My United States of Whatever
by Tom Sullivan
The sitting president declared the head of the FBI. wrong on the law in an ABC News interview broadcast Wednesday. President “NO COLLUSION, NO COLLUSION – NO OBSTRUCTION!” told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, essentially, what’s a little collusion between a president and America’s geopolitical adversaries? If foreign agents offered him dirt on a political opponent, Donald Trump said, “I think I’d take it.” And not call the FBI. Or maybe he would, you know, maybe. Who knows?
Trump told Stephanopoulos:
“Somebody comes up and says, ‘hey, I have information on your opponent,’ do you call the FBI?” Trump responded.
“I’ll tell you what, I’ve seen a lot of things over my life. I don’t think in my whole life I’ve ever called the FBI. In my whole life. You don’t call the FBI. You throw somebody out of your office, you do whatever you do,” Trump continued. “Oh, give me a break – life doesn’t work that way.”
EXCLUSIVE: Pres. Trump tells @GStephanopoulos he wouldn't necessarily alert the FBI if approached by foreign figures with information on his 2020 opponent: "It’s not an interference. They have information. I think I’d take it." https://t.co/h7MT5MRQFj pic.twitter.com/ZkCtFCYnkd— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 12, 2019
Trump told FBI Director Christopher Wray disagreed, Trump said, “The FBI director is wrong, because frankly it doesn’t happen like that in life.” Not in the universe he inhabits.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, “If this was perfectly okay, as he would have us believe, then why did he go to such trouble to deceive the country about that meeting?” (That is the Trump Tower meeting between Donald Jr., Trump campaign staff, and Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton. Aboard Air Force 1, Trump drafted a false statement claiming the meeting was to discuss Russian adoptions.)
Rep. Schiff: "If this was perfectly okay, as he would have us believe, then why did he go to such trouble to deceive the country about that meeting?" pic.twitter.com/ismzQ8fqF5— Maddow Blog (@MaddowBlog) June 13, 2019
Almost as stunning as Trump’s admission to ABC, the story is not even prominent on the front pages of two of the country’s major papers this morning (print and online). It made Page A4 of the Washington Post:
The House Oversight Committee did vote Wednesday “24-15 to advance contempt measures against Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.” The two defied congressional subpoenas “for documents related to a decision adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census.” It is not clear what the full House does with that recommendation next. That story made the front pages.
When the Russians offered dirt on Clinton in 2016, the Trump campaign enthusiastically accepted.
Today, the President made it clear he would do it all over again, saying everyone does it.
No, they don't.
Trump does nothing if not project his own lack of ethics onto others. pic.twitter.com/T8uZIBkuIK— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) June 13, 2019
Corruption, lies, betrayal, malfeasance, incompetence, law-breaking. Whatever. It was just another Wednesday in the Trump administration.