As President Trump left the White House for his Dallas trip to speak at an NRA event, he paused to speak with reporters about Rudy Guiliani’s contradictory statements in media appearances, the Mueller investigation, and the allegations of obstruction of justice that he still doesn’t seem to fully understand.
Former mayor of New York City Rudy Guiliani complicated the White House narrative on Trump’s innocence around the Stormy Daniels (Stephanie Clifford) case by telling Fox News in interviews that Trump did reimburse his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, although Trump had insisted he knew nothing about the payments and that Cohen didn’t represent him in negotiations with Clifford (he later inadvertently admitted that Cohen did represent him).
Instead of lashing out at what he says were inaccurate statements made by Guiliani in the same way that he does when he feels media stories are “fake news,” he excused him and told reporters that he’ll soon learn the approved White House narrative of lies.
‘[Guiliani] just started a day ago…he’ll get his facts straight.’
President Trump says Rudy Giuliani “just started a day ago” and “he’ll get his facts straight” https://t.co/MBqxzYgV9K pic.twitter.com/jhSzFs62LT
— CNN (@CNN) May 4, 2018
Meanwhile, Trump didn’t have his facts straight, either. In order to continue pushing his rhetoric about “witch hunts” and the “unfairness” of the investigation into his campaign’s alleged collusion with Russian government operatives and Trump’s efforts to suppress that investigation, which may constitute obstruction of justice, he told reporters that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was influenced by his time working for President Obama.
‘Mueller worked for Obama for eight years.’
Pres. Trump: "In all fairness, Bob Mueller worked for Obama for eight years." https://t.co/xkO9okMnuQ pic.twitter.com/sXMtA2b0g0
— Evan McMurry (@evanmcmurry) May 4, 2018
In fact, Mueller was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2001 and served for seven years under Bush’s Republican presidency. President Obama extended his contract for an additional two years and Mueller left the post in 2013. That is just over four years, not eight.
He also pushed his previous claims that his actions to suppress the investigation are simply his way of “fighting back,” which are unfairly characterized as obstruction of justice.
‘If you fight back, they say, “oh, that’s obstruction of justice.” That’s nonsense.’
President Trump: “If you fight back they say, ‘oh, that’s obstruction of justice.’”
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) May 4, 2018
When a president “fights back” against legal investigations into his actions by firing the lead investigator and then lying when asked why he fired him, threatens other government officials with impeachment for their adherence to the law, and works to destroy the credibility of anyone daring to challenge his power within the rule of law, obstruction of justice appears to be more a warranted assessment than “fighting back.”
Trump once again railed, inaccurately, about the inclusion of those who have supported Democratic candidates on Mueller’s investigative team.
‘Why don’t we have Republicans looking also? Why aren’t we having Republicans doing what all these Democrats are doing?’
President Trump says he would "love to speak" with Special Counsel Mueller:
"If I thought it was fair, I would override my lawyers." pic.twitter.com/ZgCEtdMUEn
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 4, 2018
In fact, a person’s political leanings cannot be considered during appointments to federal investigative teams, and the majority of Mueller’s appointments have been Republicans (Mueller himself is a registered Republican). However, just as the investigations into Hillary Clinton regarding Benghazi and her use of a private email server were led by a Republican committee, it seems only fair that a mixture of the two political parties should be involved in the investigation into Trump.
For the full video of Trump’s statements to reporters on Friday morning, see below:
Featured image screengrab via YouTube
