Christmas Miracle: Trump Gets Liberal NY Times to Embrace Poor FBI Against GOP Attacks

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/clay-waters/2017/12/25/christmas-miracle-trump-gets-liberal-ny-times-embrace-poor-fbi ^ | December 25, 2017 | Clay Waters

[Kaslin]

How do you get the liberals at the New York Times to embrace America’s internal surveillance agencies? Get President Trump and Republicans to criticize them.

Saturday’s off-lead story by Adam Goldman and Maggie Haberman, “Hurdle Facing F.B.I. Chief? The President – Politics hard to Avoid as Trump Weighs In.” The Republicans in Congress are hurting morale at FBI, an agency the Times suddenly adores. The jump-page headline: “F.B.I. Director Wants To Move Agency Ahead, But Trump is in the Way.” The text box: “Constant criticisms have damaged morale at the bureau.”

That’s pretty bold, since it’s pretty much the paper’s raison d’etre to demoralize U.S. intelligence agencies by printing leaked classified documents, from the Pentagon Papers to the exposure of a legal terrorist-fighting banking surveillance program, SWIFT, to WikiLeaks.

Yet the Times was undaunted in blaming Republicans for somehow demoralizing the powerful federal law and security agency.

When President Trump tapped Christopher A. Wray to be his next F.B.I. director, it signaled a clear break from the tenure of James B. Comey, whom Mr. Trump had grown to distrust and eventually fired.

It seemed Mr. Trump would let his handpicked F.B.I. director do his work unimpeded, giving Mr. Wray some breathing room. “I know that he will again serve his country as a fierce guardian of the law and model of integrity,” the president said in June.

But nearly five months since Mr. Wray started the job, Mr. Trump has not made Mr. Wray’s life easier as he seeks to restore the public’s confidence in the country’s premier law enforcement agency -- one that the president says is in “Tatters.”

Mr. Trump’s verbal assaults have put Mr. Wray and his leadership team in a difficult position. Mr. Wray is trying to move past his predecessor’s era and make sure there is not a whiff of politics at the F.B.I. He has promised the F.B.I.’s work would be based on the “facts, the law and the impartial pursuit of justice -- period.”

Yet Mr. Trump and his allies in Congress are making that task much harder.

Current and former F.B.I. officials say Mr. Trump’s criticisms, and those of normally supportive Republican members of Congress, have damaged morale in some quarters of the bureau. Senior agents have expressed fear that if their names appear in the news media, they will be singled out for attack by politicians.

The liberal paper’s rekindled love affair with domestic security and surveillance extended to mocking Republicans for suggesting a political tilt at the agency (which the left has slammed as a straight-laced Republican holdout):

During a congressional hearing this month, Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican of Texas, asked Mr. Wray about the political views of some of his top agents. F.B.I. officials said they were stunned that Mr. Gohmert singled out a seemingly random group of agents. Several of those mentioned had nothing to do with either the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s handling of classified information, or the F.B.I.’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.

....

If Mr. Trump continues to go after the F.B.I., however, Mr. Wray might have to change course and risk a blowup. F.B.I. agents want to know that the director has their back.

Also on Saturday, the Times (with help from the nonprofit investigative journalist center ProPublica) mounted a defense of another agency even more dear to its collective (or is that collectivist?) heart, “E.P.A. Officials, Disheartened by Agency’s Direction, Leave in Droves.” Reporters Lisa Friedman, Marina Affo, and Derek Kravitz reported a story that would probably disturb mostly the liberal readers of the New York Times:

More than 700 people have left the Environmental Protection Agency since President Trump took office, a wave of departures that puts the administration nearly a quarter of the way toward its goal of shrinking the agency to levels last seen during the Reagan administration.....The departures reflect poor morale and a sense of grievance at the agency, which has been criticized by President Trump and top Republicans in Congress as bloated and guilty of regulatory overreach. That unease is likely to deepen following revelations that Republican campaign operatives were using the Freedom of Information Act to request copies of emails from E.P.A. officials suspected of opposing Mr. Trump and his agenda.

