Andy McCabe slams 'disgraceful' Senate GOP for trying to distract from FBI hearing with more election lies

On CNN Tuesday, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe tore into Senate Republicans for their continued effort to push conspiracy theories surrounding the Capitol riot in January at the hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray.

"How do you reconcile Republican members of Congress that swore an oath to the Constitution continuing to traffic in conspiracy theories and lies about the insurrection and the very serious and persistent threat from extremist groups, rightwing extremist groups Director Wray himself laid out today?" asked anchor Anderson Cooper. "Is there precedent for this?"

"Not that I'm aware of. It's disgraceful," said McCabe. "You accurately pointed out with the senators, they abandoned those lies long enough to ask questions about things like data collection and the threat from China, because they couldn't reasonably put forth that nonsense in front of the FBI director who just laid waste to the lie by saying that no, in fact, the election was righteously conducted and that there was no Antifa in the protest. When it's not convenient for them, they distract by looking at something else, but send them back to CPAC and I'm sure you'll hear it again."

"Josh Hawley, his thing is, I was just saying there is a lot of people who believe there is election fraud, so I'm saying we should have a discussion about election security," said Cooper. "He could have asked the FBI director all about that, all about election security and his concerns. He didn't."

"Of course he could have," said McCabe. "You're absolutely right. He didn't. There is no shelter for senators and congressmen who, when confronted with the ridiculousness of what they're saying, I'm just repeating what I'm hearing from my constituents. If that's what you're hearing, you have an obligation to tell them the truth. They got the truth from the director today and that's the message they should be putting out there."

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