It’s been an interesting year watching the Russia-gate spectacle unfold in Washington D.C.
That there was Russian interference in the 2016 Elections is no longer in doubt, by either Democrats or Republicans. The question is, and has always been, was the Trump for President campaign complicit in this foreign attack on American democracy?
There were enough bread crumbs lying around in May, 2017 that the Justice Department appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller to be the Special Counsel overseeing the investigation. Mueller, a Republican who was appointed FBI Director by President George Bush (a Republican), served in that capacity for 12 years, and was seen at the time of his Special Counsel appointment to be above reproach by both parties.
Almost from the beginning, President Trump has acted suspiciously defensive about this matter. The appointment of the Special Counsel was against his wishes, and Trump publicly reproached his Attorney General Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the matter.
Shortly thereafter, in June, the President wanted the investigation to be terminated, but his White House counsel said that he would quit if Mueller was fired.
So, the investigation continued, as the President fumed and lashed out on Twitter, to his friends on Fox News, and in public appearances. “It’s a witch hunt! It’s fake news!”, Trump has been screaming, louder and louder, for the past eight months.
(As we all know, the only true, pure-as-the-driven-snow political reporting is done by Fox News.)
The Special Counsel has apparently panned a few gold nuggets over the Summer and Fall. A couple of Trump campaign functionaries have been charged with crimes, much testimony has been received (under subpoena and in secret before a grand jury) and it appears (to the media covering the story) that some juicy details have been extracted by Mr. Mueller from participants in exchange for plea bargains.
No one knows for sure what Mueller knows, because the Special Counsel is playing his cards close to the vest.
It is apparent from the President’s behavior, and from the increasingly strident diversionary tactics being employed in his behalf, that…Mr. Trump has something to hide.
Carl Sandburg, the honorary Poet Laureate of the United States, once offered this legal observation: “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.”
Here’s Soviet Premier Khrushchev pounding the table with his shoe while denying that the Russians had put ICBM missiles in Cuba:
For the past couple of months, the American public has been subjected to a massive disinformation/smear campaign orchestrated by the President’s legal defense team. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has been kept busy putting out fires.
The Trump game plan shamelessly copies Vince Lombardi’s mantra: “The best defense is a good offense.” Therefore, it is necessary to discredit anyone (the media, the FBI, Democrats, etc.) homing in on the truth of the Russia-gate matter, and to create enough distraction that the public will tire of the story or the Special Counsel will be kept off-target investigating false leads.
Trump’s team hopes that it will succeed in discrediting Mueller’s team to the extent that: (a) the President will have an excuse to fire the Special Prosecutor; or, (b) the public will not believe Mueller’s case for prosecution once it is revealed.
The President’s offensive weapons in this campaign include the usual conservative radio talk show hosts (like Rush Limbaugh), Trump’s nightly apologists on Fox News…
…and various Congressmen who suck up to the President whenever he beckons, including Benghazi investigation attack dog Trey Gowdy (who is angling to replace Attorney General Sessions or Vice President Pence)…
…and permanent Trump stooge Rep. Devin Nunes, who chairs the House Select Committee on Intelligence, who was caught last Summer fabricating scandalous information to help the President. He also appears to be angling for a job in the Administration.
These are Trump’s “Dirty Tricks” squad, similar to the bunch of goons and losers ex-President Nixon employed in the Watergate era. Many of them ended up in jail.
President Trump has, from the beginning of Russia-gate, made disparaging comments about FBI leadership (including Director Comey, whom he fired), and about the motivation and fairness of the Special Counsel. Trump also claimed that the FBI’s reputation was “in tatters”, and that he removed Director Comey because he had lost the confidence of the rank-and-file FBI employees.
Uh, excuse me!: A group representing 14,000 active and former FBI agents then responded to his allegation by affirming that Director Comey was well-respected in the Bureau, and that firing him because his subordinates had “lost confidence in him” was…a red herring.
It later turned out (Trump’s own admission) that Comey was fired because he was loyal to the Constitution and not to Donald Trump. That’s basically the same problem he has with Special Counsel Mueller.
The President and his cronies have attempted, many times during the past eight months, to divert attention from Russia-gate by fanning various conspiracy theories against former President Obama and ex-candidate Hillary Clinton. “They should be investigated and put in jail”.
In the past few months, Trump’s “truth squad” has made hay with the President’s political base about a couple of FBI minions who texted back and forth, during the Presidential campaign, about Trump’s lack of qualifications, character, etc. When this issue arose, the two agents were removed from the Special Counsel’s team forthwith, despite, as Americans, having the right of free speech and ability to vote any way they want, even if they work for the FBI.
