It was only a matter of time before President Donald Trump took to Twitter to complain about the huge legal losses two of his top associates suffered Tuesday. Wednesday morning Trump found himself engaged in a full-fledged tweetstorm defending Paul Manafort and attacking Michael Cohen – while defending his former attorney but only for the crimes that implicate the president himself.
Taking a page out of Rudy Giuliani’s book, that “truth is not truth,” Trump tweeted: “Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime.”
Those two counts (he pleaded guilty to 8 in total) are, in fact, crimes, reportedly carrying 5 year prison sentences, each.
“President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!” Trump went on to insist.
Of course, the president is comparing apples to oranges.
The 2008 Obama campaign – not Obama himself – “failed to disclose millions of dollars in contributions and dragged its feet in refunding millions more in excess contributions,” US News reported at the time.
Unlike Trump’s personal actions, and those in collusion with his now-former attorney, the Obama campaign’s actions were not designed to defraud voters. Their actions did not change – or affect – the decision of voters, as Trump and Cohen’s were intentionally designed to do.
And despite the huge number of indictments, guilty pleas, and guilty verdicts of those who worked on the Trump campaign and directly for Trump, he still insists Mueller’s investigation is a “witch hunt.”
The President also appeared poised to give his former campaign chairman a pardon, while he used Paul Manafort’s apparent refusal to flip on Trump as evidence of him being a “brave man.” Given that Trump paraded around as “the law and order candidate,” actively promoting the actions of a convicted felon whose crimes are against the nation itself is remarkably hypocritical.
President Trump, by the way, began his day by mocking Michael Cohen on Twitter.
It’s only 10 AM.