While serious domestic and foreign issues continue to confront the United States, President Donald Trump is again spending his weekend watching television. After complaining that Fox would dare broadcast an interview with former FBI Director James Comey, Trump apparently tuned in on Sunday morning, considering his angry tweets about Comey’s comments. While impeachment investigators continue to close in with a full House vote on impeachment scheduled for this week, Trump desperately claimed this weekend that he’s completely in the clear — but the evidence against him didn’t magically disappear! Still, he freely wheeled out unsubstantiated, seemingly fake poll numbers and threats of jail time for his opponents.
Comey’s particular role had included helping lead the Russia investigation, which a Justice Department inspector general’s report recently covered. That report concluded that there’d been no effect from political bias on the course of the Russia investigation, but Trump still claims otherwise to the point of completely lying about the report’s findings.
Besides some retweets of conservative journalists in his favor, Trump posted:
‘As bad as the I.G. Report is for the FBI and others, and it is really bad, remember that I.G. Horowitz was appointed by Obama. There was tremendous bias and guilt exposed, so obvious, but Horowitz couldn’t get himself to say it. Big credibility loss. Obama knew everything!’
As bad as the I.G. Report is for the FBI and others, and it is really bad, remember that I.G. Horowitz was appointed by Obama. There was tremendous bias and guilt exposed, so obvious, but Horowitz couldn’t get himself to say it. Big credibility loss. Obama knew everything!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2019
In direct contradiction to what Trump says here, Horowitz publicly told Congress just days ago that he had no evidence that Barack Obama had any personal role in investigating Donald Trump. Asked if there was “any evidence that President Obama or anyone else in the White House asked the U.S. government to investigate then-candidate Trump,” Horowitz said he’s found no evidence for that.
FEINSTEIN: Did you find any evidence that President Obama or anyone else in the White House asked the U.S. government to investigate then-candidate Trump or his campaign?
HOROWITZ: We certainly didn't see any evidence of that in the FBI's files or the Department's files.— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) December 11, 2019
This weekend, Trump continued with an attempted defense of a phone conversation in which he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the Dems — although nice language does not erase the fundamental ask.
A PERFECT phone call. “Can you do us (not me. Us is referring to our Country) a favor.” Then go on to talk about “Country” and “U.S. Attorney General.” The Impeachment Hoax is just a continuation of the Witch Hunt which has been going on for 3 years. We will win! #MAGAKAG #2020
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2019
Trump also touted a threat of jail time for Comey, despite the complete lack of any evidence for any actual crime. Trump didn’t even attempt to cite something specific — he just wants the political retribution.
He tweeted:
‘So now Comey’s admitting he was wrong. Wow, but he’s only doing so because he got caught red handed. He was actually caught a long time ago. So what are the consequences for his unlawful conduct. Could it be years in jail? Where are the apologies to me and others, Jim?’
So now Comey’s admitting he was wrong. Wow, but he’s only doing so because he got caught red handed. He was actually caught a long time ago. So what are the consequences for his unlawful conduct. Could it be years in jail? Where are the apologies to me and others, Jim?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2019
To be clear — Comey did not say that he was wrong to have ever led an investigation into Trump. Rather, he said he was wrong for trusting the agency’s process for surveilling a particular Trump associate. There’s a big difference, but nuance has never been Trump’s strong suit. His obsessive, fake numbers came after the above alongside a slew of pro-Trump Fox News quotes.
Check out Twitter’s response below…
