If you listen closely, you can hear the sound of Robert Mueller screenshotting this tweet. https://t.co/wdZWhUwLuJ
— Jenna Mullins (@JBomb11) August 5, 2018
And on a Sunday in August! It’s not like the man does anything resembling work on any day of the week, but can’t someone remind him that the little people need time off from this shite-geyser?
Strong lede from Adam Davidson, at the New Yorker — “The Day Trump Told Us There Was Attempted Collusion with Russia”:
August 5, 1974, was the day the Nixon Presidency ended. On that day, Nixon heeded a Supreme Court ruling and released the so-called smoking-gun tape, a recording of a meeting, held two years earlier, with his chief of staff, H. R. Haldeman. Many of Nixon’s most damaging statements came in the form of short, monosyllabic answers and near-grunts—“um huh,” the official transcript reads, at one point—as he responds to Haldeman’s idea of asking the C.I.A. to tell the F.B.I. to “stay the hell out of” the Watergate investigation. The coverup is clearly of Haldeman’s design. Nixon’s words are simple: “All right. Fine.” Then, “Right, fine.”…
On August 5, 2018, precisely forty-four years after the collapse of the Nixon Presidency, another President, Donald Trump, made his own public admission. In one of a series of early-morning tweets, Trump addressed a meeting that his son Donald, Jr., held with a Russian lawyer affiliated with the Russian government. “This was a meeting to get information on an opponent, totally legal and done all the time in politics – and it went nowhere,” he wrote. “I did not know about it!”…
The tweet contains several crucial pieces of information. First, it is a clear admission that Donald Trump, Jr.,’s original statement about the case was inaccurate enough to be considered a lie. He had said the meeting was with an unknown person who “might have information helpful to the campaign,” and that this person “primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children.” This false statement was, according to his legal team, dictated by the President himself. There was good reason to mislead the American people about that meeting. Based on reporting—at the time and now—of the President’s admission, it was a conscious effort by the President’s son and two of his closest advisers to work with affiliates of the Russian government to obtain information that might sway the U.S. election in Trump’s favor. In short, it was, at minimum, a case of attempted collusion. The tweet indicates that Trump’s defense will continue to be that this attempt at collusion failed—“it went nowhere”—and that, even if it had succeeded, it would have been “totally legal and done all the time.” It is unclear why, if the meeting was entirely proper, it was important for the President to declare “I did not know about it!” or to tell the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to “stop this Rigged Witch Hunt right now.”…
It was possible, just days ago, to believe—with an abundance of generosity toward the President and his team—that the meeting was about adoption, went nowhere, and was overblown by the Administration’s enemies. No longer. The open questions are now far more narrow: Was this a case of successful or only attempted collusion? Is attempted collusion a crime? What legal and moral responsibilities did the President and his team have when they realized that the proposed collusion was underway when the D.N.C. e-mails were leaked and published? And, crucially, what did the President know before the election, after it, and when he instructed his son to lie?
Funny, how it looks like that. https://t.co/t3ikmMYzdj
— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) August 5, 2018
If you witness tamper out in the open it doesn’t count.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 5, 2018
The Trump Tower meeting was so innocent that they lied about it repeatedly during the campaign and again during the transition and then when they were caught lied about it then lied about who dictated the lie.
All just a big nothingburger.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) August 5, 2018
Again, just picture the boost Trump's campaign would've gotten in June 2016 if they tipped the FBI and turned the meeting into a sting operation to catch multiple Russian agents. The headlines would've been amazing.
It didn't happen. Because they were friggin' co-conspirators.
— zeddy (@Zeddary) August 5, 2018
This is a remarkable exchange. https://t.co/HeXxpXVNiX
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) August 5, 2018
"And then he… Just admitted the entire conspiracy on this… Twitter?"
"Yes Mr President"
"My God. Henry, pray with me." pic.twitter.com/QkYkjCtwFJ— Oliver Willis (@owillis) August 5, 2018
Russiagate Open Thread: <em>“GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!”</em>Post + Comments (123)