Among the gripes President Donald Trump had about Andrew McCabe was he let James Comey take an FBI plane home the day he was fired, NBC News reported.
Citing "multiple" unnamed sources, NBC News reported Trump was so furious watching TV coverage of the fired FBI director boarding the government-funded plane May 9, 2017, he called McCabe, the bureau's then-acting director — and even aimed a jab at McCabe's wife, Jill.
According to NBC News, Trump wanted to know why Comey was allowed to get aboard after getting the axe, and McCabe replied he had not been asked to authorize the flight, but if anyone had asked, he would have okayed it.
"The president was silent for a moment and then turned on McCabe, suggesting he ask his wife how it feels to be a loser," NBC's Carol Lee wrote — an apparent reference to wife Jill's failed run for state office in Virginia.
"McCabe replied, 'OK, sir,'" Lee wrote. "Trump then hung up the phone."
Trump believed any privileges Comey had gotten as FBI director should have ceased the moment he was fired, NBC News reported. Comey learned of his firing from news reports broadcast on a TV in the room where he was addressing FBI agents in the bureau's Los Angeles office, NBC News noted.
McCabe has been the target of a series of attacks by Trump that culminated with McCabe stepping down as the FBI's deputy director Monday.
Trump reportedly asked McCabe how he voted in the 2016 election and made public references to campaign donations McCabe's wife had received from an ally of Hillary and Bill Clinton.
The president also questioned McCabe's impartiality in FBI investigations of Hillary Clinton.
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