Have You
Read The Mueller Report?
Guaranteed, the Russians
Are
Donald
Trump's initial reaction to the release of the Mueller Report and his
personal attorney Wm. Barr's 4-page summary was predictable: "no collusion,
no obstruction, total vindication, total exoneration" ... and the media dutifully repeats the
same claims including video sound bytes and reprints of numerous Twitter messages. Never mind the fact that Mueller's report
did not say that;
the PR battle
was launched attempting to frame the conversation. First impressions
matter when we're dealing with a base of supporters who will never
bother to read the actual report. But facts have a way of coming out.
Are enough voters paying attention?
So now, after a few days of news coverage devoted to the actual text
of the redacted version of Mueller's Report, the Donald and his surrogates
are scrambling to advance the argument that the same report they initially
embraced, is now "fabricated" and untrue. Even though many of the
investigators on Mueller's team, including Mueller himself, are registered
Republicans, the Donald spews assorted falsehoods: "the product of 18 angry
Democrat Trump haters" and question the validity of the "oranges" of the
investigation - an obvious "illegal hoax". The investigation "never
should have happened" says a parade of FOX News sycophants. Forget the
fact that the 448-pg report identifies 140 contacts between team Trump &
Russians & WikiLeaks. Forget the details about TEN instances of
possible obstruction, or the 14 open investigation cases that are still
pending (12 of which were redacted in the report). It's obvious that
Trump supporters do not understand the distinction that a decision not to
indict is not the same as being declared innocent. Even Attorney
General Barr attempted to frame the discussion by mischaracterizing
Mueller's findings in thinly veiled pre-buttal 30-minutes
before the redacted report was released. Trump and Barr realize the
facts in the report are not flattering - they know they are not winning the
debate based on facts, so they try winning public opinion. "The
investigation never should have happened," the Donald Tweets. He's
right - voters never should have elected the creep. |