Former FBI lawyer Lisa Page responded to questions from MSNBC host Rachel Maddow about two of the most controversial text messages between herself and former co-worker and boyfriend Peter Strzok.
Appearing on Tuesday night’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” in her first televised interview since leaving the agency, Page seemed to have a ready explanation for both when questioned by Maddow.
Stating that the infamous “insurance policy” text exchange was not hers but Strzok’s, Page explained it as an “analogy.”
“We’re talking about whether or not we should take certain investigative steps or not based on the likelihood that he’s going to be president or not,” she said. “You have to keep in mind, if President Trump doesn’t become president, the national security risk if there is somebody in his campaign associated with Russia, plummets.”
“So, don’t just hope that he’s not going be elected and therefore not press forward with the investigation hoping, but rather press forward with the investigation just in case he does get in there,” Maddow clarified, earning an “exactly” from the former FBI lawyer. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Disgraced FBI Officials Claimed ‘Insurance Policy’ Text Was About Whether To ‘Burn Longstanding Sources’)
“What about the text messages which you and Strzok were talking about, your sort of fear that Trump would be elected and he said ‘no, we won’t let it happen’?” Maddow asked.
Page explained the “we” as “the collective ‘we,’ like-minded, thoughtful, sensible people who were not going to vote this person into office.”
“You know, obviously in retrospect do I wish he hadn’t sent it, yes,” she said. “It’s been mutilated to death and it’s been used to bludgeon an institution I love. And it’s meant that I’ve disappointed countless people. But this is a snapshot in time carrying on a conversation that had happened earlier in the day that reflected a broad sense of ‘he’s not going to be president. We, the democratic people of this country are not going to let it happen.'”