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The Axe Files with David Axelrod

Ep. 428 β€” Andrew McCabe

The Axe Files with David Axelrod

CNN

News

4.6 β€’ 7.7K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 4 February 2021

⏱️ 60 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe didn’t always plan to become an agent, but while interning at the Department of Justice he found himself obsessed with intricate details in case records. The fascination led him to a 22-year career in the Bureau—one that would end with McCabe himself at the center of a DOJ investigation. He joined David to talk about the “slow burning rise” of domestic terrorism, the decision to open an investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election, and the damage he believes the Trump administration has done to the FBI.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN Audio, the Ax Files, with

0:12.5

your host, David Axelrod.

0:20.0

Andrew McCabe became what no career FBI agent craves in 2017 as the deputy and then the acting

0:26.4

director of the FBI in the midst of the explosive Russia Pro, which made him a frequent target

0:31.5

of then-President Trump.

0:33.1

I talked to him yesterday about that history, how he experienced it, and the very current

0:37.7

threat of domestic terrorism.

0:39.9

Here's that conversation.

0:48.3

Andrew McCabe, it's really good to see you again.

0:51.3

I have so much I want to ask you about relative to your life and your journey, but I can't,

0:57.8

given the moment we're in, I think I want to start with the threat that we face right

1:03.2

now and that was so manifest in the insurgency we saw, the insurrection at the Capitol.

1:12.8

You spent 10 years on counterterrorism at the FBI.

1:18.2

So you were focused primarily on Islamic terrorism threats from outside?

1:23.9

Yeah, so I came up through the counterterrorism division on the international, the IT side,

1:30.7

which was mostly at that point Islamic extremism, but ultimately I ran the division and so had

1:36.3

DT and IT, all that stuff.

1:39.0

And when you were there, how much of a threat was domestic terrorism and extremism, how

1:48.9

much of a focus was that for the FBI and how has it evolved over the years?

1:55.6

So domestic terrorism or what we refer to as DT has always been a serious threat.

2:01.9

There have been remarkably destructive domestic terrorist attacks like the attack on the

2:10.9

Alfred P. Murafedra building in Oklahoma City is the one that I guess comes to mind most

...

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