According to the President, federal law enforcement officers criticizing him on government phone and text devices amounts to ‘treason’.
Mr. Trump also said that messages traded between a pair of FBI employees who had been involved in the Mueller investigation amounted to treason. Agent Peter Strzok was removed from his post by Mr. Mueller last year after the disclosure that Mr. Strzok sent text messages in the summer of 2016 critical of Mr. Trump to FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who also worked temporarily for the special counsel. The texts surfaced as part of an internal Justice Department investigation. The Justice Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
This comes from a new interview out from The Wall Street Journal. It’s true that President Trump frequently says ridiculous things. He frequently attempts to turn back criticism on others. “My son was accused of doing something ‘almost treasonous’; well, those people who don’t me like kind of committed treason too.” But we should not ignore the plain meaning of these words. Criticism of him, he thinks, is tantamount to treason.
Late Update: We now have the actual quotation.
“A man is tweeting to his lover that if [Democrat Hillary Clinton ] loses, we’ll essentially do the insurance policy. We’ll go to phase two and we’ll get this guy out of office. This is the FBI we’re talking about—that is treason. That is a treasonous act. What he tweeted to his lover is a treasonous act.”
