President Donald Trump is decrying the FBI agent who texted against him, saying Peter Strzok’s testimony on Thursday was ‘a disgrace to our country.’
‘I watched some of the testimony, even though I’m in Europe, of Strzok. And I thought it was a disgrace to our country. I thought it was an absolute disgrace,’ the president told CBS News.
Trump didn’t hold back on the FBI agent, whose texts he’s used to try to paint the Russia investigation, which he calls a ‘witch hunt,’ as tainted.
The president charged Strzok with being a disgrace to the bureau. In his testimony on Thursday, Strzok spoke of his pride of being a part of the FBI.
‘He was a disgrace to the FBI,’ the president said.
President Donald Trump said Peter Strzok’s testimony was ‘a disgrace to our country.’
President Trump and Melania Trump arrive in Helsinki for Trump’s Monday meeting with Putin
Trump railed against the agent who texted anti-Trump notes to fellow FBI agent Lisa Page, with whom he was having an affair, during the 2016 campaign.
‘Where he wants to do things against me before I was even, I guess before I was even the candidate,’ Trump said, likely referring to July 2016 text exchanges between the two that took place before Trump officially accept the Republican nomination.
Strzok and Page were assigned to the investigation of Russia’s role in the presidential election, a probe that began on July 31, 2016, and also were a part of the probe of Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
The president also claims the investigation hurts America’s relationship with other nations.
‘So when I look at things like that and he led that investigation or whatever you call it. I would say that yeah, I think it hurts our relationship with Russia. I actually think it hurts our relationship with a lot of countries,’ Trump told the news network.
The Department of Justice’s inspector general found that neither agent was politically motivated in their work on both the Russia probe and the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.
It was an internal probe into the FBI’s actions during that time, which revealed their texts. The agents said they communicated with their work phones as they did not want their spouses to learn of their affair.
Strzok’s hearing on Thursday – the first time he appeared in open testimony – descended into shouting matches throughout the day with Republicans getting testy with the FBI agent over his anti-Trump’s texts while Strzok remained defiant and Democrats rose to his defense.
The marathon 10-hour hearing was characterized by shouting matches, cross talk, threats, one lawmaker asking another if he was off his medication, and got so contentious at times that a member called it ‘a new low in the United States Congress.’
During the hearing, House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy did not hold back in his criticism of Strzok and his texts, which Trump and his allies used to paint the Russian investigation as tainted.
Gowdy said on CBS’ ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday that Thursday’s hearing was a ‘circus.’
‘Our private hearing was much more constructive than the public hearing. I mean, public hearings are a circus,’ Gowdy said. ‘I mean that’s why I don’t like to do them. I don’t do many of them. I mean it’s a freak show. I mean the private interviews are much more constructive. ‘
Strzok had been grilled by House members in a private hearing two weeks earlier.
Page appeared before lawmakers in a private hearing on Friday and is scheduled to go back on Monday.
Republican lawmakers praised her testimony as more forthcoming than Strzok’s.
Lisa Page, the FBI agent with whom Strzok exchanged anti-Trump texts, testified on Friday in closed session and is scheduled to be back on Monday
Peter Strzok’s hearing on Thursday lasted 10 hours
President Trump and Melania Trump are wrapping up a week-long trip to Europe
Peter Strzok said his anti-Trump texts had to be read in context – they happened when Trump mocked Gold Star father Khizr Khan, a Clinton supporter who spoke at the Democratic convention in 2016
President Trump has tried to use Strzok’s and Page’s texts to paint the Russia probe as tainted
Strzok did not hold back in Thursday’s hearing, where lawmakers railed against his relationship with Page and accused him of wearing a ‘smirk’ on his face during his testimony.
Given time to speak, the FBI agent demanded lawmakers consider his texts in the context in which they were written – during the contentious 2016 presidential campaign when Trump had gotten into a fight with a Gold Star military family who spoke at the Democratic convention.
‘In terms of the texts, ‘we will stop it’, you need to understand that was written late at night, off-the-cuff, and in response it to a series of events that included candidate Trump insulting the immigrant family of a fallen war hero,’ Strzok said.
‘My presumption, based on that horrible, disgusting behavior that the American population would not elect somebody demonstrating that behavior to be president of the United States. It was in no way, unequivocally, any suggestion that me, the FBI, would take any action whatsoever to improperly impact the electoral process,’ he noted.
Strzok was referring to then-candidate Trump trading barbs with Gold Star father Khizr Khan, a Clinton supporter.
Pakistan-born Khizr Khan fiercely attacked Trump at the Democratic convention in July 2016, claiming if it were up to him, his son never would have served in the military.
Strzok was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s team when the texts were discovered last year. Page left it voluntarily shortly after she joined the team and eventually left the FBI.