Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Trump's take: James Comey's testimony was great, except for the parts that weren't, which were lies

Rss@dailykos.com (mark Sumner) · Friday, June 09, 2017, 9:08 am

If you’ve ever felt that Donald Trump’s actual intent was simply to drive the entire nation straight over a cliff, here’s your vindication.
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Despite so many false statements and lies, total and complete vindication...and WOW, Comey is a leaker!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 9, 2017
While Trump’s tweet may seem like a logic-knot so convoluted that pretzels cry out in envy, what Trump has done here is actually to provide a summary of every Republican talking point since James Comey’s opening statement appeared. 1) Comey’s words completely prove Trump right … except where he’s lying. 2) Comey leaked to the media … his own personal statement.

The first point of this twisted pair requires not just a selected reading of Comey’s statement to find only the words that are palatable to Trump, it requires a very special view of what the word “vindicated” means. By carefully combing through three hours of testimony, Republicans have been able to ascertain this: Trump can count. At least he can count to three. That’s the number of times that Comey indicated to Trump that he was not then under a personal investigation. Trump had said it was three. It was three.

Of course, Comey had also said that the investigation was of Trump’s campaign and, as others at the FBI pointed out, that investigation might easily extend to the person at the point of that campaign. And Comey’s statement may no longer be true in no small part because of Trump’s actions that led to dismissing Comey. But sure. Total and complete vindication that Trump can make it to three. Four? That will have to wait for another day.

Then there’s the accusation that Comey “leaked,” which seems to be the new Republican word for “spoke.”

Source
http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/_uyirBw-XPc/-James-Comey-s-testimony-was-great-for-Trump-except-for-the-parts-that-weren-t-which-were-lies

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