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Coming off his explosive 60 Minutes hit last night, former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe outlined President Donald Trump and his allies’ “remarkable” and possibly historic number of ties to Russia during an appearance on NPR’s Morning Edition today.

“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, ” McCabe, who was ousted from the FBI last march, told the public radio network this morning. “That’s just remarkable to me.”

He continued:

“That assessment was contrary to all of our intelligence, and that’s when he mentioned that he believed what Putin had to say. It was a head-spinning moment, but this is beyond than just getting the attention of a busy and maybe distracted president, this is about how do we impart wisdom and knowledge and the best of our intelligence assessments to someone who chooses to believe our adversaries over our intelligence professionals?”

McCabe also recounted the first time he met Trump, saying he walked into his office and was immediately asked by the president if he was “part of the resistance,” to which he responded, “No sir, that’s not true.”

“That was clearly not the answer he was looking for,” he added, before noting this was Trump’s way of asking him “are you with us or against us, are you on my team or are you on the other team” — a more subtle version of the loyalty demand he made to former FBI Director James Comey, McCabe explained.

As for the infamous Rod Rosenstein conspiracy to wear a wire and surreptitiously record Trump, McCabe again affirmed that it was true and claimed he was troubled by the pitch.

“I was taken aback by the offer,” McCabe said. “I told him that I would consider it, I would discuss it with the investigative team, and I’d let him know. I did talk to my attorneys back at FBI headquarters about it.”

“We all agreed it was a horrible idea and it was not something that we would pursue. So while the deputy attorney general says he never authorized anyone to wear a wire, that is true — he never authorized it because we never asked him for that authorization I don’t think he can deny.”

Listen above, via NPR.

[image via Pete Marovich/Getty Images]

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