Trump Slams Andrew McCabe as ‘Poor Man's J. Edgar Hoover'

President Trump slammed former FBI Director Andrew McCabe during a White House photo op Wednesday with the Chancellor of Austria Sebastian Kurz, calling him a “disgrace” and a “poor man’s J. Edgar Hoover.”

“I think Andrew McCabe has made a fool out of himself over the last couple of days,” Trump said. “He really looks to me like a poor man’s J. Edgar Hoover.”

“I think he’s a disaster, and what he was trying to do was terrible, and he was caught. I’m very proud to say we caught him,” Trump added. “He is a disgraced man. He was terminated, not by me, he was terminated by others. The I.G. report was a disaster from his standpoint. Anyone reading the I.G. report would say, ‘How could a man like this be involved with the FBI?’ The FBI has some of the finest people you would ever meet, but this man is a complete disaster.”

President Trump responded to former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe’s public statements describing the early stages of the Trump presidency, as both men for days exchanged barbs between each other.

McCabe was fired last year after a Justice Department inspector general report found he lied to FBI agents and then-FBI Director James Comey about his decision to authorize a leak to the media. The FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility recommended his termination.

In a series of explosive comments about Trump during interviews this week promoting his new book, The Threat: How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump, McCabe denounces Trump in recent dats, criticizing the President for “undermining the role of law enforcement,” and citing how DOJ officials were worried that Trump could even be a Russian asset.

“This President is undermining the role of law enforcement, undermining the role of our intelligence infrastructure and negatively impacting the men and women of the FBI, and across the intelligence agencies, [and their] ability to protect this country on a daily basis,” McCabe said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360.”

Trump fired back on Twitter, calling McCabe story “deranged.”

Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019

Regarding the release of Special Counsel Robert Mueller report, Trump told reporters that it is up to Attorney General William Barr to decide on whether to release the report.

“That will be up to the new attorney general,” Trump said. “He’s a tremendous man, a tremendous person who really respects this country and respects the Justice Department. So, that will be totally up to him.”