When a person accused of wrongdoing spends time attacking his accusers instead of explaining his own actions or letting the evidence speak for itself, that person ends up looking more and more guilty. For instance, Hillary Clinton allowed Republican-led investigations against her play out without attacking the investigators or having tantrums over them.
Conversely, Trump has ranted on Twitter, accused everyone from Republicans like former FBI Directors James Comey and Robert Mueller as well as his own appointed deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein of working for “deep state” Democrats, threatened the job of his appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and called long-time respected media outlets like The New York Times “fake news” with each piece of evidence they have exposed. The so-called “witch hunt” clearly has Trump nervous.
The New York Times article that Trump refers to in his first tweet of the morning in no way concluded that the Russia investigation has found no conclusive evidence absolving Trump or his campaign. The article states that new evidence offers ‘the first indication that countries other than Russia may have offered assistance to the Trump campaign in the months before the presidential election.’ Government operatives from Qatar, for instance, appear to have been involved in those efforts and to have received special benefits by the Trump administration for their help.
Trump also follows the well-known rule of guilty parties when caught in public scandals: instead of discrediting the story (which Trump has not yet done), discredit those involved in the investigation and accusations. For all of Trump’s rants about the Mueller team being Democrats with a grudge against him, he never mentions that Robert Mueller was appointed to head the investigation by Trump’s own appointed deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, is a registered Republican, and was appointed as FBI director by a Republican president. He also never mentions that members of Mueller team, like Andrew Goldstein, won cases like the ‘corruption conviction of Sheldon Silver, the former Democratic speaker of the New York State Assembly.’
His accusations against the DNC over their email server is nothing but a false comparison. The DNC was the victim of attacks by Russian hackers bent on helping Trump win the election; there was no accusation against them for crimes that would allow for a warrant to seize their servers. Tony Podesta, brother of John Podesta, is still currently under investigation by Mueller’s team, but Trump never mentions that the investigation into his actions are a result of his work with former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort. The more Trump tries, the less he discredits the Mueller team and the more he looks guilty.
Twitter is wise to Trump’s tactics and challenged his Sunday rant. See some of their responses below:
Featured image via Getty/Alex Wong
