President Donald Trump continues to prove harshly antagonistic towards the idea of having his behavior questioned, even for a moment. This Friday outside the White House, he faced scrutiny from a reporter for allowing Attorney General William Barr to declassify anything and everything he wants related to the origins of the Russia investigation, and he flipped when asked for answers, ultimately providing an attempt at an explanation with no concrete supporting evidence whatsoever.
A journalist asked:
‘Mr. President, why should we trust the attorney general to select what to declassify? Even Robert Mueller expressed concerns about the way Barr handled his findings.’
The president’s only response was to launch into a tirade about how great his team supposedly is and how off-the-rails the reporter supposedly was for asking a simple, straightforward question. Trump railed:
‘The question is so false and so phony. The attorney general — let me just explain, let me explain to you something. The attorney general is one of the most respected people in this country and he has been for a long period of time. He’s going to look at a lot of documents; some he might find interesting, maybe he’ll find none interesting.’
Watch him melt down:
Trump is not happy when a reporter questions Bill Barr’s credibility pic.twitter.com/N2HNH726qX
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 24, 2019
So in other words, the president of the United States’s explanation for the process he’s kickstarted of a political appointee reviewing and possibly releasing key classified information about the United States intelligence gathering and review process is that Bill Barr might find documents interesting. How reassuring.
Trump went on to assert that he hopes Barr examines the roles of countries including the United Kingdom, Australia, and Ukraine in U.S. authorities building the Russia scandal and subsequent investigation. In other words, President “Stable Genius” is convinced of not just a domestic plot but a global conspiracy against him, ignoring facts demonstrating the Russia investigation’s relevance like that it’s already produced criminal charges for half a dozen of his past associates.
The United Kingdom has already responded to the Trump team’s allegations that they had some role in the Russia probe, which according to some in the president’s circle — including himself — constituted them supposedly helping spy on the Trump team. After long gone but first Trump White House press secretary Sean Spicer parroted that claim from a White House podium, the U.K. denounced the idea as ludicrous and claimed to have gotten reassurance that it wouldn’t emerge again — but it has. Barr has even himself expressed openness to the idea that the Trump team was “spied on,” although he admitted he had no evidence of actual wrongdoing by U.S. authorities whatsoever.
Australia come into the picture via their now former official Alexander Downer notifying U.S. authorities of now former Trump adviser George Papadopoulos having discussed information the Russians had on the Democrats. Papadopoulos has suggested on Twitter that he was set up — and considering Trump’s remarks, he might be in favor of that idea too.
This latest turn of events in which the president has authorized wide-ranging investigations into his political opponents comes after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) accused him of engaging in a “cover-up.” This whole thing might be because Trump couldn’t stand being challenged by her.
Featured Image via screenshot
