Tweets Falsehoods
Hours after Sally Yates and Jame Clapper testified before the Senate on Mike Flynn, Russia, and Yates’ refusal to defend the President’s Muslim travel ban in court, President Donald Trump took to Twitter and exploded in one of his more juvenile tantrums. Not only did Trump, the Leader of the Free World, attack the media as “#FakeNews!” nearly every thing he said was a lie.
Like this: “Director Clapper reiterated what everybody, including the fake media already knows- there is ‘no evidence’ of collusion w/ Russia and Trump.”
Clapper, the former Director of National Intelligence, in no way said there is no evidence of collusion. He said he was not aware of the FBI’s investigation until after he let office. Yates said she could not answer questions on collusion because that information is classified.
Here’s the transcript that Trump didn’t read or didn’t care to properly represent:
GRAHAM: Ms. Yates, do you have any evidence — are you aware of any evidence that would suggest that in the 2016 campaign anybody in the Trump campaign colluded — colluded with the Russian government intelligence services in improper fashion?
YATES: And Senator, my answer to that question would require me to reveal classified information. And so, I — I can’t answer that.
GRAHAM: Well, I don’t get that because he just said he issued the report. And he said he doesn’t know of any. So, what would you know that’s not in the report?
(CROSSTALK)
CLAPPER: Are you asking me, or …
GRAHAM: No, her.
CLAPPER: Oh.
YATES: Well, I think that Director Clapper also said that he was unaware of the FBI counter intelligence investigations.
GRAHAM: Would it be fair to say that the counter-intelligence investigation was not mature enough to come to his — to get in the report. Is that fair, Mr. — Mr. Clapper?
CLAPPER: I — that’s an — that’s a possibility.
GRAHAM: What I don’t get is how the FBI can have a counter- intelligence investigation suggesting collusion, and you, as director of National Intelligence not know about it, and the FBI sign on to a report that basically said there was no collusion.
CLAPPER: I can only speculate why that’s so. There wasn’t — the evidence, if there was any, didn’t reach the evidentiary bar in terms of the level of confidence that we were striving for in that intelligence community assessment.
Trump goes on to claim that “Sally Yates made the fake media extremely unhappy today — she said nothing but old news!” Ignoring the “fake media” attack, Yates provided exceptionally credible testimony that proves Sean Spicer was lying when he repeatedly told reporters Yates casually gave the White House a “heads up†about Flynn. That’s false, as Yates made clear her conversations with the White House were formal, and detailed, and had to take place in a secured room (SKIF).
Trump also focues the spotlight on himself again, reminding the world of his Russia problem: “The Russia-Trump collusion story is a total hoax, when will this taxpayer funded charade end?”
And he tries to twist the narrative: “Biggest story today between Clapper & Yates is on surveillance. Why doesn’t the media report on this? #FakeNews!”
Why? Because it’s not a story, it’s a made up tale the administration tried to push and failed, probably costing House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes his seat next year.
RELATED:Â Twitter Is Really Happy That Sally Yates Just Smacked Down Ted Cruz (Video)
Hours later he tweeted the same claims via the official White House @POTUS account, which is shocking.Â
But perhaps the most embarrassing this Trump did Monday was change the header image on his Twitter account to include the false claim from his tweets:
Hours later he changed it back.
Trump has gone from being an out-of-control 70-year old with what literally hundreds of mental health professionals have cautioned to be a dangerous condition to also being one who has totally damaged what little credibility he might have had.Â
What the President of the United States did Monday night was not only wrong, and embarrassing, it was damaging to the Office of the President.
One last note: President Trump repeatedly has insisted his unconstitutional Muslim ban is necessary to protect the lives of Americans. He said without it he couldn’t be held responsible for our safety. At the same time as the Sally Yates-James Clapper hearing, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals had a hearing on Trump’s Muslim ban. He didn’t care enough to even say a word.
His actions are becoming increasingly Nixonian. And that should worry us all.Â
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