MARCH 6, 2017
Photo: AP
Welcome to another laugh-filled episode of “Barack Obama: Wire-Tapper.”
A week that has just ended with President Trump, ludicrously accusing his predecessor of high crimes and misdemeanors with absolutely no evidence to back it up, actually began with one of the few highpoints of his administration thus far, with largely favorable public reaction to his first Presidential address to Congress.
On Wednesday, March 1, he was on cloud nine, living off the afterglow of the positive media attention. But that joy was short-lived.
That evening, the Justice Department announced that newly sworn-in Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who had sworn under oath in his confirmation hearings that he never met with any top Russian officials, did indeed meet twice during the campaign with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak to talk about…who knows? The Sessions family’s favorite borscht recipes? Or maybe something silly like the rigging of an election.
Suddenly there was a perjury cloud hanging over Trump’s new top law enforcement officer, and calls that he must resign or at least recuse himself from deciding any case involving possible links of Trump to the Russians became deafening. When asked about the situation, Trump said that Sessions had done nothing for which he would have to recuse himself. An hour later, Sessions announced that he was recusing himself.
Which brings us to Friday morning when Trump reportedly went “ballistic” in the Oval Office, according to leaky aides, furious at Sessions’ actions, because in Trump World, doing anything but doubling down on your previous stand is seen as weakness. Still in a fury, Trump then flew off to spend yet another taxpayer-funded golfing outing, his 4th in 5 weeks, at his Mar-A-Lago resort.
However, the Sessions recusal and the whole question of the campaign’s ties to Russia apparently seemed to rattle Trump all that day, so he resurrected his tried-and-true method of getting damaging headlines off the front page — he changed the subject.
And what a subject he chose. At 6:30am on Saturday morning, Trump’s thumbs were blazing on Twitter:
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!”
Huh? Wha…? Trump thinks that Barack Obama wiretapped his office? A man who served eight years in the White House without a single personnel scandal is accused of the highest political crime by a man who can’t seem to last 24 hours without tripping over a scandal of his own?
As ludicrous as this change-of-subject sounds, and it is pretty ridiculous, it’s a technique that works as a secret weapon for Trump. He has previously wiped out bad headlines by alleging that millions of undocumented workers cast ballots for Hillary, accused the press of refusing to cover numerous acts of terrorism around the world, and saying that the courts are in a vast conspiracy against his administration’s policies. He’s always the victim in these scenarios, but the success rate of this charming ploy is pretty high.
As they’re likely to fall for it again, even though Trump once again presented zero evidence with which to make his case. Nor has any of his spokespeople who flooded cable news on Monday with statements usually beginning “If these changes are true…” It’s all “If…if…if…if,” but once again the press has chased the story down the rabbit hole.
And it has worked. Has anyone heard the name “Jeff Sessions” on TV news today? I didn’t think so.
My God, it’s only been six weeks!
