Suffolk Legislator Bridget Fleming, who recently announced her intention to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge Representative Lee Zeldin in New York’s First Congressional District, rebuked President Trump for his criticism of F.B.I. agents yesterday.
At a rally on Tuesday, the president, referring to an inspector general’s report that debunked his claim that the F.B.I. investigation into his 2016 campaign was launched by biased personnel in the intelligence community, referred to F.B.I. agents as “scum.” Agents, he said, “have destroyed the lives of people that were great people, that are still great people. Their lives have been destroyed by scum, okay? By scum.”
“As a former prosecutor, I’m alarmed at President Trump’s description of F.B.I. agents who don’t agree with him as ‘scum,’ ” Ms. Fleming said in a statement issued yesterday. “This is a direct attack on the rule of law in our country, and coming from our commander in chief, it’s shameful. The men and women of law enforcement make sacrifices every day for our safety and security, and they shouldn’t be subjected to humiliation for doing their job, just because the president doesn’t like their conclusions.”
Ms. Fleming also criticized Mr. Zeldin, who is one of the president’s most stalwart defenders. The inspector general’s report, she said, “demonstrated there was no spying on the Trump campaign. Our congressman has toed the Trump line for too long at the expense of our democratic institutions and it’s time it ends. Lee Zeldin should know better. I call on Lee Zeldin to join me in condemning the president’s words because they are harmful to our justice system and to our democracy
