Trump: Americans are ‘angry’ at FBI
President is critical of the FBI, but vows unwavering support for law enforcement.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump gave a distinctly mixed message to the FBI on Friday, saying “people are very, very angry” about what they see as a political bias in the bureau but vowing unqualified support for law enforcement.
“Well, it’s a shame what’s happened with the FBI,” he told reporters at the White House before he flew to Quantico, Va., to address graduates at the FBI Academy. Trump, who has described the agency as “in tatters,” said “we’re going to rebuild the FBI. It will be bigger and better than ever.”
The speech marked an opportunity for Trump to reaffirm public faith in the federal justice system as the White House faces a special counsel investigation into possible cooperation between his campaign and a covert Russian effort to undermine Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential election.
Trump instead used the address to mock reporters in the room as “fake news,” slam the visa lottery system, and praise himself as “a true friend and loyal champion in the White House — more loyal than anyone else can be.”
Saying that assaults on police are on the rise, he said, “every drop of blood spilled from our men and women in blue is a wound inflicted on our nation.”
“They have been subject to malicious attacks on their character and integrity,” he said. “This anti-police sentiment is wrong and it’s dangerous, and we will not stand for it.”
Trump told law enforcement leaders he is “more loyal than anyone else could be” to police.
“Anti-police sentiment is wrong and it’s dangerous,” he added. “Anyone who kills a police officer should get the death penalty.”
He spoke at the FBI campus at a ceremony for about 200 law enforcement leaders graduating from a weekslong program aimed at raising law enforcement standards and cooperation. Coursework included intelligence theory, terrorism and terrorist mindsets, law, behavioral science, law enforcement communication and forensic science.
He was warmly received and officers cheered his calls for a crackdown on gangs and an end to chain migration.
Earlier Friday, Trump had been just as scathing when asked about the release by the Justice Department this week of about 375 private text messages between Peter Strzok, a senior FBI counterintelligence agent, and Lisa Page, an FBI lawyer from a 15-month period in 2015 and 2016. Some of the texts were harshly critical of Trump and other politicians.
Strzok and Page relied on work phones to try to hide their romance from a spouse and made the bureau’s probe of Clinton's private email server their cover story for being in such close contact, according to people familiar with the matter, The Washington Post reported.
Trump called the texts “really, really disgraceful.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, removed Strzok from the probe after an inspector general inquiry found the texts in July. Page had assisted the investigation in its early stages but already had left.
A White House spokesman reinforced criticism of the FBI earlier Friday, telling Fox News that the texts are signs the FBI has an “extreme bias” against Trump.
White House deputy press secretary Hogan Gidley told Fox News that edits to former FBI Director James Comey’s statement on Clinton’s private email server and text messages from Strzok are “deeply troubling.”
Edits to the Comey draft appeared to soften the gravity of the bureau’s finding in its investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server while secretary of state.
Gidley said the disclosure of the the text messages sent by Strzok were “eyeopening.” Strzok was in the room as Clinton was interviewed.
“There is extreme bias against this president with high-up members of the team there at the FBI who were investigating Hillary Clinton at the time,” Gidley charged, as Mueller pushes on with a probe of possible Trump campaign ties to Russia.
In his remarks to reporters, Trump repeated his claims that Clinton got off easy in the FBI investigation into her use of a private email server while she was secretary of state. He called the decision not to prosecute the Democratic presidential nominee as evidence of a “rigged system.”
Trump also refused to rule out a presidential pardon for Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his communications with Russian officials, and agreed to cooperate with Mueller’s investigators.
“I don’t want to talk about pardons for Michael Flynn yet,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens. Let’s see. I can say this: When you look at what’s gone on with the FBI and with the Justice Department, people are very, very angry.”