In yet another stunning reversal, President Trump took to Twitter on Sunday evening to declare that the Russian meddling into the 2016 election to be nothing but a “big hoax” but then, in a bizarre display of confuddled Trumpian logic, somehow decided to blame President Obama for allowing the meddling, which he just said was a hoax, to occur.
So President Obama knew about Russia before the Election. Why didn’t he do something about it? Why didn’t he tell our campaign? Because it is all a big hoax, that’s why, and he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 22, 2018
This is just the latest in a string of flip-flops from the President, who has spent the entire week defending and excusing Russia’s cyberwarfare campaign and interference in the 2016 election before inevitably being shamed into walking it back by his handlers.
But no matter how many times he begrudgingly admits that the Russian meddling happened, he insists on adding in a qualifier like “it could have been other people also” before reversing his position entirely a few days later.
His refusal to acknowledge the conclusions of our intelligence community that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and his inability to resist the impulse to walk back every one of his walk backs about Russia makes it very clear that there’s something more at play here.
The allegations that Russia is blackmailing Donald Trump with a tape of perverted acts or otherwise holding something over his head grow in credibility with every flip-flop, for his behavior has grown so erratic that even his closest allies are having a hard time excusing it.
It’s obvious at this point that the President is never going to admit the truth or do anything about the threat that Russian hacking poses to our democracy. Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation can’t finish quickly enough.
