TRUMP, ALICE, AND OUR DEMOCRACY

The following is the sequence of events. Real events, not Trumpisms.

1. In 2016, during the campaign, Trump made a number of statements indicating a pro-Russia, pro-Putin attitude: He urged reducing the sanctions on Russia that Obama imposed when our intel agencies discovered Russia's interference with our elections, he criticized NATO, praised Putin, minimized Putin's propensity to murder his adversaries, ("We kill people too!") etc.

2. When challenged that these statements might be prompted by Russia business prospects,Trump denied his views were influenced by personal financial considerations. Again and again, he said he had no deals with Russia, and had "nothing going on there." 

3. Trump's campaign statements were lies. In fact, negotiations for a Trump Moscow Tower actually continued throughout the campaign.

3. In 2017, Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen gave Congressional testimony in congruence to the Trump campaign lies: Cohen swore to the Senate that the Moscow Tower negotiations had ended in January.

4. In 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to having lied to Congress by repeating those Trump campaign lies.  The Mueller indictment of Cohen revealed the Moscow negotiations went on through at least the summer of 2016.

5. Last week, BuzzFeed rocked the country by reporting that Mueller's prosecutors had documentary evidence proving Trump told Cohen to lie to Congress about the status of those negotiations. Mueller's office promptly issued an obscurely worded statement saying that "BuzzFeed's description of specific statements to the Special Counsel's Office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen's Congressional testimony are not accurate." 

6. BuzzFeed responded by saying "We remain confident in the accuracy of our story" and "we urge Special Counsel to make clear what he is disputing." In a subsequent interview on MSNBC, BuzzFeed Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith reported they had given the story to Special Counsel 24 hours before publication, and Mueller's office did not respond. Smith again called upon the Special Counsel to be more specific about what he was saying. Smith repeated that BuzzFeed stood by the story. This time around, Smith avoided ascribing the leak to Mueller's office, and instead said the sources for the report were "two federal law enforcement officials." If the guts of the BuzzFeed story are true, this is a distinction without a difference.

7. Trump categorically denied he told Cohen to lie.

8. Clown Giuliani then took to the airwaves. As is his wont, he basically undercut his client's position. He said i) Trump had admitted, in his written responses to Mueller, that --contrary to Trump campaign statements,-- Trump was aware of Cohen's continued negotiations on his behalf for the Moscow tower right up to October/November 2016, ii)Trump did not tell Cohen to lie to Congress, BUT, get this,  iii) Trump spoke to Cohen about the Moscow negotiations before and after Cohen's perjurious testimony, --"right up to October, November"-- and "if he spoke to him about his testimony he would have would have told him to tell the truth" and iv) Trump believed the Cohen testimony to be true!

It's one thing to lie about the size of an inauguration crowd, but now we have truly turned logic and truth on its head. I gotta repeat  this:  

Trump is now saying,

      i) Trump knew Cohen continued to negotiate for a Trump Moscow tower through November, 2016, 

     ii) Trump therefore knew Cohen lied when he told Congress the negotiations ended in January, and 

     iii) Trump believed that Cohen's testimony was true!

Down the rabbit hole we go: Trump knew Cohen was lying but believes the lies are true.

The Donald channels Alice:

"“Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."

A bientot, my friends. Not to worry: Mitch McConnell is on the job.