Over the weekend, as CNN’s Brian Stelter recaps, Fox seized on anti-Trump texts sent by a Mueller investigator — which, while newsworthy, are being appropriately handled by Mueller — to launch attacks on federal law enforcement that are truly hallucinatory. We were told by one on-air figure that this is “potentially one of the biggest scandals in American history.” Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway insisted “the fix is in” against Trump, as a Fox chyron blared: “A COUP IN AMERICA?” One Fox personality flatly stated that we now have “smoking gun evidence” of an alleged FBI coup against Trump and the “millions of American voters” who backed him. Fox’s Jeanine Pirro suggested it might be time to drag away Trump’s investigators “in cuffs.”
Stelter correctly notes that this is what Trump, an avid Fox viewer, “is hearing.” Indeed, he’s hearing it daily: We’re seeing a concerted effort to goad Trump into trying to remove Mueller. Yes, Trump and one of his lawyers clarified over the weekend that he has no intention of going that route. But The Post reports that Trump is privately seething at Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein for not exercising enough of a check on the conduct of the special counsel, and some Trump friends and advisers worry he could still try to remove Mueller if he is not exonerated soon.
We don’t know what Trump will do in the end. But today’s vastly different media landscape creates incentives — or at least, the appearance of incentives — for Trump to opt for a course of full-blown autocracy and lawlessness. He is being goaded into such conduct by his media allies. They are feeding his voters a narrative in which rem oving Mueller is the only truly legitimate outcome on their behalf. He knows that this propaganda network will be there to provide cover for him if he does take this plunge.
This is in contrast to Trump’s legal team, which seems to be playing nice with Mueller. I suppose that’s the Trump strategy: to cooperate with Mueller on the inside game, while the outside chorus tries to rough up Mueller, in case his findings are trouble for POTUS.
- The rising conservative drumbeat to discredit the investigation and the investigators is gaining GOP converts.
- Sen. John Cornyn (Texas), the chamber’s #2 Republican, said on ABC yesterday that it would be “a mistake” to fire the special counsel. But Cornyn tweeted a day earlier: “Mueller needs to clean house of partisans.”
- Trump said yesterday when asked about the tens of thousands of transition emails Mueller had obtained from the GSA, which ran the server: “Not looking good. It’s not looking good. It’s quite sad to see that. My people are very upset about it. … A lot of lawyers thought that was pretty sad.”
- A source close to the White House said: “You’re starting to win over mainstream conservatives to the backlash over overreach.”
- The source said that Trump, not known for patience, has attacked the investigation but mostly resisted personalizing attacks on Mueller. One sign: Trump isn’t calling Mueller by a demeaning nickname.
The N.Y. Times’ Michael Schmidt reports that “as the investigation has reached deeper into Mr. Trump’s inner circle, … Trump’s lawyers and supporters have significantly increased their attacks on Mr. Mueller”:
- “[T]he F.B.I. has handed them fresh ammunition to claim that the agents investigating the president may be biased.”
- But, but, but: “Legal experts said there was no indication that Mr. Mueller, who has wide power to obtain documents through written requests, subpoenas and search warrants, improperly obtained the transition emails.”
Fox News’ Jesse Watters (one of the 45 Twitter accounts Trump follows) used the onscreen headline “A COUP IN AMERICA?” this weekend as he decried what he called “smoking-gun evidence” the probe of Trump is tainted:
- Watters: “Is the FBI part of the resistance? It’s like the FBI had Michael Moore investigating the president of the United States. … The investigation into Donald Trump’s campaign has been crooked from the jump.”
CNN reports that Trump’s legal team has told him he’ll probably be cleared in the next few months of wrongdoing by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. But:
That optimism has left some of the President’s friends and advisers worried the deadline could come and go, leaving Trump frustrated and more prone to rash behavior than ever before, including potentially firing Mueller. … Three sources familiar with the President’s recent conversations about the investigation said Trump has become convinced that he will receive a letter of exoneration, which would be unusual. One source worried Trump would have a “meltdown” if that doesn’t happen.
By the way, Trump has entertained trying to remove Mueller before. The fact that his own friends and advisers see it as a real possibility perhaps suggests we should prepare for the worst.
This weekend, Trump repeated his “no collusion, no collusion” mantra, despite the fact that two of his closest campaign advisers have pleaded guilty to what amounts to collusion.
In related news, we learn this morning that in the weeks after he became the Republican nominee on July 19, 2016, Donald Trump was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would likely try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, according to multiple government officials familiar with the matter.
The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials, the officials said. A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton, they added. They said the briefings, which are commonly provided to presidential nominees, were designed to educate the candidates and their top aides about potential threats from foreign spies.
Trump was “briefed and warned” at the session about potential espionage threats from Russia, two former law enforcement officials familiar with the sessions told NBC News. A source close to the White House said their position is that Trump was unaware of the contacts between his campaign and Russians.