Donald Trump began his Presidents Day with a series of Twitter missives in which he accused members of the Justice Department of plotting to overthrow him in an unlawful coup. The morning’s tweet storm came on the heels of former deputy director of the FBI Andrew McCabe saying that after Trump’s firing of Bureau head James Comey, Justice Department officials considered attempting to invoke the 25th Amendment to force Trump from office.

In an interview for 60 Minutes, McCabe said that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein considered wearing a wire into the White House to determine whether or not Trump’s motivation for firing Comey was criminal. According to McCabe, Rosenstein also raised the the 25th Amendment with fellow officials.

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“This was an illegal coup attempt on the President of the United States.” Dan Bongino on @foxandfriends True! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019

In the tweet, Trump refers to Monday morning’s installment of Fox & Friends, which devoted considerable time to the McCabe interview. "If you watched that interview with open eyes and open ears, and that did not scare the hell out of you, about the power of big government, and you still insist that the swamp doesn’t exist, then you didn’t watch the same interview I did," said Dan Bongino, a regular FOX News contributor. "If this was serious, this was a coup attempt, there’s no doubt about it."

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While Rosenstein and McCabe are supposedly not alone in discussing invoking the 25th Amendment for this particular president, the idea that such a maneuver would constitute a coup is incorrect. A coup is an illegal ouster, while the 25th Amendment of the Constitution offers a roadmap for the legal removal of a president, a process that would require the approval of at least half the cabinet as well as Vice President Pence, who would take Trump’s place.

McCabe told 60 Minutes that Rosenstein’s offer to wear a wire arose in the context of a discussion about "why the president had insisted on firing [Comey] and whether or not he was thinking about the Russia investigation and did that impact his decision." According to McCabe, the idea was dismissed by the general counsel for the FBI. "I think the general counsel had a heart attack," said McCabe. "And when he got up off the floor, he said, ‘I, I, that's a bridge too far. We're not there yet.’"

While McCabe said that Rosenstein's offer was serious, Justice Department officials familiar with the conversation said last year that the Deputy Attorney General was joking when he proposed wearing a wire.

"Discussion of the 25th Amendment was simply, Rod raised the issue and discussed it with me in the context of thinking about how many other cabinet officials might support such an effort," McCabe told 60 Minutes.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham has promised to investigate whether McCabe's statements are evidence of a possible "attempted bureaucratic coup."

In addition to co-signing the Fox & Friends take, Trump tweeted his own comments on the McCabe interview.

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Wow, so many lies by now disgraced acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. He was fired for lying, and now his story gets even more deranged. He and Rod Rosenstein, who was hired by Jeff Sessions (another beauty), look like they were planning a very illegal act, and got caught..... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019

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....There is a lot of explaining to do to the millions of people who had just elected a president who they really like and who has done a great job for them with the Military, Vets, Economy and so much more. This was the illegal and treasonous “insurance policy” in full action! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2019

Though he was fired from the FBI for allegedly demonstrating " lack of candor ," McCabe has said he was dismissed because of his investigations into Trump’s relationship with Russia. "I don't know that we have ever seen in all of history an example of the number, the volume and the significance of the contacts between people in and around the president, his campaign, with our most serious, our existential international enemy—the government of Russia," he told NPR's Morning Edition . "That's just remarkable to me."

And to 60 Minutes, McCabe told a story that alleges Trump has more faith in Vladimir Putin than he does in American intelligence. When told that U.S. operatives believe that North Korean missiles are capable of reaching America, Trump insisted President Putin had assured him the country lacked the ability. "Intelligence officials in the briefing responded that that was not consistent with any of the intelligence our government possesses," said McCabe, "to which the president replied, "I don't care. I believe Putin."



Gabrielle Bruney Gabrielle Bruney is a writer and editor for Esquire, where she focuses on politics and culture.

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