Newsweek - Ramsey Touchberry
President Donald Trump rattled off numerous contradictory statements, baseless accusations and falsehoods Thursday morning following former special counsel Robert Mueller’s rare on-camera statement the day prior, in which he reiterated one of his report’s conclusions that he could not exonerate the president of committing any crimes.Among the false claims made by Trump to reporters on the White House’s South Lawn before boarding Marine One were that Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to be elected and that the courts would prevent Congress from impeaching him. On the former special counsel, Trump falsely or baselessly claimed that Mueller cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing, wanted another stint as FBI director, was a “never-Trumper” and had conflicts of interest that should have prevented him from becoming special counsel.
In addition to the false claims, the president contradicted himself after publicly admitting—for the first time—in a tweet that “Russia help[ed] me to get elected.”“Russia did not help me get elected,” Trump told reporters minutes later. “You know who got me elected? You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn’t help me at all. Russia, if anything, I think, helped the other side.” He falsely added that “Russia would rather have Hillary Clinton as president.”
The Mueller reported concluded that “the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion” and that the “Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts.”
"There was no crime"The president went on to claim—falsely—that in both Mueller’s report and his Wednesday remarks, the former special counsel exonerated him of any criminal wrongdoing, including on obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges.
“[Mueller] said, essentially, ‘You're innocent.’ I'm innocent of all charges,” Trump falsely said. “And, you know, the thing that nobody brings up: There was no crime. They're saying, ‘he's obstructing something’ and there was no crime.”
That was not the case, according to Mueller and his 448-page report that was issued after a 22-month-long investigation into Russian election interference. He detailed several instances of potential obstruction by Trump, which included several attempts to thwart the probe and remove Mueller as special counsel.
“As I said forth in the report after that investigation, if we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said during his statement Wednesday.
He went on to say they did not “make a determination” as to whether Trump committed a crime and that charging him was “not an option we could consider” due to longstanding Justice Department guidelines against charging sitting presidents with federal crimes. Mueller further added "there was insufficient evidence" to charge him with conspiracy related to Russian election interference.
He will continue his legacy of lying to the public in hopes that his base will remain with him. But more important to him is that McConnell and the Republicans in the House and (especially) the Senate remain steadfast in his corner to protect him. McConnell is as corrupt as Trump. There has to be a way to remove him, as well.
ReplyDeletewhkattk - I have a perfect meme about his legacy.
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