Ripping the FBI's handling of investigations of presidential campaigns in 2016 as "an incompetence tsunami," Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., pressed former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe for denying he was fired for lying to the FBI.
"You aren't fired for parking in a handicap parking spot at the FBI, are you?" Kennedy asked during the Senate Judiciary Committee cross-examination of McCabe on Tuesday. "You were fired for lying, are you not?"
McCabe was terminated by former Attorney General Jeff Sessions for misleading FBI Inspector General Michael Horowitz's team during an investigation into the origins of the Russia election meddling.
"I was fired as a result of a deeply unfair and flawed IG investigation, and I am challenging that termination in federal court," McCabe responded.
Kennedy rejected that claim, saying McCabe and politically motivated FBI investigators have damaged the reputation of the FBI in the eyes of the American people.
"And they're thinking: How did these guys make it through the birth canal?" Kennedy said.
Kennedy's questioning of McCabe concluded with him pressing the now-paid CNN contributor.
"Gen. Flynn's been prosecuted for lying to the FBI," Kennedy said. "You lied to the FBI, and you are being prosecuted. Don't you think that sends the wrong message to the American people?"
McCabe continued his denial of his alleged lying to the FBI IG, which set off the above Kennedy rebuke.
"Senator, Gen. Flynn's situation and mine have absolutely nothing in common," McCabe said. "I never, ever intentionally misled the FBI or the IG under any circumstances. And, I think, that's probably the conclusion that the D.C. U.S. attorney's office came to when they dismissed the two-year investigation of me."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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