They’re serious, people. Don’t treat it like a joke.by digby
Almost 6 months ago, on May 10th I wrote about the Comey firing in a column for Salon that was headlined,” Why did Trump fire Comey? Does the president want to shut down the Russia probe or reopen the Clinton email investigation? Could be both” and I concluded it with this:
The Trump administration has done everything it could think of to derail this Russian investigation, from firing acting Attorney General Sally Yates and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara to employing the hapless Rep. Devin Nunes to distract the press with a three-ring circus around Trump’s fantastical allegations in a tweet that President Barack Obama had wiretapped Trump Tower. It has convinced Republicans in Congress to shriek about leaks and “unmasking,” both of which they were perfectly fine with until now. They smeared former national security adviser Susan Rice and former President Barack Obama. Now this
I wonder if one of the reasons the White House fell upon the excuse that Comey mishandled the Clinton case was to create a reason to reopen that case. The condemnation of Comey in the Justice Department memo could easily be read as criticism that he failed to indict Clinton, if you wanted to see it that way. Certainly that’s what Trump has always claimed to believe.
Considering the White House’s increasingly frantic efforts to sidetrack and mislead, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Trump officials try to do this. The one thing Trump’s loyal fans would love more than anything else would be the fulfillment of his promise to “lock her up.”
News that special counsel Robert Mueller will reveal the first indictment associated with his investigation of potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia on Monday has some people at Fox News very agitated .
In an angry opening statement on Saturday night, Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro called for Hillary Clinton to be jailed.
“It’s time to shut it down, turn the tables and lock her up,” Pirro said.
Pirro said that the justification for Clinton’s incarceration was the Uranium One “scandal,” a theory introduced by Steve Bannon in July 2016 and repeatedlydiscredited.
Pirro also called for the immediate firing of special counsel Robert Mueller and Rod Rosenstein, the Deputy Attorney General who appointed Mueller. She cited Mueller role as head of the FBI when the sale of Uranium One to the Russians was approved, as well as his friendship with former FBI Director James Comey.
“The special counsel’s office must be shut down,” Pirro said. According to Pirro it is “nothing more than a cabal of individuals relying on false evidence to impeach Donald Trump.”
In recent days a number of Trump allies, including Chris Christie and Congressman Trent Franks, have called on Mueller to resign.
Significantly, Trump has close ties to Pirro and has used her show to deliver political messages in the past. In March, during the height of his feud of House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump sent this cryptic tweet.
Watch @JudgeJeanine on @FoxNews tonight at 9:00 P.M.— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2017
“Paul Ryan needs to step down as speaker of the House,” Pirro said in her opening of the show that night. “The reason? He failed to deliver the votes on his health care bill.”
After her diatribe on Saturday night, she brought on Congressman Ron DeSantis (R-FL), another Trump ally, to react.
“That was a pretty strong opening statement. You are right on a number of those things,’ DeSantis said.
They’re using the “Uranium” deal in this case. But Try Gowdy is re-opening the email investigation too. So, they’re covering their bases.
I think they’re serious. I have always thought they were serious.
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