Posted on 01/02/2018 10:11:10 PM PST by Oshkalaboomboom
After nearly nine months of a special counsel probe into President Trump's links to Russia, the press is still searching for a way to describe it, and in many cases, still appears to be learning on the fly what it's all about.
The press eagerly jumped into the fray last summer by saying special counsel Robert Mueller was looking for signs of "collusion" between Trump and Russia that might have helped him defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election.
The press moved away from that word in the fall, and started zeroing in on the idea that Trump might actually face obstruction of justice charges. That shift reflected a new but unsupported theory, based on a tweet from Trump, that the president may have known that former national security adviser Michael Flynn lied to the FBI, and that Trump may have obstructed justice by not revealing that lie.
But over the last week, the press has shifted once more, and has become enamored with a few new words that it thinks might get Trump in trouble. Writers and TV personalities are decidedly over the word "collusion" ever since Trump denied collusion repeatedly in a New York Times interview over the holiday break.
For example, MSNBC national security analyst Jeremy Bash said Tuesday he was vowing not to use the word "collusion" anymore, and said Trump might be in trouble even if he had an awareness of Russia's efforts to turn the election.
"I just want to make to make one New Year's resolution here with you ... which is, we're not going to use the word 'collusion,'" Bash said Tuesday. "We're not going to set the bar where the president is setting it, as there had to have been active, day-by-day work between the Trump campaign and the Russian Federation."
"No, I think the mere fact that the president knew of, and people in his campaign knew of and welcomed the Russian interference is unpatriotic, it's shameful, and it's enough to show a very bad set of facts for the Trump team going into his election," he said.
Over on NBC, top reporters said "cooperation" between Trump and Russia might be the key.
"Cooperation without collusion is still cooperation," wrote NBC's Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann. They were citing reports saying Donald Trump Jr. was eager to see what dirt Russia might have had on Hillary Clinton, and that former aid George Papadopoulos was told that Russia had that information.
"And at the very least from the evidence above, it sure looks like they were cooperating with the Russians and their intermediaries," they wrote. "And from what we know, the Trump campaign never alerted the FBI about the interactions above."
Still others focused on the new idea that "collusion" was never the right word, and that "conspiracy" is what will eventually take down Trump.
That analysis seemed to come from a Saturday MSNBC interview with former Watergate prosecutor Nick Ackerman. He said Trump could be in trouble if his team helped or encouraged Russia to hack into Democratic emails, in return for some imagined quid pro quo that Trump would deliver once he became president.
“I think the big enchilada here is the conspiracy to break into the Democratic National Committee in violation of federal computer crimes law and to use those emails to help Donald Trump get elected,” Ackerman said.
Some picked up that idea on Monday and ran with it.
"One good thing about 2017 is we learned in detail of the collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia," wrote Neera Tanden, president of the Center for American Progress. "The question before us now is criminal conspiracy."
Raw Story picked up Ackerman's line and wrote an article saying the question of Trump colluding with Russia "is now irrelevant."
And Scott Dworkin, an MSNBC contributor and founder of the anti-Trump Democratic Coalition, went so far as to say that anyone still using the word "collusion" against Trump — which the media and Democratic politicians did at the start of the probe — looks like a "moron."
"If you debate whether or not Trump colluded, you look like a moron & are using a Trump talking point," Dworkin wrote last week. "This isn't an antitrust case so he can't be charged with collusion."
"He CAN be charged — like Manafort & Gates — with conspiring against the US with Russia," he said. "Use the word conspiracy."
Lunacy? Idiocy? Insanity?
->>”No, I think the mere fact that the president knew of, and people in his campaign knew of and welcomed the Russian interference is unpatriotic, it’s shameful, and it’s enough to show a very bad set of facts for the Trump team going into his election,” he said.
Dead red Ted Kennedy did far more than that in the 1984 election and the media helped.
Either way, my tagline holds true.
Trump is like the father you never met.
You’re mom told you he was a very mean old coot. You didn’t know better. You believed her.
She said he treated everyone badly. She said he was a racist, hated women, treated minorities terribly.
She told you he never cared about you. She hid his support checks. She had you at one point where you were so misinformed, you actually detested the man on spec.
One day he walked up in front of a microphone, and the words he said made sense. He didn’t look like the mean old crusty guy that had been described to you.
Over the following months, you were able to listen to him more. He made more sense. You found that many people liked him. It wasn’t just rich people or people with power, even the common people on the street liked and respected him.
His own employees many of them long timer women supervisors who were hired long before it was PC to do so, liked him.
You found that he employed over 25,000 people. You found that he had a world class business. You fund that he was a very good negotiator.
This wasn’t a man that everyone hated, that mistreated people. This was a man that created wealth not only for himself, but for his employees, investors, and loaning institutions.
He wasn’t perfect. Along the way he hit speed bumps just like other humans. None the less, even when he was $150 million upside down, he still persevered and grew his empire to be worth billions.
He asked people to support him for office. He won against incredible odds. He achieved the highest office in the land, followed through on his plans, and did pretty much exactly what he promised.
Then you found out he had been supporting you all long. He was always there for you. Some of the things he had done in the past weren’t actually a true reflection of who he was. And when he was handed power, he proved it.
Now he stands before microphones. The whole world is watching.
You find yourself in awe.
Forgive me for waxing rhapsodic on the topic. I think we are very lucky to have this man at this time in our nation’s history.
But for the grace of almighty God, we would have missed this opportunity.
Trump has my full trust and respect. No man is perfect, and he won’t always be either.
So far he has been closer to it than any of us every imagined he would be.
Folks, once again, if you are not in awe of our good fortune, you will never be satisfied.
Thank you God.
After 65 years of the Left telling us that conerns of Soviet influence in American policy, academedia, and media were nothing but hysteria...
the Trump One/Two Punch...
The media is replete with idiots, seditionists and traitors .
Reminds me of the old Airplane! movie gag where Lloyd Bridges rips a report off a printer and shoves it at someone to read saying, “What can you make of this?!”
The man given the report sweetly says, “Well I can make a hat out of it (holding it over his head) or a brrrroach (rolling the ‘r’ and holding it to his breast).
The Dems keep TRYING to make it into SOMETHING....ANYTHING!
I agree, and that group is not limited to them either. Both parties are riddled with the same ilk.
So very true. And we can't take it for granted. The Enemy is at the Gates, and will be trying to knock them down from here to Eternity. We must maintain our vigilance, and we must never lose sight of the fact that we are at War.
Anyone who seeks to aid and abet this Enemy against President Trump—whether from personal animus or a policy disagreement—is best advised to reconsider his actions, because nothing less than the survival of this Republic is at stake&mdash. Never forget that. This man has earned our loyalty and support 24/7/365...
They are not in any way struggling to comprehend. They are struggling to present “Russia” in as damaging a manner as plausible, regardless of facts.
Thanks Sargon. Nice follow-up...
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