Early this morning, President Trump furiously typed up one of his trademark jumbled tweets, in which he slammed the Department of Justice, attacked former FBI Director James Comey, and alluded to the conspiracy-fueled theory that there is a “Deep State” quietly pulling the strings of power in America behind the scenes.
It’s a term he has thrown around more and more recently, and sounds more akin to something an unhinged crackpot like Alex Jones would scream about on his Infowars show rather than something that the President of the United States would discuss earnestly. It shows how far the political discourse in this country has eroded, where the leader of our country is actively engaging in paranoid delusions.
Crooked Hillary Clinton’s top aid, Huma Abedin, has been accused of disregarding basic security protocols. She put Classified Passwords into the hands of foreign agents. Remember sailors pictures on submarine? Jail! Deep State Justice Dept must finally act? Also on Comey & others
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 2, 2018
Former Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired by Trump and been a vocal critic of his policies and rhetoric, issued a sharp response to the tweets, calling them “beyond abnormal” and dangerous.”
POTUS on 12/28: “I have the absolute right to do what I want with the Justice Department.” Today he slanders career DOJ professionals as “deep state,” calls for prison for a political opponent, and tries to sic DOJ on a potential witness against him. Beyond abnormal; dangerous. https://t.co/eW4MCIEOGB
— Sally Yates (@SallyQYates) January 2, 2018
Now, the White House has officially addressed the President’s morning tweet session. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked what Trump meant when he referenced a Deep State Justice Department and then, more pointedly, if the administration actually believes that some kind of Deep State shadow government exists.
“Look, the president finds some of those actions very disturbing and he thinks that we need to make sure that if there is an issue it gets looked at. But if there was anything beyond that I would refer you to the Department of Justice that would look into it,” Huckabee Sanders said, giving a rambling, inane, response that shows she clearly has no adequate way to describe Trump’s unprecedented attacks on the DOJ.
“Does he believe the entire Justice Department and it’s more than one hundred thousand employees are part of this ‘Deep State?'” Sanders was asked in a follow-up question.
“Obviously he doesn’t believe the entire Justice Department is part of that. You know one of the things that the president has done is appoint Christopher Wray at the FBI because he wants to change the culture of that agency and he thinks that he’s right person to do that,” Huckabee Sanders said, completely failing to address the central thrust of the question and instead pivot away from the issue.
.@PressSec offers word salad in response to a question about what Trump means when he uses the term "deep state."
"The president finds some of those actions (?) very disturbing and thinks we need to make sure that if there is an issue we would look at that." pic.twitter.com/kyUOWs81gi
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 2, 2018
In reality, the tweets are simply Trump demeaning the career law enforcement men and women who serve in the bureau as a means of undermining special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into collusion between the Trump team and Russia. It’s a despicable, prolonged campaign of attacks being waged by the leader of a nation against that very same nation’s highest law enforcement agency.
In an interview with The New York Times on December 28th, the president said, “I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department.” The absurd statement could be him laying the groundwork for firing Mueller, a disaster which has been looming as potentiality for some time now and which would almost certainly trigger a constitutional crisis. If he goes through with it, the country will be shaken to its core.
