Several hours into an interview with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Rep. Trey Gowdy Harold (Trey) Watson GowdySunday shows preview: Election integrity dominates as Nov. 3 nears Tim Scott invokes Breonna Taylor, George Floyd in Trump convention speech Sunday shows preview: Republicans gear up for national convention, USPS debate continues in Washington MORE (R-S.C.) on Tuesday threw cold water on his own speculation that McCabe’s days at the bureau might be short-lived.

In an interview last week, Gowdy told Fox News he would be “a little bit surprised if [McCabe’s] still an employee of the FBI this time next week” — setting off a firestorm of speculation that his firing might be imminent.

As late as Tuesday morning, Gowdy told reporters that "it's not 2 o'clock yet" and "I hope he's there at 2" when asked if he believed McCabe should remain at the FBI. His remark appeared to suggest that McCabe could be on his way out before his scheduled interview.

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But Gowdy told The Hill his remarks were based on nothing more than McCabe’s request to reschedule an interview that had been set for last week. In the past, he said, such circumstances have resulted in barriers to witness testimony.

McCabe on Tuesday convinced Gowdy that the scheduling snafu was nothing more than “a good faith error,” he said. The deputy director was always planning on appearing today, he said, and “I take him at his word.”

Asked by The Hill if he was hinting that McCabe would be dismissed or resign from the bureau by Tuesday, Gowdy said, “I probably was, but I was probably wrong.”

“Fairness is not always rewarded in my line of work, but I probably should have waited to hear his side of it,” he said.

McCabe arrived at the Capitol on Tuesday afternoon to face a grilling from the House Intelligence Committee on a number of Republican priorities, including how the bureau may have used a controversial dossier of opposition research into then-candidate Donald Trump Donald John TrumpBiden on Trump's refusal to commit to peaceful transfer of power: 'What country are we in?' Romney: 'Unthinkable and unacceptable' to not commit to peaceful transition of power Two Louisville police officers shot amid Breonna Taylor grand jury protests MORE; and alleged bias at the FBI.

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“Andrew McCabe cuts across every facet of every investigation in 2016 that your viewers are interested in from Secretary [Hillary] Clinton’s emails to the investigation into the Trump campaign,” Gowdy told Fox News on Tuesday.

McCabe, a career appointee under former Director James Comey, has long been a Republican target, in part because of political donations his wife received from Democratic Virginia governor and Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe.

But McCabe skyrocketed back into the public view after a series of texts from a former member of special counsel Robert Mueller’s team became public. He disparaged political figures of both parties in the texts, including Trump, whom he once called him an “idiot.”

In another one of the texts, the agent, Peter Strzok, seems to refer to an “insurance policy” against Trump winning the 2016 election.

“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office — that there’s no way he gets elected — but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Strzok texted on Aug. 15, 2016. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”

Some reporting has since suggested that Strzok was urging a thorough pursuit of the agency’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, underway since July.

Heightening the speculation launched by Gowdy's original remarks, a handful of other Republicans have called for McCabe to either be replaced — a long-held desire of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley Charles (Chuck) Ernest GrassleyThe Hill's 12:30 Report: Ginsburg lies in repose Top GOP senators say Hunter Biden's work 'cast a shadow' over Obama Ukraine policy Read: Senate GOP's controversial Biden report MORE (R-Iowa) — or subpoenaed to appear before Congress to address what some GOP members see as anti-Trump bias within the FBI.



“The chairman of the Judiciary Committee is going to subpoena Lisa Page,” Rep. Jim Jordan James (Jim) Daniel JordanHouse panel pulls Powell into partisan battles over pandemic Sunday shows preview: Justice Ginsburg dies, sparking partisan battle over vacancy before election House passes resolution condemning anti-Asian discrimination relating to coronavirus MORE (R-Ohio) told Fox Business Network on Tuesday, referring to the woman to whom Strzok sent the texts. “He’s going to subpoena Peter Strzok, and we’re also going to get eventually to Andrew McCabe, as well.



"We need those people to come in, to be deposed and to put those people on the same stand that [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions and [Deputy Attorney General Rod] Rosenstein sat on in the past few weeks.”