Trump often uses official press conferences to do many things unrelated to national policy: from plugging his own properties to rehashing the 2016 election results, there are few subjects the president won’t broach at the most inappropriate moments.
Today, he kicked it up a notch when he took time out of discussions with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to attempt to discredit the Mueller investigation:
“There was no collusion with Russia – other than by the Democrats – or as I call them, the obstructionists. Because they really are obstructionists,” Trump said.
He says this, of course, in spite of Mitch McConnell’s open admission at the end of Obama’s presidency that he had every intention of obstructing Obama’s ability to appoint a justice to a Supreme Court seat after the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia. On top of that, remember that Republicans currently hold all three branches of government. Failure to govern rests squarely on their shoulders.
As always, Trump’s never-ending run-on sentence continued:
“This was really a hoax created largely by the Democrats as a way of softening the blow of a loss, which is a loss that frankly they shouldn’t have had from the standpoint that it’s very easy for them. They have a tremendous advantage in the electoral college.”
There are many things wrong with this statement in particular, but two huge fallacies stand out. First and foremost, the whole point of the electoral college is to diminish potential bias. No one technically has an “advantage” over it by design, though admittedly population growth has somewhat altered its intended purpose… like putting the person with three million fewer popular votes in the Oval Office.
Second and most bamboozling is the insistence that this is some Democratic fabrication, when almost everyone involved in the launch and execution of the probe is (or was) Republican.
James Comey, who today announced he was leaving the Republican Party, initially started the investigation into Russian meddling in 2016 while still a member of the Republican Party. Moreover, Comey has long been credited with firing the deadly missile which sank Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid in the form of his memo with “new” information on her email “scandal” – which of course, turned out to be nothing.
Not to mention the fact that Comey only lost his job in Washington when his probe into meddling so displeased Trump that Trump decided to fire him. Without Trump’s own action, Robert Mueller would never have been appointed special counsel.
For the record, Robert Mueller is also a Republican.
Trump finishes out his speech railing against the FBI for not seizing (“gotten”, as he puts it) the DNC’s server, which shocks him since the FBI “takes whatever they want,” a painfully obvious attempt to downplay the raid that they executed at Trump’s private attorney Michael Cohen’s home, hotel room, and office.
He then tries to claim absolute transparency, though he conveniently ignores the fact that the world learned Monday that Michael Cohen also represents Sean Hannity, proving the only thing transparent about Trump is his hair piece.
He finishes up the speech repeating over and over that his team has sent “millions” of documents proving his innocence, and then insisting no collusion occurred, therefore none will be discovered.
The two-minute diatribe is difficult to stomach, but it’s linked below to be experienced in all its glory.
President Trump says Russia investigation "a hoax" during joint press conference with Japanese prime minister. Trump also appears to reference Mueller and Rosenstein, saying "they're still here" pic.twitter.com/lkKUnxNzff
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) April 18, 2018
Follow Salvatore on Twitter and Instagram.
