Trump Falsely Accuses NBC’s Lester Holt Of Getting ‘Caught Fudging’ Russia Interview
It was basically another unhinged rant on Twitter. There were so many inaccuracies in Trump’s tweets that I would type my fingers sore if I detailed them all. The interview is not fudged. Holt obviously did not “get caught” doctoring it, since it isn’t doctored. Jeff Zucker, far from being fired, just signed a new contract because CNN, far from being down in the ratings, is enjoying some of its best successes. And …
Oh, why bother? To make a long story short, just assume the opposite of everything Trump says. You’ll be pretty close to 100%. In this particular set, for example, I don’t think he offered anything at all that was accurate.
A lot of people think that his bizarre allegations are a sign that his mind is deteriorating in panic, but I don’t think that’s it. Yes, the walls are closing in on him, but I think he’s still calculating. My theory is that at this moment Trump is saying crazy, inaccurate things on purpose, because he wants the news media to focus on debunking his foolish, harmless claims, thus neutering themselves, using up all the air time they would have spent on the actual crimes he committed, as detailed in Cohen’s trial.
There’s another reason. His lawyers are now telling him that he has obstruction of justice problems, so he’s throwing out assorted rebuttals to demonstrate that he did not obstruct justice in firing Comey, or in threatening to fire Sessions, Rosenstein or Mueller. Those rebuttals are weak, but they muddy the waters. To add additional mud, he keeps making wild accusations against Hillary, Steele, Mueller, the FBI, and anyone not named Trump. He knows very well that as long as he can keep up a smokescreen, even if all of his deflections are utterly baseless, he will have no trouble maintaining the support of his followers. A very large number of Americans think that he’s telling it like it is, and they internalize the crazy Trump rants as if they were facts.
I should have said first that I agree completely with the final paragraph of UncleScoopy’s post. It says what I tried to say, only better.
There are a horrifying number of people who will choose to believe whatever Trump tells them. This is because they hate the kind of people who oppose Trump, such as Democrats, minorities, intelligentsia, and so on, and believing Trump enrages those people.
This choice to believe in your own side, no matter how transparently false, is what leads to civil wars. It may also be what Giuliani meant when he said the truth isn’t the truth (although perhaps there he was claiming that it is the opposition to the Trump that always lies.)