There is no big story. If there was a big story we’d already be reading it.
Waiting for “Donald Trump had two scoops of ice cream for dessert after lunch” followed by “Boom!”
Let’s be real.
Let’s say they release a transcript of an intercepted conversation, along with the tapes, of Trump talking to Putin, where Putin says “Our fake news is working wonderfully! Plus we’ve tricked your Directory Comey into thinking Clinton is a criminal!” and Trump replying “Yes and in exchange for your help, if win I will remove all sanctions on Russia, dear friend Putin.”
They break that story. Nothing happens. Democrats go “Whoa let’s not get hasty here with impeachment.” and Ryan and McConnell laugh at us and give us the finger, Fox News says Hillary should be in prison that’s the real story, and 60 million American voters blame the Democrats for all of it.
What I’ve found interesting is the sudden shift by media on the right from there was no collusion to if it happened doesn’t mean it was wrong. A number of folks on Fox have been taking this line the last few days.
The roadmap:
Nothing happened. This is all made up nonsense.
Maybe something happened, but it wasn’t collusion.
Maybe it was collusion, but it wasn’t illegal.
Maybe it was illegal, but it wasn’t important.
Maybe it was important, but other Presidents have done worse things.
Maybe no other President has done worse things, but at least he hasn’t actually shot someone on Fifth Avenue.
Maybe he did shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, but it wasn’t a baby.
Maybe he did shoot a baby on Fifth Avenue, but that baby had it coming.
Yes, it’s pure tribalism. Facts and logic and laws really have no import, the only thing that matters is that their team wins. And anything that might take away from that win gets diminished.
Go ask a Patriots fan how important deflating a football is. It’s like that, but with Presidential elections. Yay!
Some people have speculated that the big story is already out and it was the news that broke over the weekend saying Kushner got a $285 million dollar loan from Deutche Bank last fall, while Deutche Bank was under a cloud of suspicion of, among other things, enabling Russian money launderers.
Though that’s kind of story that only becomes big with a bunch of additional context that isn’t there yet (i.e. evidence of a quid pro quo.)
I haven’t looked at this in detail, but isn’t this a non-story? Deutsche Bank does deals all the time; if they are under a cloud of suspicion, it surely can’t extend to everyone they do a deal with?
Sure, but Kushner is also under a cloud of suspicion (and investigation) all on his own already. And it sure is a coincidence that “Russian money laundering” gets mentioned in relationship to both.
Plus, there’s been speculation long before the election that there’s something hinky about Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank (see Josh Marshall’s articles on this from last year.) Every other large bank refuses to deal with Trump, except Deutsche Bank. Why is that?
Again, all this is smoke not fire. But it’s getting pretty damn smoky around Deutsche Bank.
Ad being run by a pro trump super pac. They sure are acting like they have nothing to hide.
To me, the whole “Clinton colluded with the DNC!” horse shit tweet seemed like a painfully obvious tell, so it wouldn’t surprise me if a Trump campaign / Russia collusion story were going to break soon.
I’ve been thinking this for a while, now. They seem to be paving the way for a “Well, it’s not THAT bad” kind of defense. However, I’ve always thought these investigations were painfully slow which may mean they’re jumping out way ahead of anything breaking on this front.
Frank Rich has a good read in the newest New York magazine which tempered my expectations on how quickly things are going to play out
Can networks see fucking bullshit like this and just refuse to sell them ad time? I imagine if I was selling something gross like Shittens, CBS would not allow me to buy ad time during the Super Bowl.
If a network runs these ads, can we boycott it for spreading fake news?
Man I wish.
They can and have.
Oh wow cool. Thanks for that.
Such a clickbait headline… that’s like something you’d expect from Occupy Democrats.
Soooo much LIKE.
You forgot the last line:
Maybe the baby didn’t have it coming, but her emails.