A few days ago Donald Trump snapped at a reporter who was asking him a routine question about Syria. He started yelling over her as she was talking, repeating himself in an agitated fashion until his face turned even redder.
It was not normal adult behavior and appeared almost menopausal, seemingly belying an issue much deeper than the conflict on the surface. The psychological term for this is displacement.
Then it struck me. Donald Trump knows he is royally fucked, and it is eating away at him.
He is showing up to work everyday, as the Mueller Investigation uncovers more and more damning evidence of the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia, and he is coming to the realization that, despite his best efforts, he can’t stop the Investigation or its inevitable conclusion.
Watergate was about a President spying on his political enemies and then lying to cover it up. This is about a President acting as a foreign agent to destabilize a country he was ultimately elected as the leader of. This dwarfs Watergate. Watergate was a Patriot League college football game and this is the Super Bowl.
Remember the great movie Fargo, when Francis McDormand’s character shows up to the car dealership to ask William H Macy’s character some routine questions about a missing vehicle?
You’ll remember, it turns out that the car was given to some thugs whom he enlisted with kidnapping his wife, and he had attempted to cover this fact up by fudging the serial number of the vehicle along with a strategy of pure denial (i.e. calling real news fake news.)
At a certain point he realizes that his plan is going to shit, that the walls are closing in, and he starts behaving in a comically bitchy manner, storming out to “Do a damn lot count.”
It’s a great scene.
This is Trump right now.
If you’re following the Investigation, it is beyond obvious that Trump’s campaign was deeply enmeshed in with Russian special interests.
His former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, has plead guilty to a felony of lying to the FBI about his contact with Russia and is actively cooperating with the Investigation, turning over valuable pieces of information and rolling over on his cohorts in exchange for his freedom.
Trump’s former campaign manager, Rick Gates, has been charged with eight felonies, including Conspiracy Against the United States, and various charges of laundering money through Russia and other countries.
Another former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, has been charged with nine similar felonies and is under house arrest.
George Papadopoulos, a member of the Trump campaign’s advisory panel, has been charged with lying to the FBI.
Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner, his son Donald Trump Jr, and his Attorney General have all been documented, beyond a shadow of a doubt, of lying about their contact with Russia and will either roll over or be charged in the coming months.
It doesn’t look good.
Trump has tried repeatedly to derail the Investigation into Russian meddling.
He fired James Comey, the head of the FBI, after Comey apparently refused to compromise his investigation into the dealings of Michael Flynn.
He has since demanded the firing of Mueller, but White House counsel, Donald McGahn refused to do it, saying he would sooner resign, due to the unprecedented constitutional crisis which would result.
Trump has since sought to attack Mueller’s credibility, claiming he is biased in the investigation because, among other reasons, Mueller is holding a grudge against him because he is still angry about having to pay fees at a golf course Trump owned.
It should be noted that both Comey and Mueller are lifelong Republicans.
He is now looking into firing Rob Rosenstein, who is his Deputy Attorney General, and who is acting as Attorney General in the Mueller Investigation because the actual Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, lied about his contact with Russia and had to recuse himself, and this, in a nutshell, shows how fucked Trump is.
It’s beginning to look bleak, and the desperation is palpable.
If you don’t think Trump colluded with Russia, you are either incapable of critical thought or (I suspect) have an opinion on something you know absolutely nothing about.
Cue the infamous recently released Memo, written by somebody at the Trump White House, intended to undermine the Mueller Investigation, released against the FBI’s will, and which hinges on incredibly flimsy logic.
This is, literally, the case that this Memo makes, which is now being touted by Republicans who should know better:
The FBI improperly renewed a surveillance warrant to spy on Carter Page, a former foreign policy advisor to the Trump campaign. He had been under surveillance since 2014 because he is a Russian spy, which the Republicans aren’t explicitly denying, but they have an issue with the manner in which the warrant to spy on him was renewed (Republicans in recent history have been firmly on the side of the government on such issues, and firmly not on the side of civil libertarians, until now.)
Also, a company called Fusion GPS, which uncovered an array of ties between the Kremlin and the Trump campaign, was paid by the Democratic Party to investigate the matter. The Republicans are not disputing the bulk of their findings, they just want you to know that the opposing party paid to research their treason. (The Republicans are also falsely equating the Fusion GPS report to the entire Mueller Investigation which is transparently dishonest and would be akin to saying that the CEO of Pepsi Co should have to refund her salary because one time she enjoyed a Coke.)
Their new and pathetic defense is basically this: Yes, I was pulled over for speeding and the officer searched my car and found a detailed plot to blow up the Empire State Building along with a grappling hook and a hundred pounds of plastic explosives in the trunk, but they really were out of line in searching the car. (If a civilian were making this same defense, Republicans would be overwhelmingly on the side of the police and say that the guy shouldn’t have been speeding in the first place.)
The few decent people in the Republican congress and senate could just wash their hands of Trump and move on, but they are morally bankrupt.
Keep in mind this is the party of sanctimonious patriotism, the party prone to gaudy displays of military force and their stupid lapel flag pins, the party who loves to tell Americans (including the previous president) how American they are or aren’t, and the party that wants to build a wall on the Mexican border for the safety of our country, having irrefutable evidence (and certainly more that the public hasn’t seen) that their president colluded with a hostile foreign government to sway the presidential election in their favor, and their response is to take sorry pot shots at the very Investigation which confirms this.
How long do they expect this charade to last? I have a secret, Trump, Paul Ryan, Pence, Kushner, Trump Jr, Ivanka, and all of the swimmingly disgusting Trump shills in congress attempting to discredit the FBI – you cannot win.
The shit has just started hitting the fan.
Republicans have done a lot of things in recent history which should have prohibited anyone from supporting them, but surely, if anything, this must be the last straw.
Now, Donald, go do a damn lot count.
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