In an interview with Fox & Friends on Friday, President Trump took a dim view of the allegations against him that claim members of his campaign – if not the candidate himself – colluded with Russia to hack the DNC and cripple the Hillary Clinton campaign. Further, Trump said he was deeply concerned about the relationship between Special Counsel Robert Mueller and former FBI Director James Comey, insinuating that he could not expect fair treatment when he fired the former’s close friend and associate.
“Robert Mueller is an honorable man and hopefully he’ll come up with an honorable conclusion,” Trump said diplomatically. However, he followed up by noting that Mueller and Comey were “very, very good friends,” a fact that cast some doubt on the impartiality of the investigation. He also called into question the development of Mueller’s investigatory team, which has been filled with partisan Democrats with a history of donating to the Obamas and the Clintons.
“I can say that the people that have been hired are all Hillary Clinton supporters, some of them worked for Hillary Clinton,” Trump said. “I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous if you want to know the truth.”
There have been conflicting media reports regarding the scope of Mueller’s investigation; some say he will limit his focus only to Russia’s activities in the 2016 election and any correspondence Trump associates might have had with Russian agents. Others, like the Washington Post, have reported that Mueller will personally investigate the president for obstruction of justice, likely relating to his firing of Comey in May. If obstruction IS part of the investigation, Mueller may look into the recent debacle about the “tapes” Trump suggested might be out there. On Thursday, the president announced on Twitter that he had no such tapes and in his interview with Fox & Friends, he explained why he made the original suggestion.
“When [Comey] found out that there may be tapes out there, I think his story may have changed,” Trump said. “I mean, you’ll have to take a look at that because then he has to tell what actually happened at the events. He did admit that what I said was right and, if you look further back before he heard about that, maybe he wasn’t admitting that.”
On the other hand, that sort of paints Trump into a box. He’s basically saying that his “tapes” Tweet kept Comey honest, which is as good as saying that Comey correctly relayed the conversations he had with the president. Which also means that Trump DID ask him to back off the Flynn investigation, a point the White House continues to officially deny. We don’t believe that such a request would rise to the level of obstruction in any case, but this could be problematic for an administration that doesn’t need any additional problems.
But when it comes to the investigation itself, Trump is certainly right when he says “the whole thing is ridiculous.” Hopefully, with their recent special election losses, Democrats are beginning to realize that their smear campaign against Trump is failing and that the American people want them to give the rightfully-elected president a chance to lead.
Whether he’ll fully get that chance or not remains to be seen.
Comments are closed.