In memory of those who lost their lives in the more recent mass shooting, Donald Trump took the one action available to him as the most powerful man on the planet—he spent the weekend in conducting multi-day, whine-fest in which he spread lies and blame at everyone except himself and his buddies in Russia.
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In a defiant and error-laden tweetstorm that was remarkable even by his own combative standards, Trump stewed aloud about the latest indictments brought by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III against Russians for their elaborate campaign to denigrate the Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, and push voters toward Trump. …
In a string of 10 Twitter messages — which began after 11 p.m. Saturday and ended around noon Sunday, and which included profanity and misspellings — Trump opened a window into his state of mind, even as Trump’s representatives at a global security conference in Germany advised jittery allies to generally ignore the president’s tweets.
Yes, please world, ignore the man behind the curtain. Because the only organization where he’d qualify to be a wizard wears pointy white hats.
Rather than aim a single word against the Russians, or acknowledge any of the efforts Russia made to attack and corrupt the US election, Donald Trump turned his fire on the investigation, as if that was the problem.
President Donald Trump railed against the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election Saturday night into Sunday, sending off a stream of tweets attacking the FBI, CNN, the Democratic Party, his own national security adviser, former President Barack Obama and the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee.
He did not criticize Russia, or voice concern over Vladimir Putin's attempts to undermine U.S. elections.
The tweets contained a series of lies, baseless accusations and served better than any statement he could make where Donald Trump’s concerns really lie. He’s not worried at all about Russia. He’s saving his fire for the FBI, for the special counsel, and for anyone else who looks into his actions during the election. Donald Trump spent the weekend throwing desperate amounts of smoke, because it’s clear that he’s on fire.
Trump attempted to distance himself from the actions of the 13 Russians indicted on Friday by pointing at the timeline:
The indictment itself indicates that the Russians initially entered the election cycle simply seeking to sow discord, before moving their support to Trump. But Trump’s efforts to claim that the timing lets him off the hook does suggest that this deserves more attention. After all, where was Donald Trump in the months before the Russians initiated their operation? By total coincidence, he was in New Hampshire.
The supremely self-confident real estate mogul, visiting the state that hosts the nation’s first presidential primary, said he had a hard time understanding the logic behind an effort apparently orchestrated by the New Jersey governor’s advisors to tie up traffic in Fort Lee. The scandal, now the subject of an investigation by the Democratic-controlled New Jersey Legislature, could dog the potential Republican presidential hopeful for some time to come, Trump said. …
In his meandering speech before a crowd of business leaders, local politicos and students on the campus of Saint Anselm College, Trump veered from foreign policy (Iraq is now “the Harvard of terrorism”) to the economy (“Mexico is eating our lunch”) to promoting his reality show and explaining his famous coif – “It is my real hair!”
Trump was not only getting prepared and forming up the speech he would use when he officially entered the campaign a year later. And it certainly wasn’t Trump’s first step toward running.
Trump applied for a trademark for "Make America Great Again" in November 2012 -- mere days after the last presidential election.
What happened between Trump apparently setting up his run in 2012, and hitting the road to New Hampshire in 2014? Donald Trump went on the road …
somewhere else.
Sitting in a makeshift studio overlooking the Moscow river on a crisp day in November 2013, Donald Trump pouted, stared down the lens of a television camera and said something he would come to regret.
Asked by an interviewer whether he had a relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin, the brash New York businessman could not resist boasting. “I do have a relationship with him,” Trump said.
Since Donald Trump is claiming that the timeline exonerates him, maybe it’s better to take another look. After all, the two things that Trump keeps repeating, that there’s no evidence of collusion, and that Russia’s actions had no impact on the election are definitive lies. That he’s locked onto the timing as a issue may mean that he and Russia were in it together from the beginning … especially after what happened on that 2013 trip.
As multiple probes scrutinize Trump ties to Russia, nearly every moment of that November 2013 weekend in Moscow is fraught with potential significance. ...
According to Aras Agalarov, Trump stayed at the Ritz-Carlton hotel that weekend. The infamous Trump “dossier,” prepared by a former British spy hired to dig up dirt on the candidate during the 2016 campaign, included an unverified but widely reported assertion that Trump cavorted with prostitutes during a 2013 stay in that hotel’s presidential suite.
Either way, whether it was the plan from the beginning or determined after he officially entered the race, the indictments make it clear once again that the Russians decided to support Donald Trump. And they did it for one simple reason.
Because supporting Donald Trump was the best way they could think of to harm America.
