FBI Texts: Obama 'Wants to Know Everything We're Doing'

Text messages between two FBI agents caught up in the Robert Mueller story are once again making headlines. Both Fox News and the AP have reviewed additional texts between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. Here's how they're being played:

• Obama: Fox's story emphasizes an exchange between the pair in September 2016 about preparing talking points for then-FBI chief James Comey because President Obama "wants to know everything we're doing." Adds Fox: "According to a newly released Senate report, this text raises questions about Obama's personal involvement in the Clinton email investigation."
• Big deal? That's hard to say, writes Ed Morrissey at Hot Air. "It’s certainly curious why Obama wanted a briefing on a then-dormant probe of his party’s presidential nominee, but it’s not scandalous in and of itself. Perhaps the probe wasn’t quite as dormant as previously reported, or maybe Obama just wanted to make sure it was over … which, of course, it wasn’t." The post also digs up on old Obama quote of, "I do not talk to FBI directors about pending investigations."

• Comey: The AP story emphasizes that Strzok and Page wrote glowingly of Comey as he testified before Congress in July 2016. Congress, wrote FBI lawyer Page in one text, is "utterly worthless." ''Less than worthless," replied Strzok, a counterintelligence agent who was kicked off Mueller's investigation team when the texts first surfaced. "Utterly contemptible." And: "God he is SO good," Strzok said. "I know," Page responded. "Brilliant public speaker. And brilliant distillation of fact." The AP sees this flattery as "especially striking because it further calls into question White House characterizations of an FBI in 'tatters,' where 'countless' agents complained about their director before his removal."
• Trump's view: "NEW FBI TEXTS ARE BOMBSHELLS!" he tweeted, without elaborating.

(More Peter Strzok stories.)