In typical right-wing “I know you are but what am I” strategy, the Trump Team is turning the election interference argument in 2016 and potentially in 2020 back on the Democrats.
Cipollone on Tuesday:
“It’s buried in the small print of their ridiculous articles of impeachment. They want to remove President Trump from the ballot. They won’t tell you that. They don’t have the guts to say it directly, but that’s exactly what they’re here to do.”
“A partisan impeachment is like stealing an election. And that’s exactly what we have.”
On Saturday he said it again:
“They’re here to perpetrate the most massive interference in an election in American history. And we can’t allow that to happen. They’re asking you not only to overturn the results of the last election but as I’ve said before, they’re asking you to remove President Trump from an election that’s occurring in approximately nine-month. They’re asking you to tear up all the ballots across this country on their own initiative.”
It’s rich enough that Republicans who have made a fetish out of suppressing the vote are crying crocodile tears tearing up ballots across he country. But it’s ridiculous that they are saying this when we know that Trump eagerly welcomed real election interference in 2016 and solicited it again for 2020. Talk about chutzpah.
But it’s a powerful argument in a way. It feeds off of the rhetoric of the past three years, the Mueller saga, this Ukraine scandal and uses it for their own purposes. Their voters are happy to use it as well, smirking and laughing all the way.
Even if informed citizens reject this absurdity there are millions of people who will just throw up their hands and say “I give up” trying to sort it all out. Sowing confusion isn’t a tactic only Russians use. The GOP has been doing it for years.