Trump’s theme has always been that it is unimportant to discredit the facts against you as long as you can discredit the truth tellers. It’s a motto that has certainly played well with his supporters while the rest of us stare on in horror at a post-truth world.
Trump loves to push the tweets between Peter Strozk (whose name he can somehow spell from memory although he struggles with words like “border” and the correct use of “to, too, and two) and insist that this means the investigation into his campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia is bias. A few points around this warrant some clearing up.
First, the Inspector General report that Trump so publicly stated would prove bias in the FBI during the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server during her time as secretary of state did no such thing. Any political leanings held by FBI agents were found to have not influenced the investigation at all. Most American citizens, including those in the FBI, have political preferences, and that is not a crime nor is it new. As long as those political beliefs do not affect their job performance, they are not a problem.
Second, FBI and other intelligence community members have expressed dislike for presidents before. George W. Bush certainly had his share of detractors as did President Obama. Trump is not alone in this and it would be difficult to find a group of people in any profession who do not have an opinion on policies and presidents.
Third, Trump never complained that Clinton was being treated unfairly when investigations into things he declared should get her thrown in prison was led by a Republican congressional committee. Trump loves to play the aggrieved victim of discrimination and to convince his supporters that they’re fighting against a deep state conspiracy against their chosen leader, but that is just more conspiracy theory nonsense.
Finally, the recent revelations against longtime Trump ally and former campaign adviser Roger Stone proves collusion with Russians by the Trump 2016 presidential campaign. Follow that with a period, because there is no “but…” Even Stone is no longer denying that this happened.
At this point, collusion is not in question; what is in question is the same thing that was explored during the Watergate hearings: what did the president know and when did he know it?
Twitter responded in droves to Trump’s latest lies. Read some of their comments below.
Featured image via Getty/SAUL LOEB
