The United States now faces the end of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, and the Trump team is digging deep into their long established position that the whole scandal was a sham to begin with. Donald Trump Jr. showed zero restraint this Monday in asserting that the final report provided “great vindication” after an “onslaught” like has never been seen before in American history.
Remember — at various times, American presidents have faced literal wars both on and off U.S. soil, been assassinated, carried on with wide-ranging conspiracy while in office, and more, and the Trumps want us to believe that they’d had it worst.
Trump Jr. ranted:
‘While this was a great vindication for Donald Trump & our family, it was an equally amazing day for all of his incredible supporters who stood by him faithfully despite a fake news media & Democrat onslaught the likes of which has never happened in our history. Thank you all!’
Throughout their responses to Mueller’s final report, the Trump team has completely ignored the mountains of evidence that warranted the probe in the first place. They have ignored the fact that the president bragged to Russian leaders about firing FBI Director James Comey, and they’ve ignored the long list of Trump associates who interacted in some capacity with Russian agents during the lead-up to the 2016 elections.
To be specific, Mueller’s report concluded that there was no evidence that a member of the president’s team had “conspired or coordinated” with Russian efforts to tilt the 2016 elections, which could be taken as indicating that they were just too incompetent to ever take their scheming very far. Since there is plenty of evidence of covert communications and lies about the whole mess, the Trump team wants us to give them points for never making sense of it.
Mueller’s report explicitly did not itself fully exonerate the president, which is where Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein came in. They concluded where the special counsel had left a hanging thread that there was not sufficient evidence to bring an obstruction of justice case against the president — but just to be clear, Barr had long established his opposition to that idea, even before being nominated for his present position, not to mention before actually seeing what evidence Mueller had collected.
House Democrats want answers about his decision-making process. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) has already indicated he wants to haul him in for testimony.
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans are making their own counter-investigative aims clear. Individuals from Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway have pushed the idea that there should be a second special counsel to essentially investigate the first one’s case because the justice system dared act in the face of reams of suspicious evidence. Graham has also indicated he intends to bring former FBI Director Comey in for questioning, who Republicans have widely pegged as complicit in the supposed inside scheme against the Trumps.
In reality, the Trump team simply flailed their way into the White House, and then complained to no end when people raised issue with their upending of political and legal precedent.
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump Jr. including plenty of members of his family’s cult below.
Featured Image via screenshot
