MCCABE'S QUESTIONABLE CLAIMS RE 2ND FBI PROBE

Former Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said Tuesday evening that he does not believe former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe's claim that he informed Republican and Democrat leaders in 2017 that the bureau had opened a second counterintelligence probe of President Donald Trump.

Asked to respond to McCabe's view that Trump could be a Russian agent, Gowdy exclaimed: "If thinking that Jim Comey is not a good FBI director is tantamount to being an agent of Russia, then just list all the people that are agents of Russia!" Some other possible suspects he suggested included "Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Rod Rosenstein -- who wrote the memo getting rid of Comey -- Michael Horowitz, who's the inspector general."

"I mean, look, I know McCabe liked Jim Comey.... But lots of people thought that Jim Comey had lost the ability to lead that department," Gowdy said. "And the fact that President Trump got rid of him in May of 2017 is not sufficient basis to launch a criminal obstruction of justice probe!"Gowdy explained why the argument doesn't make sense. Trump "gets rid of Comey, replaces him with a Comey acolyte who not only continues the probe but expands it. So if his goal was to obstruct a Russia investigation, gosh, he did a terrible job of it!"