Trump’s Distractions from ‘Serious News’ of Russia Ties Not Working on Democrats

Appearing on CNN’s “New Day” Monday, Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) talked about how Trump is using his wiretapping claims as a distraction from the “very serious news” of his ties to Russia.

Watch courtesy of CNN:

“It’s difficult to know what’s behind it. I know what it certainly appears to be, however, is just a distraction. He has put out really a very serious charge but with no evidence to back it up. And the curious thing about it is he certainly has the power to back it up. As president of the United States, he can ask that question very directly of the FBI, find out if there was a FISA court ruling that allowed a wiretap to occur. He has not offered that. And quite frankly, I think it’s just an attempt to distract from the very serious news where we have Attorney General Sessions recusing himself from what should be an independent and fair investigation of what’s going on with the Russians and the Trump administration.”

We are not going to get that, however, because as Evan McMullin said today and others have already repeatedly pointed out, Trump got his information not from intelligence sources (who like the press he has labeled his enemies) but from “far-right conspiratorial media outlets.” In this case, Breitbart News.

As Peters repeated what many of us have already said when he told Alisyn Camerota, where there is smoke there is usually fire:

“The American people need to have a clear evaluation of what exactly occurred,” Peters said. And we are clearly not going to have this based on the testimony of an outfit like Breitbart, which is the very definition of “fake news.”

We are being “distracted by all of this smoke” from the very real and serious problems we are facing, Peters said, and that smoke must be cleared by an investigation.

In the end, all Trump’s efforts to deflect are only making an investigation more urgent than ever. After all, as Jeff Sessions himself once said, “Honest testimony is required if we are to have justice in America.”

Just don’t hold your breath waiting for it.

Hrafnkell Haraldsson


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