Sekulow’s another slice of Melber Toast… why would they even go to MSNBC to spin in the first place, do they expect “The Left” to be lulled into mesmerized compliance?
Trump’s gone full-on revenge mode, he wants retribution on everyone who ever accused him of something he was publicly guilty of.
When they demand a mea culpa for Trumpbashing, just remind them that O.J. walked, too.
That’ll furrow their prominent brows…
The beautiful thing is that the actual Report will make these particular MSM tools look like fools. And by the way, no innocent person buries a Report that exonerates him.
If there was an “op” designed to highlight the evils of “access journalism” this would be it.
The tragedy here is that with this degree of wholesale falling for this stunt by Barr and Trump by journalists and pundits, that will become set in concrete at least in the minds of many – and I don’t mean just Republicans who wanted Trump vindicated, the NYT article I link to above has a comments section filled with Democrats saying yes move on, we lost, etc.
Yes the full report must come out and it could be devastating – or would have been if this trick hadn’t worked so well.
I answered this response of yours before I saw it by responding to another comment of yours above.
I don’t share your confidence that it will make anyone look like fools. So much of the country agreed with Trump that “nothing was found” – even while they tried to seem skeptical they bought the basic premise of this magic trick by Barr – that it will now seem as if anything that runs counter to that narrative will just be “one side” and trying to “salvage” something and blah blah blah.
I hope you’re right! But I doubt that you are.
Republicans’ and Russians’ interests became aligned the day NATO bombed the Serbs out of Kosovo. Which is also about the time a bankrupt Rump was desperate for financing that no legitimate investor would even consider. To call it collusion is too impersonal.
One of these men has good reading comprehension.
The other merely keeps repeating the contrived “interpretation” that benefits Trump and Republicans.
Of course, Barr did a version of the same thing.
What’s critical to answer the question for real and not the PR spin is the burden of proof that Mueller (as filtered through Barr) used to decline to charge anyone with conspiracy. The burden of proof for a grand jury indictment is just “probable cause”, which has led to the oft-repeated mantra that a prosecutor can get a ham sandwich indicted.
Most prosecutors will need seem a grand jury indictment unless they think they can prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt with an impartial jury, unless they do so to put pressure on criminals to cooperate. (Anybody who watches Law and Order knows this.)
So Mueller in no way exonerates Trump on “collusion”, conspiracy or anything equivalent to those terms. At most, from Barr’s biased and PR-laden missive, Mueller states (in a half sentence as presented by Barr) that he could not “establish” that the crime of conspiracy had occurred “with the Russian government” for the two charged crimes against Russian entities for interference in the election (via social media) and hacking the Dem emails. We don’t know if the evidence would have been way more than enough for a grand jury to indict, but Mueller may not have asked for it. That’s why the full Mueller report is going to be very bad for Trump and we need the underlying testimony and evidence so the public can act as a grand jury to decide what to do with Trump and his minions.
Barr will find any excuse NOT to turn over the Mueller report or supporting evidence because they are in full campaign mode. Basically, the cover up continues but with the “AG” acting as Trump Roy Cohn with the full support of Congressional Republicans. It was easy to see this coming. The Mueller investigation produced tons of evidence for what most people would consider “collusion”, but based on the narrow legal definitions of proving specific crimes beyond a reasonable doubt, Mueller says he could not “establish” that. Hardly worth a victory lap, but this is liar Trump we’re talking about.
Color me “cynical”, but here’s a suggested edit…
It seems like there is a concerted effort to proclaim Trump “totally” exonerated, indeed in many mainstream media comment sections. How many are paid for or originate in St. Petersburg is impossible for me to know. But we now know what makes this Special Counsel special; Trump gets to decide what he determined (via his attorney general). Four pages, much of which is not a summary of a report but proclamations of what the Attorney General wants the public to understand (he has decided “no obstruction”), has become Bible, more real than Mueller’s actual report. President is once again championing Fake News.
What is the basis for your claims that people are no longer interested? People have waited 2 years to hear what Mueller has to say Not Barr. It is Mueller who has received lavish praise… Not Barr
I’ll take whatever best wishes you can spare…
People change their minds. People hated Comey (and still do). Cohen is a crook (and still is).
Both people were highly thought of after they had a chance to testify to Congress. And Mueller will either talk to Congress or the Report will come out. People don’t like to be lied to like what Barr did.
And the Report has things in it so alarming that the word “Barr” will be forgotten.
Why do I say this.?
No one hides a Report like this which would be even remotely favorable to him. Every ruse they try to hide the Report (no matter how “successful” ii seems) screams:
"I’m Afraid of people seeing the Mueller Report!!!
Yeah well there’s always that. Color me cynical also though at the notion that the majority of actual Democrats aren’t falling way too much for this stunt. Too many clearly are.
Oh I’m sure he’s terrified of anyone seeing it. But that’s why they’re doing this full-frontal assault to just act as if the Barr stunt “totally exonerated!” him, going on to the next level of “Okay now everyone apologize because as everyone knows, I was exonerated…” So that if it ever comes out, they’ve created a narrative strong enough to fight back against reality once it emerges. The more they act like it’s now just common wisdom that he was cleared, and the more idiot journalists go along, the more they preempt.
We’ll see…
When they demand a mea culpa for Trumpbashing, just remind them that O.J. walked, too.
I’d go more with reminding them that Al Capone was never convicted of any crime related to his Mob activity.
Then I’d ask if they know what DID bring him down.
That’s really where this is going to go in the end.
Cory Booker followed Sucksalot on Ari’s show and did push back. It was on MSNBC so only preaching to the choir.
I am just hoping that when DOJ sends the Mueller report to the White House, they ask Daniel Ellsberg to bring it over for them.
Until we see the whole report, and Grand Jury info - if only to Judiciary, Barr is obstructing justice.
“Exonerated” means there is proof of non-guilt and generally applies to a situation where there is no evidence of guilt (due to presumption of innocence). Declining to prosecute does not imply exoneration. Prosecution requires that evidence of guilt is provable, that the law in question is prosecutable with this set of evidence and this individual, and if the prosecutor deems the good of indicting this individual is worth the cost of prosecuting this crime.
For instance, if DNA evidence is found at a murder scene which clearly came from the killer but does not match the suspect, the suspect is deemed exonerated. Doesn’t mean the suspect is necessarily innocent (maybe two people were involved in the crime?) but there is no remaining solid evidence pointing to that person being guilty.
In the case of Trump, exoneration would have meant that a sound and reasonable explanation could be given for all cases of obstruction, supported by documentation at the time. It appears physically impossible for Trump to be exonerated of the act of obstruction as well as of intent to obstruct given his public statements at the time. The only way for Trump to be “exonerated” of obstruction charges is for Barr’s strained theory of proof of an underlying crime to hold sway, in which case “exoneration” of conspiracy (and all other crimes, which Mueller was not tasked with investigating) would imply exoneration of obstruction.
The bottom line, though, is simple. Mueller specifically said that Trump was not exonerated. Thus, Trump claiming Mueller exonerated him is severe gaslighting. Which will, as history has proven, work about 100% on Trump’s supporters who trust what their leader says over their lying eyes every single day.
