Paul Ryan is defending Donald Trump’s attempts to interfere with FBI investigations (commonly called “obstruction of justice”) by claiming that Trump just didn’t know:
Of course, there needs to be a degree of independence between [the Department of Justice], FBI and the White House, and a line of communication’s established. The president’s new at this. He’s new to government. So he probably wasn’t steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between DOJ, the FBI and White Houses. He’s just new to this.
Is Ryan claiming that ignorance of the law is a good excuse? Even for the president?
But I personally don’t think that this is even a believable excuse. The real problem is that Trump has such an absolutely tenuous connection to reality that he feels perfectly willing and able to lie about just about anything, even things that are trivially disproved.
For example, on Friday Trump attacked James Comey, calling the former FBI director a liar, a leaker, and without actually providing any actual evidence against Comey’s testimony under oath, claimed that there was “No collusion. No obstruction.”
Then Trump had to just throw out one last thing. He tried to claim that the whole Russia investigation was merely a creation of those loser Democrats:
That was an excuse by the Democrats, who lost an election that some people think they shouldn’t have lost, because it’s almost impossible for the Democrats to lose the electoral college, as you know. You have to run up the whole East Coast and you have to win everything as a Republican, and that’s just what we did.
Trump is absolutely obsessed by the magnitude of his victory over Hillary Clinton, such as her taking the popular vote, and even including such inconsequential things as the size of his inauguration crowd. So he is now claiming that he won the entire Eastern seaboard.
But that is a total fabrication. Trump won four states on the East coast: Florida, Georgia, and both Carolinas. He also won one electoral vote (out of four) in Maine (a state that divides up its electoral votes). It would be accurate to say that Trump won four states in the south, and other than one EV in Maine, lost the rest of the Eastern Seaboard (eight states and DC, plus three EVs in Maine).
But Trump seems to believe that he won “everything”. He might also believe that Comey is a liar and a leaker. Although Trump is (once again) just hurling insults and calling names, as he has not presented any evidence that Comey lied, nor that Comey did anything illegal in getting his own memo disseminated to the public.
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IF trump is new to this he shouldnt be trusted with national security let alone the direction of the country. Quite frankly he cannot be the most powerful person on this planet. Republicans including Ryan stated that HRC couldnt be trusted with highly classified information. For him to say that DT can be is the height of hypocrisy. Is there any wonder that liberals are tired of this double standard by the republicans especially from the leadership.
While it may have its negatives, i’m in the camp that impeachment should be strongly considered for trump and that should be an election theme in 2018. The president is a liar and a con man. His presidency is dangerous because he is incompetent on the international front. He is on the verge of burning so many bridges that this country is in danger of being left to fend for itself on its own. He is capable of inflaming international situations such as whats going on in qatar. He has shown no interest at all at passing any bills that are good for the country but are rather good for the wealthy. This makes the anger on the left even worse and as a result will make it harder for practical democrats to come into power.
Why is there any expectation that trump can get anything achieved? He does not have the intellect nor the negotiating skills. HE keeps on getting himself into trouble. Every single incident during the early days of trump has been of his own doing. HE hired flynn, engaged in what is arguably obstruction, fired comey, tweets misguided and damaging statements and even the recent qatari crisis has been arguably emboldened by him by his support of the saudis. The same country from where the majority of the 9/11 attackers originated from.
Apologies for venting but this has to stop and he needs to go. At the very least please stop pretending he can get anything done. Anyone who says otherwise is really lacking in credibility.
Well said Jonah….I totally agree. For those that keep holding out that Trump will do good things for the middle or lower classes, they have to consider that to do so would require working with the democrats. He continues to vehemently vilify the democrats along with our media and no way in hell would stoop to try to get democrat support.
All we need to do is get him under oath…he will gleefully impeach himself.
Trump is very experienced at being Trump. And being Trump got him to the top, so why stop now?
Here’s Tim o’brian on trump and his history of telling lies https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-06-12/trump-s-history-of-lies-according-to-biographer-timothy-o-brien
“I alone can fix it!” and “What the hell do you have to lose?”, are the two bloviating refrains that come foremost to mind from last year’s reelection. Seems more and more blind followers and Hillary haters, including even more in Congress with each passing week, are finally coming to realize the folly of taking a single thing that comes out of Trump’s mouth at face value.
But to Jonah’s point and the article provided, given Trump’s proven propensity to lie, even under oath (legal perjury), it begs the question – unless I’m missing something, why hasn’t he been charged and tried for perjury in the past? And what confidence can we have that he would be subject to perjury charges as President, given his, and his lawyers’, artful dodging of the issue in the past?
It’s encouraging that several states are finally bringing suit over his obvious business conflicts under the Emoluments Clause, but that’s likely to be a slow grind through the courts taking who knows how long. Meanwhile, the conflicts continue and Congress works behind closed doors systematically dismantling popular elements of the ACA to clear a path for those tasty tax cuts they’re salivating over.
What the hell do we have to lose? You name it.
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