President Trump on Wednesday tore into former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, calling him a “disgrace” and a “poor man’s J. Edgar Hoover” amid a days-long exchange of barbs between the two men.
“I think Andrew McCabe has made a fool out of himself over the last couple of days,” Trump told reporters during a meeting with the chancellor of Austria.
{mosads}”He really looks to me like a poor man’s J. Edgar Hoover,” Trump added with a chuckle. Hoover was the first FBI director, and became a controversial figure for his use of secretive programs to collect damaging information on political leaders.
“I think it’s a disaster,” Trump added. “And what he was trying to do was terrible. And he was caught. I’m proud to say we caught him.”
The president, who has regularly excoriated McCabe, former FBI Director James Comey and ex-FBI agent Peter Strzok, said “some of the finest people you’ll ever meet” work in the bureau.
Trump’s comments are the latest in his days-long offensive against McCabe, who was fired last year after an internal report found he lacked candor in interviews with investigators.
The former deputy FBI director has been on a media blitz in recent days to promote his new book, “The Threat.” In interviews, McCabe has suggested “it’s possible” Trump is a Russian asset, and criticized the president for “undermining the role of law enforcement.”
McCabe has also defended the FBI’s decision to open a counterintelligence investigation into Trump after he fired Comey, and made headlines when he claimed Justice Department officials raised the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.
McCabe later walked back his remarks, with a spokesperson issuing a statement that he did not “participate in any extended discussions about the use of the 25th Amendment, nor is he aware of any such discussions.”
Trump and his allies have seized on McCabe’s comments to paint the bureau as biased against the president. Trump tweeted on Monday that McCabe was “fired for lying,” and suggested he and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “look like they were planning a very illegal act.”