Instead of handling disagreements among government officials like a grown, responsible, professional adult, President Trump prefers to use the same means of communication as middle-schoolers having squabbles: insults and rantings on social media. On Wednesday morning, Trump decided to air his grievances with his own nominee for attorney general, Jeff Sessions.
The tweet follows weeks of ranting about revelations in the now widely debunked Nunes memo, which alleged that President Obama, to aid his fellow Democrat and former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, in the 2016 elections, abused his powers as president to spy on a member of the Trump campaign (who, by the way, Trump’s campaign has denied ever worked with them).
"Republicans have conducted a campaign of misdirection and innuendo in a partisan effort to help President Trump discredit @TheJusticeDept and @FBI," based on "trumped-up charges and cherry-picked evidence." The big question: Did WH collude on Nunes memo? https://t.co/TFJzsRwuVv
— Sheldon Whitehouse (@SenWhitehouse) February 27, 2018
That memo alleged that the FISA warrant obtained by the FBI under President Obama granted the power to spy on an American, Dr. Carter Page, based on a dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele, who was commissioned on behalf of Fusion GPS and paid for by the DNC during the 2016 elections. None of that turned out to be true, but Trump would really like for Americans to continue to believe it.
The @RepAdamSchiff memo, just released with DOJ & POTUS approval, shows that the surveillance of Carter Page was properly authorized LONG BEFORE the Steele dossier ever entered the picture. That blows the GOP case out of the water.https://t.co/NxZdu1qra8
— Laurence Tribe (@tribelaw) February 24, 2018
When asked for comments on the tweet by the president, Attorney General Jeff Sessions responded by saying:
‘We have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against this department will be fully and fairly acted upon if necessary. As long as I am the attorney general, I will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor.’
In other words, this is the appropriate legal process and the rules do not change because Donald Trump demands things go his way. The proper process must be followed if this farce of an investigation, conducted solely so Trump has a distraction to provide his rabid supporters as news breaks daily about the investigation into the alleged collusion between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russian government operatives, is to continue.
Bloomberg also reported of the inspector general, who Trump rants is “an Obama guy,” that:
‘Horowitz is investigating the FBI and Justice Department’s handling of its 2016 probe into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s email arrangements. Trump fired FBI director James Comey last year in part, he said, because of that investigation.’
Horowitz is not actually “an Obama guy.” He was sworn in as Inspector General in the Department of Justice in 2012, under Obama’s presidency, but was appointed to his first government positionn to the U.S. Sentencing Commission in 2003 by President George H.W. Bush, a Republican. The accusations are reminiscent of the selective – or possibly just mistaken, or maybe purposefully lying – memory of Trump’s son, Donald, Jr., who once called the FCC Chairman an “Obama appointee” when Americans opposed the ending of net neutrality laws even though Pai was sworn into the commission by Obama but appointed as chairman later by Trump himself.
Anytime Trump cannot make a legal case or an investigation go his way or make any government department simply do as he says, everything suddenly becomes the fault of President Obama or Hillary Clinton. This is nothing new, but the investigation into the FISA warrants is one that Trump desperately needs to go his way in order to convince voters that any new revelations in the Trump/Russia probe are tainted and biased on behalf of Democrats.
Now, even Jeff Sessions, a lifelong Republican who Democrats fought to keep from being confirmed by the Senate as attorney general, seems to be biased on behalf of Democrats, as well…according to President Trump.
Featured image via Getty/Toya Sarno Jordan
