When the Reality Check Bounces

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It may be that this morning’s Trump tweets about President Obama ordering a wiretap of Trump Tower was meant as a diversion. But it seems to me DJT could have come up with plenty of other diversions that didn’t make him sound crazier than a soup sandwich. I’m inclined to think he’s genuinely getting panicky.

Yesterday we looked at the fact that Michael Flynn lied about conversations he’d had with Russian officials that he must have known had been monitored. It’s hard to imagine he would have done that unless he’d been ordered to do so. Trump may have assumed that as POTUS he could get away with anything he wanted to do, and maybe now it’s starting to dawn on him that he’s being watched as he’s never been watched before.  Other parts of the federal government are not necessarily going to cover his ass because he’s the boss. And his old dodge of threatening to bury people with lawsuits won’t work any more.

And now, as always, it’s not the crime as much as it is the cover up:

The past few days have brought a growing list of confirmed communications between Trump campaign aides and Russian officials, with each new revelation adding to a cloud of suspicion that hangs over the White House as critics demand an independent investigation.

Trump’s team has offered various explanations for the meetings: Some encounters, they have said, were brief, no more than casual, polite introductions. Others involved the routine diplomacy common for officials surrounding a candidate for the nation’s highest office.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who was an early Trump campaign adviser, said his two interactions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, first reported this week by The Washington Post, came in his role as a senator, not as a campaign surrogate.

It is unclear why the White House has consistently denied contacts with Russian officials if the meetings that took place were innocuous.

Note that Sessions used campaign funds, not his Senate account, when meeting the Russian ambassador. But yes, I’m sure the Russian ambassador goes about talking to all kinds of people. But any meeting with an innocent purpose could have been on the public record. It’s the sneaking around that’s got people suspicious. Which is why this tweet was particularly pathetic:

And it seems Sessions’s decided to recuse himself without waiting for orders from Trump, which means Sessions is at least a tad shrewder than Trump is about how Washington works.

Before heading off to his so-called “winter White House” in Palm Beach, Florida, on Friday, President Donald Trump summoned some of his senior staff to the Oval Office and went “ballistic,” senior White House sources told ABC News.

The president erupted with anger over the latest slew of news reports connecting Russia with the new administration — specifically the abrupt decision by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.

Sources said the president felt Sessions’ recusal was unnecessary and only served to embolden Trump’s political opponents.

Sessions knew recusing himself would take some of the pressure off, and that seems to have worked.

11 thoughts on “When the Reality Check Bounces”

  1. Sessions took some of the pressure off Sessions – it’s greater on Trump now, and Trump is uncertain if an appointee who is ‘impartial’ will bury the truth as Sessions would have.

  2. Rachel Maddow pointed out that for there to be a transcript of a telephone conversation including an American citizen, there MUST have been a FISA-ordered warrant for the wiretap, which means said persons were already under investigation…

  3. On top of what Doug and Dan wrote above, my favorite tweet from t-RUMPLE-Thin-Skin this morning, was to point fingers at Obama for meeting with the Russian Ambassador 22 (or so) times.

    Yes, DUMBASS DONNIE, BOTH OF THOSE ARE THE JOBS of an Ambassdor, and the leader of another country.

    You, “Out-Like” Flynn,” Jeff KKK Sessions, and the rest of your motley crew were NOT in office yet, so, contact with other government’s might reasonably perk-up some ears.

    It’s obvious – at least to me – that with every freak-out t-RUMPLE-Thin-Skin has, it means that we’re getting closer to the truth regarding what his REAL relationship with Putin, and the Russian Kleptocrats were/are.

    I can hardly wait to say, “Dosvedanya, Donnie, baby!!”
    But then, we’ll have to deal with Mike “The Dense” Pence.
    Oy……………………………

  4. The tax returns, 500 plus LLC’s long, hold the answers. But now Ryan and McConnell hold the Trump cards. They will squeeze him and squeeze him until we live in an Ayn Rand utopia. They will not let any investigation get anywhere close to those tax returns.

  5. The president erupted with anger over the latest slew of news reports connecting Russia with the new administration — specifically the abrupt decision by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to recuse himself from investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.

    This needs a Downfall parody video more than anything has needed a Downfall parody video in the history of the world ever.

  6. On the distraction front – when was the last time the WH made a major policy announcement at 8 PM on a Saturday. That’s the timestamp on the CNN article that ‘as early as Monday’ Trump may sign a new Travel Ban Executive Order. On Friday, from Marine One on the way to Air Force One, the order went out to unload Bannon and Brebius’ stuff – they weren’t going to FL with Trump. And that decision was made when Trump threw a tantrum about Sessions recusing himself from any Trump/Russia investigation.

    So trace it back – Sessions covers his ass, by promising he won’t cover Trump’s ass. Bannon and Prebius get their asses kicked off Air Force One. A ‘wiretapping’ tweet doesn’t sent the press running, so something that’s certain to grab the media will be rolled out (or teased) Monday – that’s what Bannon and Prebius are doing. And Sessions is summoned to see SCROTUS on no notice Saturday. So is Sessions getting his ass fired – and will the resignation happen before or after the Travel Ban is released?

  8. Do you think Obama was right when he said about Trump..”Reality has a way of asserting itself”?

  9. Looks like Trump found out yesterday from Sessions and the top WH lawyer that there’s no way the WH can find out the status of any investigation. So in a cute ploy to find out how close to treason the investigation is, Trump wants Congress to demand the status information.

    I still think that Sessions is on the way out and soon. Sessions has already failed at the job Trump assigned – to run legal interference for anything illegal that the WH does. Trump does NOT want anyone in charge of the investigation who’s not under Trump’s control.

  10. Trump went into the GOP primaries to get back on TV, and/or to boost his “brand.”

    He never expected to win and be the GOP candidate, or the POTUS, and so, didn’t bother to hide the “bodies” of evidence about him being fully-funded lately by Putin and his Russki Mob cohorts.

    Now – or, since 11/8. I should say – he realizes he’s in a shitload of trouble.
    How to get out?
    Lie your way out!
    But, he’s not a clever enough 2nd-rate grifter to carry it off.

    And so, we wait.
    And wait.
    Ande wait for fate to put its hand on the scales.

    Pence is the next in line – no bargain there.
    But, if Trump goes down, the GOP is in deep, deep trouble..

    t-RUMPLE-Thin-Skin could promise and sell the brainless masses Ryan’s and Mitch’s ‘Austerity Plans” on PPACA, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc.

    Without P.T. Trump, they may find that they’re rapidly running out of sucker’s…

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