Monday, June 11, 2018

Trump Has Made 191 Separate Arguments Against Mueller

Donald Trump continues to proclaim his innocence -- claiming he did not collude with Russia, obstruct justice, or commit any other crimes. One wonders then, why does he act so guilty?

He has fired government officials, tried to stop the investigation, and told numerous lies about those conducting the investigation. Those are not the actions of an innocent person.

According to Time Magazine, Trump has made 191 separate arguments (lies) against the Mueller investigation -- some of them contradicting others. Here is some of what Time has to say in an article by Ryan Teague Beckwith:

President Donald Trump has made at least 191 separate arguments about the Russia investigation.
Since the first questions were raised about the Russian influence operation in 2016, Trump has put forward defenses, raised doubts and thrown out attacks and counter-claims at a rate that dwarfs the typical presidential response to an investigation.
To arrive at that number, TIME combed over statements from the Trump campaign, transition team and administration and key figures such as Donald Trump Jr. and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani to isolate the major arguments. (We did not include Trump allies in Congress or the media.)
Trump typically starts making his case by praising his friends and bashing his enemies.
When his associates have fallen under investigation, he’s noted that they are “good men” — Donald Trump Jr., former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, former campaign head Paul Manafort and personal attorney Michael Cohen have all earned the label. . . .
He’s also attacked his opponents: former FBI Director James Comey is an “incompetent,” “shady,” “slippery,” “corrupt,” “sanctimonious,” “showboating” and “grandstanding” “slimeball,” who is “either very sick or very dumb.” And he’s branded Comey and others as “liars.”
The president has also used a favorite rhetorical technique, whataboutism, to change the subject to what he argues are the real scandals: what the hacked emails revealed about the Clinton campaign, that Democrats had contact with Ukraine, that Hillary Clinton lied to the FBI (not true), that Comey leaked classified information (not true), and on and on.
Some of the arguments contradict each other. Trump has argued that Russians didn’t meddle in the election, that it may have meddled but so did other countries and that the real scandal is that Barack Obama didn’t stop Russian meddling.
He’s also changed his story at times. His team claimed it had no foreign contacts; then that only low-level volunteers had contacts with Russia; then that Trump Jr., campaign head Paul Manafort and son-in-law Jared Kushner just had a meeting about adoptions; then that even though they were promised damaging information on Hillary Clinton ahead of the meeting they didn’t get any; and, finally, that there would be nothing wrong with meeting with Russians to get dirt on an opponent.
Some of the arguments amount to little more than catchphrases: Witch hunt! No collusion! Fake news! Others are complicated conspiracy theories involving obscure figures like a couple of FBI agents.
Trump has been unafraid of making arguments that are inaccurate, at times making claims that are 180 degrees from the truth.
He’s claimed that the Steele dossier shows that Russia opposed Trump in the 2016 election (not true), that Comey’s memos vindicated him (not true) and that CNN’s ratings are “way down” because of its reporting on Russia (not true). And he’s kept using arguments even after reporters, fact-checkers and lawmakers have debunked them.
Wherever the investigation heads next, Trump will be sure to make some of these arguments again, as well as some new ones.
If you would like to read the entire list of 191 attacks, you can go to the Time webpage.

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