One interesting aspect of the Mueller Report is not what’s in it, but how Trump’s shills have reacted to it. They have taken two positions.
1. The report says exactly the opposite of what it says
2. The media totally screwed up this story. Both are worth a moment here.
The first strategy is pure gaslighting, like Kellyanne demanding apologies. She’s like the person who backs into you in the parking lot, gets out, and and demands your insurance info and says you’ll be hearing from her lawyers while her BMW is lodged in the side of your Camry.
This is the strategy taken by people who know only the strategy of doubling down, of reacting with aggression, and who understand just how bad the news really is. They go on offense because…well, why the hell not? Bang the table. Might work. Rube Nation loves that stuff.
The other is a spate of tweets and articles about what “the media” got wrong, mostly focused on talking heads who (admittedly) went too far in believing the myth that Trump would be led across the South Lawn in handcuffs. But these stories, too, are a panic reaction.
They’re from conservatives who really, really wanted to invalidate the entire MSM – as conservatives, who see themselves as anti-MSM insurgents, always do – and they thought the Report was their silver bullet. It wasn’t In fact, it validated almost all of the MSM reporting.
Sure, there were clinkers, like McClatchy’s “trip to Prague.” But when your case against “the media” is something you pulled off a panel from CNN or MSNBC (and notice “the media” is never “Fox”), then you’re admitting that you’d rather talk about anything but what happened.
The Russians attacked the election. The Trump campaign, right up to the top, thought that was awesome. They greeted it with “how can we work this” instead of “call the FBI.” They lied, and lied, and lied some more. Amazing that the media got *any* of it right faced with that.
Why are they freaking out? As @TheRickWilson said: “The most striking part of the last two days is how Donald Trump and his allies are acting like losers, more aggrieved, bitchy, and petulant than ever.”
It’s because they know. They always knew. And now it’s in the open.
- Discussion
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One interesting aspect of the Mueller Report is not what's in it, but how Trump's shills have reacted to it. They have taken two positions.
1. The report says exactly the opposite of what it says
2. The media totally screwed up this story.
Both are worth a moment here. /1— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 20, 2019
valuable @RadioFreeTom thread. he correctly identifies principal interest of large number on the right, including in conservative media, as not even defending Trump but rather discrediting “mainstream” journalism they believe disdains their worldview. all grievance all the time. https://t.co/VagC6sF1Dj
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) April 20, 2019
It *is* worth your time, but remember, Barr's job wasn't to inform the American public or to serve the cause of disinterested justice, it was to frame the issue ahead of time and inoculate the Trump base against believing anything in the *actual report* once it was released. https://t.co/3hJr5hOVfO
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 20, 2019
On this, @ChrisCuomo made a good point: GOP should stop saying "no collusion" because there *was* collusion; there was no *conspiracy*, a legal charge that couldn't be proven.
But let's face it: this is now just a game to solidify Trump's base against possible impeachment. https://t.co/rI76pGOi7z— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) April 20, 2019
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