Max Boot, a Washington Post columnist and critic of President Trump, argued over the weekend that it makes little sense to believe that FBI agents oppose the new president because the agency is largely made up of “white, middle-age, conservative agents.”
In a column for the Post published Saturday, Boot said attempts by Trump and congressional Republicans to raise doubt over the motivations of Justice Department officials in their Russia investigations are unfounded. He compared it to O.J. Simpson’s lawyers who defended their client in part by accusing the Los Angeles police of racism.
“It was never clear why the LAPD would be eager to frame a local celebrity for murder, just as it’s not clear why the FBI — full of white, middle-age, conservative agents — would want to frame a Republican president,” wrote Boot.
Boot’s analysis assumes that demographics of the FBI, which is majority white, translate to a natural support or at least indifference to Trump as a Republican.
However, text messages during the campaign between top agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, who were having an affair, have surfaced in recent months and showed they held anti-Trump views, and feared he would be elected. Strzok was demoted after special counsel Robert Mueller learned of the texts in 2017.