Trump has jumped all over this matter, because, to him, it reveals that the Mueller investigation is biased. (This brings up the obvious point: More Americans who voted for President in 2016 voted against Trump. This suggests that thousands of FBI employees, if not the majority of them, voted for the loser, Hillary Clinton. Under the President’s concept of “loyalty”, all of these voters who work for the FBI should be fired, because they’re probably biased against him. Similarly, he should clean out the “haters” over at the CIA, in the State Department, and in the military, too.)
Following up on that, the President’s hit men have now “discovered” a general conspiracy within the FBI to undermine the President.
The goofy thing about it is that…all of these alleged conspirators are Republicans or Republican appointees.
The Gowdy/Nunes/Limbaugh/Fox News team almost simultaneously began pounding the table and yelling about a “secret society” operating within the FBI, a manifestation of the “deep state” cabal that ultra-conservative Republicans have insisted is operating the government with its own nefarious agenda.
Supposedly, Representative Nunes has a “memo” that he prepared that exposes the whole, terrible conspiracy. Of course, no one has seen it, except select Republican congressmen and their Fox News lapdogs.
One would think that, if Rep. Nunes had actually stumbled onto this political treasure, it would be used immediately to terminate the Mueller investigation and eliminate offending senior FBI personnel. The President would immediately gloat on Twitter: “See! I told you!” Congressman Nunes would be summarily appointed FBI Director, there would be parties in D.C., and President Trump would be free to rape, pillage, and plunder our government.
Obviously, beyond all the table pounding and yelling, this is yet the latest attempt to divert the Special Counsel from his real job; if he is busy defending the Bureau, he cannot devote his energies to Russia-gate.
I don’t think it is going to work. Mueller is going to methodically plod ahead, getting his facts together, building his case. He is a professional; he’s seen stunts like this before, albeit not by Congressmen, Rush Limbaugh, and Fox News. I don’t think he can be intimidated; he ran the FBI for a dozen years.
If Russia-gate is actually a “witch hunt”, then the President has nothing to fear. However, the fact that he and his flunkies are expending superhuman efforts to derail Mueller’s team speaks to the old saying, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Just sayin’:
Donald Trump entered the Republican primaries intending to broaden the Trump brand, and not become President of the United States. He is narcissistic and opportunistic, likes to hear himself talk and appear in the news, and he knew that he could dominate the news by shooting his mouth off. “Any publicity is good publicity”, and all of this publicity would be free. It was a win-win proposition, as far as Trump was concerned.
Lo and behold, he won the Republican nomination. Democrat Hillary Clinton, despite her warts, was strongly favored in the general election. Trump and his campaign team were not experienced, and didn’t have the full backing of the Republican Party. They were grasping for straws, trying to make a splash in the campaign, because Mr. Trump HATES to lose at anything.
The Trump Organization has many contacts in Russia, because of its business dealings over there pushing luxury hotel projects. The Russian government realized that they had an opportunity to use the Trump candidacy for their own purposes, and the inexperienced Trump team (including Trump’s relatives) took advantage of the proffered help. They were probably going to lose the election, anyway, so…why not? Free help…we’ll take it.
The amateur politician Trump made quite a few pro-Russian comments prior to the election, which puzzled many Democratic and Republican politicos in D.C., and alerted the media that something odd was going on.
Donald Trump was surprised to win the election, as was his campaign team. It was probably only then when they realized that the Russian assistance they’d sought/received might come back to haunt them, because they had acted in an amateurish way and the Russians had put on a digital full-court press…which became very evident, very quickly following the election. Denials began immediately.
That’s when the real scrambling began… the table pounding and yelling.
I don’t think the Trump folks conspired with the Russians to rig the election. They weren’t smart enough; all they wanted was some dirt on Mrs. Clinton. The Russian’s, though, had their own agenda, which was putting Mr. Trump in their debt, which they did.
The President knows this, and, at the same time, resents that he was played so easily by Putin and his gang.
Trump, a proud man, is embarrassed and enraged that he finds himself in this situation. He’s desperate to have it go away. If it doesn’t, and the Democrats win the mid-term elections, the newly constituted House of Representatives (under Democratic control?) might impeach him.
So much for the Trump brand.
Supposedly, the President is going to let Mueller interview him “under oath”. I don’t know what that means exactly, as Mr. Trump has a difficult time telling the truth. Who’s going to believe anything he says?
If the “besmirch the FBI” campaign isn’t successful, and if the President can’t get Mr. Mueller off of his scent, the President will probably fire the Special Prosecutor before he can present his case. He will have nothing to lose at that point.
It might happen right after the President gives his “sworn” testimony.
THAT is when things will get dicey.