By Dustin Rowles | Politics | May 30, 2018 |
By Dustin Rowles | Politics | May 30, 2018 |
“Spygate,” the conspiracy theory alleging that Obama planted a spy inside the Trump campaign, is not a story to me. As I mentioned last week, it’s tedious, boring bullshit that warrants little attention. I can’t even muster outrage over it because that’s precisely what Trump wants: It’s another cudgel he uses to divide those who support him and those who do not. It’s almost like a Trump loyalty test: He wants to see how deep he can drag his supporters into the muck, and for the most part, the lemmings have followed.
Now, in the normal course of things, I wouldn’t even bother rebutting “Spygate” with the facts, because what’s the point? If the NYTimes or The Washington Post or Rachel Maddow or NBC or even The Wall Street Journal rebuts Spygate, they’re just part of some leftist conspiracy.
However, it’s a different matter altogether when Fox News dismisses Spygate, which happened on three occasions yesterday. The first unsurprisingly comes from the lone rational voice over there, Shep Smith. And here’s why what he says is important: He’s the managing editor of breaking news over on Fox News, and in dismantling Spygate here, he specifically says, “Fox News knows of no evidence to support [Trump’s] claim … it’s not spying. It’s part of the normal investigative process.”
Fox News: It’s not spying. It’s part of the normal investigative process. pic.twitter.com/orrip0sM1W
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) May 30, 2018
Meanwhile, GOP Representative Trey Gowdy (retiring in November), also said on Fox News, “I’m even more convinced [after a briefing with the FBI and DOJ] that the FBI did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information they got.” Gowdy also here suggests that Trump should sit down with Mueller. “If he were my client, and he says he done nothing wrong, then he needs to sit down with Mueller.”
Finally, here is frequent Fox News contributor Andrew Napolitano also suggesting that SpyGate is bullshit.
Fox News’s Andrew Napolitano says there is “no evidence” to support Trump’s lie that the FBI planted spies
— ☇RiotWomenn☇ (@riotwomennn) May 30, 2018
“The allegations by Mayor Giuliani over the weekend … seem to be baseless" - Napolitano
Who else agrees that Trump & Giuliani are lying to the #MAGA crowd? Trey Gowdy pic.twitter.com/dfJOuxW7TM
Of course, Trump — this morning — is selectively quoting Trey Gowdy.
Rep.Trey Gowdy, “I don’t think so, I think what the President is doing is expressing frustration that Attorney General Sessions should have shared these reasons for recusal before he took the job, not afterward. If I were the President and I picked someone to be the country’s….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
….chief law enforcement officer, and they told me later, ‘oh by the way I’m not going to be able to participate in the most important case in the office, I would be frustrated too…and that’s how I read that - Senator Sessions, why didn’t you tell me before I picked you…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
….There are lots of really good lawyers in the country, he could have picked somebody else!” And I wish I did!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2018
And he really does wish he did, because as the NYTimes reported last night, in a previously unreported meeting, Trump tried to talk Jeff Sessions into unrecusing himself from the Russian investigation, which is now, of course, one more piece of evidence in the obstruction of justice case against Trump.