Trump said ‘I believe Putin’ over US: McCabe

Former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe said in an interview with “60 Minutes” Sunday night that President Trump once declared, “I don’t care, I believe Putin” when telling US officials that he trusted the Russian leader’s assessment on North Korea’s nuclear program over that of US intelligence agencies.

“Essentially, the president said he did not believe that the North Koreans had the capability to hit us here with ballistic missiles in the United States,” McCabe (pictured) told Scott Pelley. “And he did not believe that because President Putin had told him they did not.”

When asked how US intelligence responded to Trump, McCabe said officials told the president that “that was not consistent with any of the intelligence our government possesses.”

“To which the president replied, ‘I don’t care. I believe Putin,’ ” McCabe recalled, having learned of the conversation from an FBI official who had just returned from the White House.

Also in the interview, McCabe said Trump wanted Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to mention the Russia investigation in his memo outlining why then-FBI Director James Comey should be fired.

McCabe said Rosenstein didn’t want to do so, lest it look as if he were trying to obstruct the Russia probe.

The former FBI chief also claimed that, in a phone conversation, Trump once called McCabe’s wife, Jill, a “loser.”

“What was it like when your wife lost her race for [Virginia] state Senate?” he quoted Trump as saying. “And then he said, ‘Ask her what it was like to lose. It must be tough to be a loser.’ ”