2019.01.17 Impeachment

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Buzzfeed released an article that said Trump had ordered his Attorney (Michael Cohen) to lie to investigators, which set off the Democrats impeachment Tourettes again. ("Get the noose!") Nevermind that: it was implausible, from an unreliable author and publication, with anonymous sources, and made no sense -- the left and their media was all over it, and Congress was already demanding an investigations: which forced Mueller to release an unprecedented statement (during an investigation), that said the story was bullshit. And the left-press was crestfallen over the truth.

Details

Remember the context:

  • this was an implausible report - A Hotel deal didn't violate any legal/ethical guidelines, and was far less shady than what Clintons had already done
  • it made no sense - Trump's son-in-law had already admitted the same things publicly, that Trump was trying to get him to lie about?
  • with unlikely evidence - they said they had hard evidence and documents, Trump is known for 1:1 verbal communications, and not using email or writing things down.
  • from an unreliable witness - Cohen, has lied, defrauded, broke the law, broke legal ethics, illegally and unethically taped his client, is being disbarred and prosecuted, and is being squeezed by Mueller to compose tall tales to get himself off the hook
  • written by unreliable author - the guy was fired for multiple faked stories in the past, like some about Carl Rove that was later proven false
  • in an unreliable source - Buzzfeed, which has broken 5 stories that the media gobbled up and had to offer retractions on later

And the Press, including CNN and others, ran with it for 24 hours? This was it, glorious evidence of a crime that could impeach a guy -- little to no skepticism, and no journalism (questioning sources, etc).

I was asked about it by friends/co-workers (who know I'm usually knowledgable) -- and I said that of course we don't know, but it sure doesn't pass the stink test for credibility, and unless Cohen had HARD evidence (which seemed unlikely), that you'd never get impeachment in the Senate, which made the reporting of "impeachment" bullshit too.

I live in the Bay Area, where ignorance and hate is the norm. So I was mocked when I answered that I didn't think the evidence was credible, and this would probably go where the last dozen such stories had: it would be refuted or far less than the far left outlets said. And low and behold, the story blew up. It was FakeNews all along. Mueller issued an unheard of statement refuting everything about the story: pointing out they got everything wrong, the timeline, facts, and people involved.

Another friend said, "Trump must be celebrating". But I pointed out that I doubt it.

  1. Trump loves hearing his own name (read The Art of the Deal, and he talks about bad Press is often better than no Press or sometimes good Press).
  2. Trump would have known the story was bullshit, and his Press Agents had said as much.
  3. Every outlet (like CNN, which gleefully mentioned this was impeachable (82 times according to a news monitor), and that ran with an unverified FakeNews story, especially with so many OBVIOUS things to cause skepticism, will have proven his point for him. That they were FakeNews and so out to get him, that they didn't bother vetting a story before running with it.
  4. The longer the story goes on, and the more CNN and NYT run with it, the worse they look when the truth comes out.

So Trump would have wanted it to go on longer, because when the truth comes out, the more he looks like the victim in the FakeNews conspiracy, as he's said all along, and Russia is going to turn out to be.

Mueller leaked this truth not as any favor to Trump, but to save the NYT, CNN and Congress from digging an even deeper credibility graves for themselves. Assuming there's anyone paying attention that think they have any credibility left.

Also remember, that if this story was correct, and Mueller's team had leaked such evidence to the Press, then the Mueller investigation was corrupted for the crime of leaking in the first place. And it would have proven Mueller guilty of incompetence at best, and criminal behavior at worst. Mueller may have a history of prosecutorial abuse, and being involved in shady deals with the Clinton's to sell our Uranium to Russia -- but he's not political stupid or suicidal. And letting evidence like that get out, would have been politically stupid.

Q: So what did we learn?

A: That the right wing is the far more reasonable source on anything Trump related, than the mainstream/left wing media
A: That Democrats (party of rubes) don't learn, or they would have been highly skeptical of this in the first place.

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📚 References