“The View” co-host Meghan McCain challenged former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe’s narrative after he appeared on the ABC morning show as part of his book tour, saying “I don’t believe you’re a reliable narrator.”
Author of “The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump,” Andrew McCabe joined the show’s hosts on Feb. 19.
After a relatively tame first half, Meghan McCain launched into her skepticisms of the book’s narrative in the second half.
“Bear with me on this one,” McCain said. “I don’t believe you’re a reliable narrator. And I’m not convinced this isn’t just some kind of P.R. campaign to stop yourself from getting indicted.”
“You were fired at the recommendation of the FBI—which, in your book, you cite four times how great of an organization it is, for your lack of candor,” she continued. “I would like you to say right here on national TV that you were not a source for The New York Times. You were never a source for The New York Times or any other publication—considering that is what you were accused of lying about.”
To clarify, McCain repeated, “Basically, were you ever a leaker to The New York Times?”
After a pause, McCabe responded, “Absolutely not. Not at any time ever.”
.@MeghanMcCain to former deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe: “Were you ever a leaker to the ‘The New York Times’?”
McCabe: “Absolutely not — not in any time ever.” https://t.co/f8u2wc159S pic.twitter.com/imX5FD2su7
— The View (@TheView) February 19, 2019
“You should understand, Meghan,” he added, “when I was serving as deputy director, I was one of two people in the FBI that had the authority to disclose information to the media. That is an FBI policy, it’s baked into the way that we run media relations in the organization. So I transacted on issues regarding the media every single day.”
McCain then asked, “Then, why did James Comey deny the claim that he approved your leaks to the press?”
“I don’t know why Jim Comey doesn’t remember the conversations that we had in the same way that I do,” McCabe responded.
“It is understandable,” he continued. “He was under an enormous amount of stress at the time. He had a lot of other, kind of, more important things to worry about. I can’t explain why he doesn’t remember them the same way as I do.”
Co-host Joy Behar then said, “I thought you guys wrote everything down.”
“We wrote down things when we were dealing with people we didn’t trust,” he replied.
Andrew McCabe Getting Fired
Last March, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that McCabe had been fired just days before his planned retirement. The decision was based on an investigation that “concluded that Mr. McCabe had made an unauthorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor—including under oath—on multiple occasions,” Sessions wrote in a statement.
The inspector general at the Justice Department, Michael Horowitz, had earlier reported that McCabe had repeatedly lied about his misconduct in authorizing a self-serving leak to the media.
