How can you tell that Reince Priebus is the plain old wingnut among Trump’s team of alt-white conspiracy theorists? Just look at the way he dodges questions.
"I think he would accept the conclusion if these intelligence professionals would get together, put out a report, show the American people they’re actually on the same page, as opposed to third parties through The Washington Post," Priebus said on "Fox News Sunday" when asked if Trump accepts the consensus of the intelligence community on the Russian hacks and their intent.
Priebus’ approach is lifted right from the Merchants of Doubt playbook, good for attacking even an overwhelming pile of evidence with claims that there is still someone, somewhere, who is in disagreement. And since there is not universal agreement, really it’s ‘too soon’ to call the game.
Trump’s bus loads of alt-white surrogates may be the masters of fake news, conspiracy theories, and the outrageous statement designed to derail a whole line of questioning, but the plain old alt-free right has employed the doubt technique for years in fighting all sorts of inconvenient truths.
Fox's Chris Wallace then asked if Brennan's statement on the hacks was "enough for you."
"Not when you have multiple people saying different things, coming through third parties and media reports," Preibus replied.
Climate change? Safety of abortion? There’s always an ‘expert’ somewhere willing to take a paycheck to raise an objections. Even if there’s not, there’s no reason to moderate the claims of disagreement. After all you’re disagreeing.
Priebus’ traditional smokescreen doesn’t require alien intervention or mystical interpretation of pizza menus. Just denial, denial, denial. It’s almost like old times.
The Trump team also cast some doubt on the idea of taking any action against Russia.
During an interview on CNN on Saturday, RNC spokesman Sean Spicer would not say whether Trump would take action against Russia for the cyber attacks when he takes office.
It’s clear that Trump will take action. Only the action Trump takes will be lifting sanctions and allowing Russia to go forward with the $500 billion deal with ExxonMobil fronted by his new Secretary of State.
Donald Trump hasn’t announced any policy that would actually help America. But for Russia? Oh, da. He’s making them great again.