Monica Showalter of the American Thinker highlights just one example of the political gamesmanship that occupies the time of Washington’s permanent political establishment.
It’s easy to think of swamp things as just the Washington establishment, good people who are simply set in their ways, obsessed with protocol and tradition. But then there’s FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who shows what a real swamp thing is with his sleazy, deceptive, leak-trap set up for newly minted White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus. McCabe took advantage of Reince’s open, honest, honorable nature … and screwed him over for having it. …
… McCabe is suspected of leaking damaging information about Trump and Russia to the press, not because there was anything there, but because there wasn’t. He just wanted to inflict pain.
According to Kurtz, he walked up to White House Chief of Staff Priebus and out of the blue, told him privately there was nothing there to a New York Times story claiming that Trump administration’s officials had had repeated contact with the Russians. “We want you to know that everything in this New York Times story is bull–,” Kurtz reported him saying.
Being an honorable sort of person, Priebus asked McCabe if it would be all right if the FBI could say that in public. He was under great pressure from the press frenzy trying to fill out the New York Times’ story. McCabe demurred to his boss, then-FBI Director James Comey, and Comey, of course, refused. …
A recent book details what happened next:
“Now, a week later, CNN was airing a breaking news story naming Priebus. According to ‘multiple U.S. officials,’ the network said, ‘the FBI rejected a White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump’s associates and Russians known to U.S. intelligence.’
“Priebus was stunned by the implication that he was pressuring law enforcement. Had he been set up? Why was the FBI leaking this information when one of its top officials had initiated the conversation?” …
What kind of a person does that to someone trying to protect him and keep open lines of communication? What kind of a sleazy operative or power player? Priebus was dealing with a swamp thing, not just of manners, but morals.