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Morning Briefing: Trump Shotgun Blasts Himself in the Foot

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 26, 2019 |

By Dustin Rowles | Politics | March 26, 2019 |


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We are in Day 3 since the Mueller Report was released, and as you might expect, the tide is beginning to turn. On Sunday and much of Monday, the media decided to prop the President up and allow him his “full vindication” victory based on a summary of the Mueller report written by a partisan political figure who had previously expressed skepticism against the Special Counsel. Now the media — as the Trump Administration begins to blame it for investigating potential collusion and other crimes — is finally starting to wonder, “Maybe William Barr’s report wasn’t exactly on the up and up.” I mean, sure, maybe there was no collusion, but, like, a bunch of people got indicted and have served, are serving, or will serve prison sentences. The Mueller report is something like 695 pages — did it take that many pages to “exonerate” the President? What else is in there, y’all? And why does a political appointee get to decide if there was obstruction of justice?

I mean, look: Being “vindicated” in an investigation is not always a winning hand. Just ask Hillary Goddamn Clinton.

Notwithstanding Mitch McConnell’s efforts to keep a lid on the full Mueller report (he refused even to take a vote on a resolution demanding the full release, despite the House voting 420-0 to release it), it’s probably going to come out, one way or another.

To be clear, without quoting anything within the Mueller Report, AG Barr said that it concluded there was no collusion, but that Mueller Report did not have any opinion on obstruction of justice. However, AG Barr did have an opinion on obstruction of justice, and his opinion was that Trump didn’t commit obstruction. But again, AG Bar’s opinion doesn’t mean shit.

Whatever. I don’t want to get too bogged down in a report that no one in the media has even seen, but I think it would be a service to everyone, including Trump, just to release it and get it over with. One side will take their licks — no collusion! — the other side will take their licks (lots of indictments, evidence of obstruction, campaign finance violations) and we can all move on from this.

In the meantime, on what was maybe the best day for Trump’s presidency since the tax law was passed, Trump apparently seems determined to fritter it all away by turning the focus toward … issues. Dumbass. Never fight a land war in Asia, or argue the actual issues with Democrats. Last night, Trump’s Justice Department filed a new court filing stating that the entirety of Obamacare should be struck down, including its most popular provisions, like pre-existing conditions and allowing children under the age of 25 to remain on their parents’ healthcare. If this is the fight that Trump wants to have going into 2020, bring it on, buddy. Health insurance is absolutely killing the middle and lower classes. You know why the Dems won in 2018? Healthcare. This is not just Trump shooting himself in the foot; it’s a shotgun blast.

Meanwhile, Trump and Lindsay Graham now want to come after the Obama Administration and its DOJ with an investigation into its investigation into the Trump Administration, even as Lindsay Graham admits that he encouraged John McCain to hand the Steele dossier off to the FBI. You know what’s a losing war for Trump? Going after Obama, a far more popular President than Trump will ever be.

Related: Dan Coats, the Director of National Intelligence, had to be talked out of resigning last year, after Trump tried to get Coats to undermine his own intelligence agency. Also, because, “Coats thought the president was crazy.”

Finally, I’ll just leave you with this.

I’ll also just remind you that, in the summer of 2016, Obama wanted to go public about Russian meddling, but he wanted to do it in a bipartisan way so that it didn’t look like Obama himself was meddling in election politics. He took it to Mitch McConnell. McConnell told Obama to f**k off, and that if Obama went public about Russian meddling, McConnell would frame it as Obama’s attempt to destroy Trump’s candidacy. Obama declined to go public, so as not to appear as though he were interfering.



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