It sure seems like a lot of work being Donald Trump on this Labor Day holiday. He’s been on a tear on Twitter, as usual for his own benefit and that of his supporters. In a ham-handed attempt at connecting to Americans on a day commemorating the contribution of labor unions to the building of America, he insulted one of the best labor leaders and union presidents the country has ever known, Richard Trumka. Then he retweeted his daughter’s celebration of people who don’t work traditional jobs, electing to stay home with their kids instead — and while they deserve our respect and admiration, that’s like celebrating the pilgrims on Christmas.
I’m exhausted just writing about how hard Trump has been trying to President today.
So maybe we’ll chalk it up to his brain being tired from the overdrive gear he’s been in all day, but whatever the reason, Donald Trump completely screwed up a MAJOR part of his public defense today. Long ago, Team Trump decided that, because they assume Robert Mueller won’t indict the President, they really only need to focus on convincing the public that Trump is innocent.
In order to do that, the effort to discredit the FBI and Mueller has been underway for some time, with the President’s refrain ad nauseum of “RIGGED WITCH HUNT” and his insistence that the FBI started their Russia probe with a mind to bringing down his candidacy and ultimately his presidency. But on Monday, Trump tweeted the opposite of that:
According to the Failing New York Times, the FBI started a major effort to flip Putin loyalists in 2014-2016. “It wasn’t about Trump, he wasn’t even close to a candidate yet.” Rigged Witch Hunt!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 3, 2018
That, uh… Well, let’s look at what publisher and political analyst James Kosur had to say about it:
Ummm. This proves that they didn’t launch an investigation specifically to attack you. They were already recruiting foreign agents to examine Russian organized crime – something you know about all too well.
— James Kosur (@JamesKosur) September 3, 2018
Right on cue, the author of the NYT piece that Trump was “quoting” (although the part he put in quotes isn’t in the article anywhere) hammered home the point:
It’s nice to quoted by the president, but he’s dropped a crucial part of what I said: By the fall of 2016, the outreach to Deripaska did turn to Russia’s possible aid to the Trump campaign. FBI agents specifically asked Deripaska if Manafort was campaign’s link to the Kremlin. https://t.co/HGpTuHRBxx
— Matthew Rosenberg (@AllMattNYT) September 3, 2018
The president is also misconstruing larger point: The fact the outreach to oligarchs started before he was a candidate is indicates Ohr & Steele were not part of a “witch hunt” or “deep state” plot. The outreach only turned to Trump after a separate FBI investigation was underway
— Matthew Rosenberg (@AllMattNYT) September 3, 2018
But where did that “quote” come from, we wondered. Well, wonder no longer — it’s word for word what the author of the NYT piece said to Brooke Baldwin on CNN:
POTUS is accurately quoting what @AllMattNYT told @BrookeBCNN at 2:20pm on CNN, a channel he says he doesn’t watch https://t.co/SVqXJ1tslE
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) September 3, 2018
While we wish that Donald Trump would take a day off from “leading” the country, there’s definitely a certain satisfaction in seeing him shoot himself in both feet, then reload.
Featured image via screen capture
