President Donald Trump doesn’t exactly let things go. This Sunday at the latest installment of his near-daily press conferences about the Coronavirus response, he launched into an angry, rambling tirade in which he insisted that FBI investigators who handled the Russia investigation are “human scum.” These are the paranoid ramblings of a deeply self-deluded man — who also happens to be the president, troublingly enough.
If you never heard any of Hitler's speeches in history class, Trump does a very good imitation. He's talking pure propaganda. He's threatening the constitution when he calls the leaders of the FBI human scum and the press the enemy of the people.https://t.co/mLsF0ctZIk
— John Oberlin (@OMGno2trump) April 20, 2020
Trump took the opportunity for his latest complete unraveling when asked about the cases of former associates who were convicted of crimes in connection to the Russia investigation. One of those associates, Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen, was recently released to serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement because of the Coronavirus outbreak, and Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort has requested the same home release.
Those convicted felons admitted to lying to the FBI—something that would send any American to jail. But in Trump’s world, it is the convict who is good and the law enforcement official who is “scum”. A sick way to look at those who fight to keep us safe from terrorism and gangs. https://t.co/YIAee3hwAJ
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) April 20, 2020
Questions have circulated over whether Trump will issue pardons for his convicted former associates. Over the weekend, Trump talked like a wannabe mob boss when pressed over the issue at a press conference. He bellowed to a reporter:
‘General Flynn was a highly respected person, and it turned out to be a scam on him. The FBI said — he didn’t lie, and Mueller’s people wanted him to go to jail. So what am I gonna do? You’ll find out what I’m gonna do, I’m not gonna say what I’m gonna do, but I will tell you, the whole thing turned out to be a scam, and it turned out to be a disgrace to our country, and it was a takedown of a duly elected president, and these people suffered greatly — General Flynn! I mean what they did to him, and even the FBI said — and there’s nobody a bigger fan of the FBI than me at the level of the people that really matter — but the top of the FBI was scum, and what they did to General Flynn, and you know it and everybody knows it, was a disgrace… He ends up being a general, and respected… These are crooked people. These are bad people. These are very dangerous people. You know what they are, though? They’re scum. They’re human scum.’
Watch below:
"The top of the FBI was scum…human scum…you know what they are, they're scum, they're human scum." Trump spends nearly two minutes here defending Roger Stone, Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn and not one word he says is accurate or true-not one word. pic.twitter.com/FNr1y7C272
— Amee Vanderpool (@girlsreallyrule) April 20, 2020
None of what the president said is true. It’s unclear what on earth he’s even talking about with his insistence that the FBI says that Michael Flynn didn’t even lie after all following his criminal charge of lying to investigators. Flynn, it’s worth noting, wasn’t even the widely “respected” figure that Trump claims — in fact, amidst his peddling of conspiracy theories, he was even fired from his job as Defense Intelligence Agency head for being a “bad manager,” as one CNN report puts it.
Three convicted felons are good people. FBI are scum, human scum. Welcome to Trump world.
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) April 19, 2020
Flynn brazenly lied about his contacts with a then-Russian Ambassador, and that is the reason for his criminal case — not some conspiracy to undermine Trump’s public image.
Trump sounds like Tony Soprano ranting to Dr. Melfi by the end of this clip https://t.co/FtZsEMgyuA
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 20, 2020
Trump consistently belts out conspiracy theories about interests supposedly plotting against him when faced with even the slightest pressure. In the early days of the Coronavirus pandemic, he even claimed that media coverage of the disease was a conspiracy to make him look bad. The U.S. death toll now stands at over 41,000.
Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape! @CDCgov…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020