George Rebane
The War on Trump โ yes, I believe that itโs now a full-fledged war in which the objective is to remove a duly elected sitting president โ is steaming full speed ahead. Yesterdayโs clarion claim that the president had โshared sensitive intelligenceโ (supposedly the name of a middle east city) was modified today to have really been secret โcode wordsโ according to NPR. The whole thing was sourced to unnamed WH officials who were also supposed to have contacted the CIA and NSA to give them a heads-up on the Russiansโ Oval Office visit. Now understand, no one has presented evidence that the president did anything wrong. In fact, three senior officials โtrotted outโ by the White House โ National Security Advisers McMaster and Dina Powell (for strategy), and SecState Tillerson โ who were actually in the room, all denied the story calling it โfalseโ and โIt didnโt happen.โ
But that makes no never mind to those dedicated to the destruction of this presidency. All the miked politicos and talking heads continued lecturing the nation on what should and should not be said by the president, and what damage such revelations would do to our intelligence apparatus and relationships with allies, and on and on. The careless listeners heard that such revelations actually happened; in no such breathless reports was mentioned that there still was not one shred of evidence on which to base the manufactured hysteria. One Democratic MoC even called for another special prosecutor to be immediately commissioned to discover if Trump had committed an impeachable offense. The hysteria of accusations and CYA statements by politicians of all stripe that now blanket the news cycle knows no end.
To illustrate the extent of the froth on this stormy sea, one worthyโs looney logic presented conclusive evidence of wrongdoing based on, McMasterโs and Tillersonโs statements denying that โMr Trump disclosed any sources of US intelligence services or those of US alliesโ. He claimed the allegation must be true since neither gentleman specifically โdeniedโ that any city name was mentioned, therefore it must have been mentioned โ say what?! By that logic, since the mention of secret agentsโ names were also not specifically denied, it must be true that such names were in fact also revealed by Trump. And once allowed, this โlogicโ of guilt by omission has no end to it.
Is that the end of this volley? By no means, since tonightโs pile on is Comeyโs allegation that last February the president asked the FBI director in private to halt the investigation into former National Security Adviser Flynn. Somehow Comey failed to share that little tidbit with anyone else until conveniently after he was fired. But now the Dems are screaming โobstruction of justiceโ and demanding that another special prosecutor be named. Soon the main reasons for Washingtonโs gridlock will be the shortage of cops on the streets to direct new special prosecutor traffic.
Will we ever get back to fixing healthcare, tax reform, regulatory reform, filling federal appointments, revisiting our trade policies, immigration reform, โฆ ? Not if Team Chuckie has its way.
[20may17 update] Again political cartoonist Ramirez communicates concisely.



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