By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
President Trump heaped praise and insults on the FBI on Friday, sending very mixed signals about a bureau he earlier this month had claimed was “in tatters” and “the worst in history.”
Speaking to reporters before speaking at the FBI’s National Academy, Trump called the bureau “disgraceful.”
“It’s a shame what’s happened with the FBI,’’ the president told reporters. “We’re going to rebuild the FBI, it’ll be bigger and better than ever, but it is very sad when you look at those documents, and how they’ve done that is really, really disgraceful and you have a lot of very angry people that are seeing it.”
But while speaking to more than 200 law enforcement officers who graduated from the FBI’s National Academy, Trump said, “The President of the United States has your back, 100%.”
He added: “I have so many friends that are police officers, so many people in the FBI, these are great, great people. These are really heroes to all of us.”
Trump has been at odds with the FBI over an ongoing investigation into his campaign’s inner circle and Russia. Former FBI Director James Comey said he was fired by the president for refusing to stop an investigation into Trump’s ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn.
When asked Friday whether he would pardon Flynn, who recently pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, Trump responded, “We’ll see.”
