Rachel Maddow dismantled the arguments that Donald Trump and Republicans are making to undermine the credibility of former deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe.

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On her program on Monday, the MSNBC host laid out McCabe’s credentials and explained why America should be terrified about his concerns that Trump could be a Russian agent.

Maddow noted that McCabe was “the acting director of the FBI, a registered Republican with 20-plus years of service at the FBI, the senior official with this pedigree in international organized crime and counterterrorism and national security,” and his warnings shouldn’t be taken lightly.

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Maddow said:

Just step back for a minute. It is an amazing snapshot in American history right now to be living through this. To hear the guy who was the acting director of the FBI, a registered Republican with 20-plus years of service at the FBI, the senior official with this pedigree in international organized crime and counterterrorism and national security, now trying to speak for the record, to speak for history, to make the record as clear and as stark as possible so we all as citizens know that the FBI and the Justice Department at the highest levels had reason to worry, they were worried enough about what they were seeing with regard to this president and Russia. Literally, they were worried enough about the threat the president was an active agent of a hostile foreign country that they considered whether the vice president and half the cabinet might act to remove that president from office without going through the impeachment process, through the sort of shortcut process to the removal of an unfit president that is spelled out in the 25th amendment to the Constitution. They considered whether the president should be surveilled as a potential foreign agent, as he would have been had this been any other investigation into a possible foreign agent infiltrating a sensitive national security position in the United States government. They had those discussions.  Ultimately, they decided that what they could do at least was formally open a counterintelligence investigation into the president potentially being compromised by a foreign power. And the decision was made at the Justice Department that they would appoint a special counsel of unimpeachable integrity to pursue those core questions. And this forever will be the time in American history that you lived through. Congratulations.

McCabe’s warning is one of many from former intel community officials

While Andrew McCabe is the latest target of Trump’s desperate mudslinging, the former acting FBI director is just one of several former high-level members of the intelligence community that believe the president could be a threat to national security.

James Comey, John Brennan, James Clapper, and Peter Strzok (among others) have repeatedly echoed McCabe’s concerns. While each of these men has, in some way or another, been successfully tainted by Trump and right-wing media, their warnings shouldn’t be taken lightly.

We know Russia helped Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016. There is also mounting evidence that the Trump campaign coordinated with the Kremlin in those efforts. Since taking office, we’ve watched as this president has shown a troubling and blatant allegiance toward Russia.

Trump, his GOP allies in Congress and his blind supporters may be okay with this disturbing pattern of behavior, but it should terrify the rest of the country.

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Sean Colarossi

Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.