Eli Lake, Columnist

McCabe's Firing Wasn't Political. Until Trump Made It Political.

The attorney general simply followed the recommendations of the inspector general.

March 18, 2018 at 2:00 PM UTC

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering national security and foreign policy. He was the senior national security correspondent for the Daily Beast and covered national security and intelligence for the Washington Times, the New York Sun and UPI.

Andrew McCabe's firing didn't have to join the list of Trump scandals.
Photographer: Pete Marovich/Getty Images

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Donald Trump has a gift for self-sabotage. His candor in an interview last year with NBC, after firing FBI director James Comey, is what got him the special counsel that haunts his presidency. His instructions to Donald Trump Jr. to lie about his meeting with a Russian lawyer during the election have placed his son and other senior White House staff in legal jeopardy.

The latest example of Trump getting in the way of his own good fortune is a tweet about former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe. On Friday night at 11:08 pm, the president gloated: "Andrew McCabe FIRED, a great day for the hard working men and women of the FBI." So the firing certainly looks political, right?