To me, the two were patriots trying to protect the country from both the Russians and a man they knew from evidence to be evil.

@wordywalt
Some agree with it while others don't. The opinions are divided. It is not a consensus. If these 2 had opposed Obama Administration and had worked on payroll instead of becoming whistle-blowers, you possibly would think the opposite. That is the nature of political passions.

@St-Sinner Sending text messages to the person you're having an affair with, criticizing some politicians, makes you part of the "Deep State"?

Neither of them were whistle-blowers, they were assigned to the Mueller investigation. That's all. For that matter, Strzok suggested a special counsel to look into Hilary and disliked Eric Holder, evidently.

I would hate for anyone to look into my text messages. They would probably conclude I'm an operative for the Reptilicans from Pleiades VII.

@Paul4747
Working against the administration from within that runs the nation is unpatriotic. He should have quit and been a whistle-blower. But he did not do it. He wanted the paycheck and criticize the national policies of the leader too?

@St-Sinner Wait, what??
He never "worked against the administration." An independent counsel was assigned by the Justice Department, and he was part of that investigation. Unless you consider James Comey "unpatriotic" as well, for looking into Trump's collusion with Russia and the Russian influence in the 2016 election. (The former was not shown, the latter was proved.)

What is your standard for patriotism? Unquestioning loyalty to the President? In that case, I have to say, your comments about President Obama are extremely unpatriotic, as he was the duly elected President for 2 terms (and won the popular vote both times, arguably a more legitimate President than the current occupant).

You seem to have a quite blatant double standard. Republicans who criticize Democrats are patriotic defenders of the nation, but Democrats who criticize Republicans are traitors who are undermining from within. You can't have it both ways.

@Paul4747
The issue here is not patriotism. The issue here is the integrity of a government employee. If you want to do the right thing, follow the process, notify your boss to do it OR be a whistle-blower. But do not stay inside and quietly work to discredit the democratically elected leadership.