Via Instapundit: From MSNBC politics shows to town hall meetings across the country, the overarching issue for the Democratic Party’s base since Trump’s victory has been Russia, often suffocating attention for other issues. This fixation has persisted even though it has no chance to sink the Trump presidency unless it is proven that high levels of the Trump campaign actively colluded with the Kremlin to manipulate the outcome of the U.S. election — a claim for which absolutely no evidence has thus far been presented.
The principal problem for Democrats is that so many media figures and online charlatans are personally benefiting from feeding the base increasingly unhinged, fact-free conspiracies — just as right-wing media polemicists did after both Bill Clinton and Obama were elected — that there are now millions of partisan soldiers absolutely convinced of a Trump/Russia conspiracy for which, at least as of now, there is no evidence. And they are all waiting for the day, which they regard as inevitable and imminent, when this theory will be proven and Trump will be removed.
Key Democratic officials are clearly worried about the expectations that have been purposely stoked and are now trying to tamp them down. Many of them have tried to signal that the beliefs the base has been led to adopt have no basis in reason or evidence.
The latest official to throw cold water on the MSNBC-led circus is President Obama’s former acting CIA chief Michael Morell. What makes him particularly notable in this context is that Morell was one of Clinton’s most vocal CIA surrogates. In August, he not only endorsed Clinton in the pages of the New York Times but also became the first high official to explicitly accuse Trump of disloyalty, claiming, “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.”
But on Wednesday night, Morell appeared at an intelligence community forum to “cast doubt” on “allegations that members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.” “On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians here, there is smoke, but there is no fire at all,” he said, adding, “There’s no little campfire, there’s no little candle, there’s no spark. And there’s a lot of people looking for it.”
The principal problem for Democrats is that so many media figures and online charlatans are personally benefiting from feeding the base increasingly unhinged, fact-free conspiracies — just as right-wing media polemicists did after both Bill Clinton and Obama were elected — that there are now millions of partisan soldiers absolutely convinced of a Trump/Russia conspiracy for which, at least as of now, there is no evidence. And they are all waiting for the day, which they regard as inevitable and imminent, when this theory will be proven and Trump will be removed.
Key Democratic officials are clearly worried about the expectations that have been purposely stoked and are now trying to tamp them down. Many of them have tried to signal that the beliefs the base has been led to adopt have no basis in reason or evidence.
The latest official to throw cold water on the MSNBC-led circus is President Obama’s former acting CIA chief Michael Morell. What makes him particularly notable in this context is that Morell was one of Clinton’s most vocal CIA surrogates. In August, he not only endorsed Clinton in the pages of the New York Times but also became the first high official to explicitly accuse Trump of disloyalty, claiming, “In the intelligence business, we would say that Mr. Putin had recruited Mr. Trump as an unwitting agent of the Russian Federation.”
But on Wednesday night, Morell appeared at an intelligence community forum to “cast doubt” on “allegations that members of the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.” “On the question of the Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians here, there is smoke, but there is no fire at all,” he said, adding, “There’s no little campfire, there’s no little candle, there’s no spark. And there’s a lot of people looking for it.”
(Link to more)
20 comments:
This is Fake News
Otherwise known as CNN, MSNBC, WaPo, and NYT
I think the Russia Collusion story is too big to fail. It may be tamped down a bit but will never be allowed to die.
The looniest of the leftists in Congress aren't troubled by the absolute lack of facts. They demand the impeachment of President Trump, even if there is no cause. And quite expectedly, nearly all media outlets are fully in agreement. Where there are no facts, facts will be made up.
Mind you that the supposed collusion doesn't even involve Trump himself. As far as I can surmise the allegations are about his campaign staff. You know if Obamas campaign staff was alleged to have done something sinister, it not only would have been denied by the media, it would have never come close to touching the one himself.
You would think the media would be embarrassed to have been duped by the people who fed them this nothing burger.
Hey Base, we got no evidence of Trump/Russia collusion and no evidence of stealing the nomination from Bernie either. Now go home. Go home. Get outta here!!
The story Podesta and the Mook cooked up the thing the morning after the election was totally suppressed.
And now the media has a lot of crow to eat.
Embarrassed? Do any of you think that the Demo opposition will be embarrassed about this nothing burger about to happen?
The real story to come out of this is how Obama spied using the government machinery on probably all his political enemies. And who knows, maybe he even spied on his friends.
This is turning into Alice in Wonderland.
Lem, Sheryl Atkisson is continually pounding on her being spied on and is pressing the Trump DOJ to release her FBI file. I would have expected that to be done already, but Henry Gibson as AG has to date been a BITTER disappointment.
As has Trump. He is lost in the swamp.
Bull.
Illegal border crossings are down 3/4 and arrests of illegals are up 3/8.
Sessions is doing his job.
Trump is letting the Demos and the media (pardon the redundancy) make fools of themselves. The news media sells its credibility, not what it reports, and trump is letting them shred that credibility.
AllenS said...
Embarrassed? Do any of you think that the Demo opposition will be embarrassed about this nothing burger about to happen?
Who cares?
At some point, they have to explain their failure.
No Ed, they!ll just move on to the next hysteria.
They will, but there will always be just that many people who ask, "Where was all the proof they said they had?".
After all, that's how all of us fell away.
(I appreciate what you're saying and the fact some will never get it, but it's the Gospel According to St Zell - I didn't leave them, I just woke up)
Nick is right. Sessions has turned out to be a ballless wonder. If he put Rudi in there he would have kicked ass. It is just that Rudi didn't want to lose his rice bowl because he is finally making money. Trump should have paid him off the books. Given his wife a job or something the way he did with Marty Markowitz and Howie Golden back in the day.
Disagree.
Sessions is not acting on his own. This is Trump's Administration and Sessions is managing DOJ the way the CEO wants.
Yeah, they are wonderful - I am impressed at how quickly the wall got built. Now that Obamacare has been repealed all is as it should be.
Sessions moved rapidly on indicting Hillary, too. The man is a dynamo.
All of those fired government employees must be really upset, too. Trump has been like a scythe, cutting one department after another.
These guys are truly Hope and Change!
Meanwhile, in the real world, Trump is arming Saudi Arabia, restarting the "Peace Process" and importing muzzies by the thousands. He is such a stooge that Moe wants to hire him to replace Curly.
Sixty is coming out of his shell! And I agree w/ Trooper on Rudi. I had hoped Trump would appoint someone for AG from outside DC. A longtime Senator like Henry Gibson is too immersed in the Swamp to clean it up.
This is what happens when you pick Senators to do anything that requires a backbone.
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