[Texas Eagle]

Huh? What? I thought disgraced, ex-Attorney Buck Private Eric Holder (if that's his real name) said morale has never been higher at The FIB.

Get your stories straight, Fake News Media.

[Brilliant]

The FBI is more than just a corrupt bureaucracy. Under Obama it was modeled after the KGB—an organization that was intended to be an instrument of political repression.

[FreeReign]

The NY Times hearts Chris Wray.

[HapaxLegamenon]

Wait! Mr. Way’s boss is Donald Trump, right? So, the scandal here is that the FBI director reports to his boss?

Didn’t Comey report to Obama? Oh... never mind.

[Maine Mariner]

I am shocked. I thought that over the past fifty or sixty years the NYT was very very critical of the FBI.

[piytar]

Note the implicit admission: “Mr. Trump has not made Mr. Wray’s life easier as he seeks to restore the public’s confidence in the country’s premier law enforcement agency.” Key word is “restore.” They know they have lost the public’s confidence. Also, the FBI used to be the country’s premiere law enforcement agency. Not any more. The Dems have politicized them.

Frankly the only law enforcement agencies I truly trust anymore are in a few cities in Texas (part of why I live there) and the Texas Rangers.

[af_vet_1981]

No, no, no, corrupt officials, FBI or otherwise, should not get a do over and a pass. They should become a very public example of justice for all.

[dragnet2]

It’s so typical. These stooges including this author are attempting to blame Trump for their high level collusive criminal acts. In fact the agency is de facto hired guns for one party over the other. Attempting to manipulate our elections. In fact I have no doubt a good percentage of their senior management are Obama holdouts.

[TTFlyer]

The Left as a matter of policy hates law enforcement agencies of any kind. That is, law enforcement agencies that adhere to US Constitutional law.

The way the Left gets around that is to stock the law enforcement agencies with fellow travelers who ignore the law and enforce the political aims of the Left.

It’s what Fascists and Communists do. And it’s been going on in this country for decades.

[reformedliberal]

I hope they go hyperbolic in support of Wray just before indictments come down.

As much as I respect and enjoy our POTUS’ modus operandi, I can’t quite believe he flies totally solo. There’s a group operation underway.

[dragnet2]

Watched his demeanor recently in a hearing. His mannerism drips arrogance. Considering what we are learning about the FBI and other agencies, Wray comes across like nothing has happened. No bueno!

[snarkytart]

The Left as a matter of policy hates law enforcement agencies of any kind. That is, law enforcement agencies that adhere to US Constitutional law.

The way the Left gets around that is to stock the law enforcement agencies with fellow travelers who ignore the law and enforce the political aims of the Left.

It’s what Fascists and Communists do. And it’s been going on in this country for decades.
.
.
.
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And if their federal law enforcement agencies and their Federal bureaucracies that have federal law enforcement agencies at their whim like the IRS and the EPA, if they fail, then the left stocks the courts to make up law.

They’re totalitarians.

[wiggen]

How very much like themselves the Times, speaking of moving ahead at the FBI as if to say sure there may have been issues before but lets forget them. Of course they’d like it almost as much as the people in the agency who were part of the cabal planning to alter the election.
All that Russia interfered with the election is just a cover up. Russia is simply code for FBI.

[GOPJ]

I am shocked. I thought that over the past fifty or sixty years the NYT was very very critical of the FBI.

The New York Times hates all law enforcement - BUT they hate Trump more...

[Maine Mariner]

Excellent observation!! You are absolutely correct!!

[GOPJ]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1687633/posts

“We know that the sheep live in denial, that is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids’ schools. But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid’s school. Our children are thousands of times more likely to be killed or seriously injured by school violence than fire, but the sheep’s only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and so they chose the path of denial.”

“The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours. Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn’t tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports, in camouflage fatigues, holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, “Baa.” Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog...”

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Rogue FBI ‘sheepdogs’ intentionally harmed some of the lowliest little lambs. They need to be punished and removed. The New York Times is standing up for the wolves...as usual.