President Donald Trump took to Twitter this Sunday morning to express his displeasure at the New York Times report on Don McGahn — the White House Counsel — and his cooperation with the Mueller investigation.
In a series of tweets that started shortly after 3:00 a.m., the President hit many of his usual targets, repeating several times that the investigation — which has realized five convictions, 27 individual indictments, and three corporate indictments — is a “witch hunt,” while trying to shift the narrative on Hillary Clinton and others.
The President, while claiming that he allowed the counsel to cooperate, also casts McGahn as a “John dean type ‘RAT.'” John Dean was the White House Counsel under President Richard Nixon, who cooperated with investigations into the Watergate scandal. President Nixon fired Dean.
Trump also compared the investigation to “McCarthyism at its WORST,” an unusual comparison. McCarthyism, named for Senator Joe McCarthy’s infamous attempts to root out supposed treason against the United States by Russians. McCarthyism more commonly refers to reckless accusations, rather than evidence-based investigations.
The Tweet series comes off as more desperate than usual from the President, as he again seeks to view a series of people, from ex-CIA director John Brennan to Hillary Clinton as the real perpetrators of corruption and collusion.
The New York Times has responded to the President’s attack on their reporting, Tweeting their own response to Trump.
John Dean also took to Donald Trump’s favorite medium, responding to the president’s comments.
Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license