President Donald Trump clearly is continuing to feel the heat from the Russia investigation, no matter Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s conclusion. This weekend, he launched into threatening, angry Twitter ranting over the probe that might as well be at home coming from some psyched-up internet conspiracy theorist. Since it’s coming from the president of the United States, however, these all-caps social media rants about supposed secret intentions behind federal authorities’ actions are essentially guiding national policy. How fun.
Trump ranted:
‘So, let’s get this straight! There was No Collusion and in fact the Phony Dossier was a Con Job that was paid for by Crooked Hillary and the DNC. So the 13 Angry Democrats were investigating an event that never happened and that was in fact a made up Fraud. I just fought back against something I knew never existed, Collusion with Russia (so ridiculous!) – No Obstruction. This Russia Hoax must never happen to another President, and Law Enforcement must find out, HOW DID IT START?’
His closing question hearkens back to recent calls for a second special counsel from figures like Trump opponent turned pal Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who leads the Senate Judiciary Committee. He told reporters that he’d ask Attorney General William Barr for such an appointment, and whoever the Attorney General picked would be tasked essentially with investigating the first special counsel and concurrent issues, like claimed improper federal handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation. Trump seems open to the idea of a second special counsel.
To be clear — and as is surprising to few at this point — the overall situation that second special counsel would be investigating is far more nuanced than the president let on. Technically, Mueller didn’t even conclude that there was no collusion, at least not as far as the public can tell so far. (His final report remains classified.) His team simply concluded there was no prosecutable conspiracy or coordination between the Trump team and Russia. The mountains of suspicion-warranting material enveloping the Trump team remain firmly in place. Trump’s own son Donald Trump Jr. said he’d “love” the idea of dirt from the Kremlin on Hillary Clinton — he and others simply fumbled their chance at actionable cooperation.
The “Phony Dossier” that Trump mentions that chronicles allegations of Trump-Russia connections that former British spy Christopher Steele collected in part under the direction of a firm temporarily paid by the Democrats is not the only driver for the Russia scandal, quite simply.
It’s ironic that Trump seems to admit that he took the steps warranting the obstruction of justice allegations he’s faced, although he says he “just fought back” — which shines a light on how he approaches these issues in general.
Check out Twitter’s response to the president…
Featured Image via screenshot
