Summary
On January 29 the deputy FBI director who had taken over James Comey after Trump fired him just stepped down from the position due to persistent criticism from President Trump.
Mr. McCabe had been planning on retiring around mid March so he could retire with his pension and all his benefits, but since late December President Trump has been criticizing him and pushing him out with threats of firing him and many negative tweets about him by counting down the days until he was supposed to retire to tweeting about what is wrong with him being in charge.
A big part of this criticism also came from the fact that Mr. McCabe’s wife, Dr. Jill McCabe, ran for a senate position in Virginia as a Democrat while in addition getting large amounts of funding for her campaign from a committee that was aligned with Hillary Clinton, who he called “Clinton Puppets”. He has questioned him about this along with asking him who he voted for in the 2016 election.
Opinion
I think Trump got what he wanted when Mr. McCabe quit, he doesn't want people to work for him because they are qualified but because they are just loyal to him only. I think that is why Mr. McCabe's wife being a democrat made Trump go after him and his job relentlessly and also why Mr. McCabe was so quick to leave.
Questions
What do you think will happen now that the FBI Deputy Director quit?
Do you think there was a conflict of interest with Mr. McCabe's wife receiving funding for her campaign from someone connected to the Clinton's?
4 comments:
I think that Mr. McCabe shouldn't have given Trump what he wanted. I'm sure there are other reasons for quitting his job and I am in no place to judge him, but I do think it's really sad that our president basically bullied someone so much they had to quit their job. I'm sure he was doing great at his job and and he was so close to retiring I don't know why Trump didn't just leave him alone until he retired. I don't know what will happen now except that there will be someone new taking his spot but I do think this whole situation is sad coming from grown adults.
It seems that Trump is basically trying to create an unofficial patronage system. While the White House has claimed that Trump played no role in McCabe's early retirement, it is obvious that the President's tweets and alleged insults toward McCabe's wife has probably played some role in his decision. I also think that although there might have been a slight conflict of interest (McCabe also may have used his FBI email address to promote his wife's campaign, which is a violation of the Hatch Act), the situation is similar to how Senators object to the nominations of judges and justices they don't like: not by directly rejecting their party or ideology, but by rejecting some personal detail of the judges.
I appreciate how Meiling phrased Trump’s idea of government as an unofficial patronage system because I feel as if that’s exactly what this is. Instead of making do with the government he has, I see him as trying to quash the “competition” via tweets and other media. I don’t know McCabe’s own political beliefs or the full scope of his resignation (especially since it comes a month and a half before his intended retirement), but I would assume that Mrs. McCabe’s Democratic standpoint and Clinton-linked funding contradicting the Republican ideology played a part in it. I think the Deputy Director simply wanted to quell the flames while they were somewhat manageable.
I also would like to note that McCabe was the Deputy Director of the FBI as stated and served as Acting Director for about three months after Comey was dismissed, then went back to the Deputy Director position once current FBI Director Wray was selected. I don’t know what much else will happen aside from Wray appointing someone new to the position. Though it is likely that Wray will also appoint someone who is a Republican, the fact that the Deputy position is insulated from presidential appointment makes it a little less likely for total Trump patronage to occur.
I agree with Julia in that McCabe should have stayed at least until his planned retirement in March, because allowing for an act like this from the President himself is not right. I have a feeling that Trump will not feel any regret or remorse for what he did, but he definitely should, since this will make his image worse than it already is. Hopefully, these actions bite back at him later, but for now, I feel like the next Deputy Director that comes in will be supportive of Trump's intentions.
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