That was pre-Donald Trump….
Things HAVE changed….
Now we have a President openly knocking his Federal cops and Says because they have NOT rolled over for him….
My how things have changed with a President that has little use for laws, rules or caution, against countries that are led by those who work against democracy….For Donald Trump?…Either you’re ‘loyal’ to him ?…Or you are the enemy he goes after…
Democrats now look to those agencies they castigated only a few years ago as barrier against Trump going secretly to advance his political agenda and run foreign policy solely based his ‘gut feelings’…
The Trump era has utterly scrambled views of the FBI and the intelligence community.
Republicans — historically the strongest defenders of the national security apparatus — complain about abuse of power and the malignant influence of a so-called ‘Deep State.’
Democrats — traditionally more skeptical of the intelligence community — insist that the agencies are virtually beyond reproach.
On Monday, President Trump retweeted someone who called the FBI and the media “a criminal organization” and “tyrants.”
The president added an approving “Wow!”
At a rally in Pennsylvania last week, Trump called FBI agents who investigated his presidential campaign “scum.”
Meanwhile, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and others in his party have sought to minimize the criticisms of the bureau contained in the recent report by Michael Horowitz, the inspector general (IG) of the Justice Department.
Horowitz found 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions” made by the bureau as it investigated allegations of collusion between the Trump 2016 campaign and Russia, though he also cleared the FBI of having acted out of political malice or bias.
In an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” Schiff expressed confidence that “corrective steps will be taken” and emphasized that the IG’s report “debunked the claims…of this deep state conspiracy.”
Beyond the specifics, the broader picture — Democrats as defenders of the intelligence community, and Republicans as the critics — is startling for those who recall the responses splitting along very different lines in earlier eras.
Democrats were more skeptical of the conduct of intelligence agencies during the so-called ‘War on Terror’ that began in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
Liberals and the left have also been far more eager than those on the right to highlight earlier FBI abuses including attempts to subvert black organizations in the 1960s and 1970s….
…
“I was a conservative and a Republican for a good piece of my career,” said Malcolm Nance, an erstwhile Navy intelligence officer who has written several books warning that Trump is a danger to national security.
“Now I’m with [former Secretary of State} Colin Powell. We’re considered on the far-left because we believe that the national security apparatus is made up of good people who do a thankless job day-in and day-out.”
Nance asserted that the attacks on the intelligence community from Trump and his allies were cynical, tactical ploys, motivated purely by self-interest.
“Donald Trump, for whatever personal reason, decided that he needed to damage any component of the United States government that could find out what he was doing and why he was doing it,” said Nance.
Referring to Trump’s firing of then-FBI director James Comey and his more recent criticism of incumbent Christopher Wray, Nance added: “He’s looking for a capo, not a director.”
Trump’s criticisms of Wray, and his broader jabs against the FBI and the ‘Deep State’, have also drawn criticism from William Webster, the only person to have served as director of both the FBI and the CIA…..
image of current FBI and CIA Directors….militareytimes.com