Jake Tapper on Trump's 'tapes' statement: 'The plan seems to have backfired'

Source: CNN | June 23, 2017 | Jason Kurtz

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Tweets, lies and videotape

As for the President’s initial claim, one that came — naturally, via Twitter — 41 days ago, Tapper wondered about Trump’s motive.

“Now it is unclear why the President made that initial tweet. Was it bluster? Witness intimidation?” he asked rhetorically. If Trump’s goal was to force Comey into honest testimony, Tapper said, “the plan seems to have backfired.”

After all, on the stand, less than a month after the Trump tweet, it was the now-former FBI director who famously uttered “Lordy, I hope there are tapes.”

To Tapper, simply the suggestion of recordings lifted a weight square off of Comey’s 6-foot-8-inch frame.

“The notion of tapes, for Comey, that tweet, that made him excited,” surmised the host. So much so, that on June 8 the FBI’s once top-cop testified that he was moved to pass along details of his conversations with Trump to an associate. Comey’s hope was that the information would soon be splashed across the nation’s newspapers, lead the next day’s newscasts, and ultimately, result in the hiring of a special counsel.

Enter Mr. Mueller

“Comey’s plan worked,” Tapper said. On May 17, Robert Mueller was appointed by the Justice Department as special counsel overseeing the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 US elections.

While Trump’s reason for the original tweet — the one threatening that Comey “better hope” there are no tapes — remains unclear, Tapper is convinced it didn’t unfold exactly as the commander-in-chief had hoped.

“Not a great strategy President Trump,” he said.

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