Former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe was controversially fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions late Friday night. This firing occurred less than two days before he was eligible to receive his pension. While the firing has been denounced by nearly all Democrats, the response from Republicans has been mixed.
Today on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ host Chuck Todd asked Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio if he approved of the way McCabe was fired. Sen. Rubio condemned the action that he would have done it differently.
“I don’t like the way it happened. He should have been allowed to finish through the weekend,” Sen. Rubio told Todd.
“That said, look there is an Inspector General Report that’s due and work that being done, and after he had retired, if that report had indicated wrongdoing or something that was actionable, there were things that could have been done after the fact. But 48 hours to go before retirement, I would have certainly done it differently give the fact there’s still this report out there that hasn’t come in,” he added
WATCH: Rubio: McCabe "should have been allowed to finish through the weekend" pic.twitter.com/Hdjp4ZcSxw
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 18, 2018
But, Sen. Rubio also made that clear that folks like McCabe at the FBI and DOJ need to be held accountable, but cautioned that these issues should handled very carefully.
.@marcorubio on what McCabe firing says about the FBI and DOJ: “They're not above reproach. There are ways to hold them accountable. But I think we need to be very careful about taking these very important entities and smearing everybody in them with a broad stroke.” #MTP
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) March 18, 2018
Perhaps the harshest, or at least most inflammatory, criticism of President Trump's decision to fire McCabe came from former CIA director John Brennan. On Saturday, he called the commander-in-chief a "disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history."
When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America...America will triumph over you. https://t.co/uKppoDbduj
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) March 17, 2018
Author's Note: This article originally attributed Andrew McCabe's firing to President Donald Trump. This has been fixed.