Re: Trump didn’t lie, Jeffrey Lord says on CNN. He just speaks a different language[W
I'd offer that the Trump comparisons to Nixon/Watergate aren't all that far fetched.
Yes, they are.
With Watergate, the President himself directly ordered a raft of illegal activity, including illegal wiretaps on opponents; organizing break-ins to opponents, and then leaking damaging information during the election; a whole raft of illegal contributions; followed up by extensive cover-ups. In the process of covering it up, Nixon attempted to fire the special prosecutor, had to fire both the AG and Deputy AG (as both refused his request to fire the SP), and was overturned by a judge; invented the concept of "executive privilege" to try and cover up his crimes; and of course, recorded many of the relevant discussions on his own office tape recorders.
What we have here is the very real possibility that some Trump campaign staffers were coordinating with Russian intelligence. While that investigation is boiling Trump like a frog in a pot, he lost his composure and blurted out an accusation against his predecessor with no evidence whatsoever. In the course of that investigation, the administration has clung to every possible thin thread, most of which contradict each other (it's the FBI! No, it's GCHQ!), or wrecked the credibility of the House intelligence chair. Meanwhile, Nunes blurted out his own accusations, which he has had to repeatedly walk back (Trump was tapped! No wait, it's incidental collection, it's all legal. No wait, they were unmasked illegally! No wait, actually they weren't, but a source that Nunes refuses to identify to his
own investigative committee can figure out who it is by viewing the raw intel. No wait, it wasn't even phone calls. Oh, and at every step of the way, Nunes himself has repeatedly said this doesn't back up Trump's accusations.)
Meanwhile, there is no indication that the Obama administration leaked anything from any investigations during the campaign. The FBI didn't announce that Trump's campaign was under investigation -- yet did so with Clinton, and closed the investigation, and
publicly stated that they were looking at Weiner's emails near the end of the campaign.
Most of the damaging links and info came out
after the election:
• Flynn talking to Kislyak
• Trump campaign under investigation
• Multiple Trump staffers communicating with Russian intelligence agents
• Roger Stone chatting with Guccifer 2.0 (wtf)
• Evidence is "more than circumstantial"
• Sessions potentially committing perjury, by failing to mention his meeting with Kislyak during confirmation hearing
The closest we come to a release during the campaign? Manafort got outed for funneling money from pro-Putin Ukrainian party to the US for lobbying efforts. How did we find that out?
The government of Ukraine released the info. Hmmmm.
The only thing this Trussian nightmare has in common with Watergate is that is that in both cases, the President's actions decimated his own credibility and legitimacy and damaged the standing of the US.
