stooge of the Russians, an idiot, or hopelessly naïve. We are not sure if that one should be blamed on Senator Schumer or CNN, but the former did nothing to correct the record, even though his office released a copy of the letter proving exactly what Mr. Pompeo said.
Number 3 - Congressman Adam Schiff - who did not want the FISA memo released. He issued a breathless statement claiming that the memo had been changed from the one the committee voted on - and you know what, that was true - as far as it goes. But the changes were of three types - grammatical; one change requested by the FBI, and - get this - a third change, requested by Mr. Schiff! Yes, that's right, Mr. Schiff demanded a change, and then when it was made, screamed that the memo was changed. Sort of like the person who murders his parents, then wants the court to show mercy because he is an orphan. We are not sure if the Republican FISA memo is a “nothingburger” or a “threat to our National Security.” The Democrats have claimed both. Mr. Comey dismissed it with an airy, “That’s it?”
Similarly, when President Trump remarked in his State of the Union address that "We all are Dreamers," the progressive left went ballistic. That term, you see, should be used only to describe minor children who were brought illegally to America by their illegally-entering parents. Woe be it to anyone who thinks that any other group of people may "dream.”
The account is not yet complete, but the most important aspect of the entire episode is this: scant weeks before an election, the Obama administration seeks consent to wiretap a former Trump campaign volunteer (yes, Carter Page no longer worked with the campaign when the warrant was sought) in a way that allowed surveillance on everybody associated with the subject. And that order was renewed three times – twice after Mr. Trump was elected and once after he took office. That would seem to be something that career bureaucrats would shy away from doing – unless they were “resisting” the new administration by any means at their disposal. If the Bush administration had done anything like this against the incoming Obama administration, people would have gone to jail – and they should have. After eighteen months of investigation of President Trump and those around him, perhaps we should be investigating the investigators, who have colluded with Russian to a far greater degree, and who have failed to realize that when administrations change, policies change, too.