A panel on MSNBC shamed a few former officials who refused to speak out publicly against President Donald Trump.
National security analyst Michael Feinberg, a fired FBI agent who was pushed out for his friendship with Peter Strzok, spoke to host Nicolle Wallace on Thursday, specifically name-checking former Justice Department official Lisa Monico and ex-FBI Director Christopher Wray.
"This really ties in to what you were talking about a few minutes ago when you mentioned the silence of former DOJ executives. Everybody in a position of leadership at the DOJ, at the FBI, took an oath to the Constitution," said Feinberg. "And implicitly promised to protect that their institution and the people who work there, the people who work there, like these two prosecutors who are now presumably jobless, they're suffering on a daily basis. Their lives are being ruined."
He said that the silence is coming from the former FBI director and former attorney general. He called it "reallymorally indefensible andinexcusable."
"The house is on fire andthe people who care about the family inside of it need tostart acting," Feinberg shamed.
He explained that his decision to speak out was a "pragmatic" one because people have mortgages, families and other needs.
"They don't have other options. That's why it's so important that people who do have other options and who do have fallbacks take the chance to speak up when they can. You know, if you were the director of the FBI or a senior DOJ official, chances are you were also probably a multi-million dollar attorney at some point," said Feinberg.
"You canafford to stick your neck out alittle on behalf of those whocan't," he continued.
Feinberg also explained that in his conversations with "a lot of agents on a regular basis," he indicated to him that "they feel abandoned, not just by Christopher Wray, but by every senior executive who's been pushed out or left and is not speaking up. There is a real sense of betrayal and a feeling of being let down by the individuals who claimed to be there to protect them and to lead them."
Wallace asked specifically about Monico, who is likely trying to protect her corporate job.
"I will just say I've talked to a lot of those prosecutors, and I could tell you their lives are demonstrably worse than Lisa Monaco's would be if she stuck her neck out and spoke up," he said.
New York Times reporter Glenn Thrush said he thinks those folks don't want to be targeted, but Wallace countered that it's already happening.