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Posted: Monday, January 15, 2018 at 3:03 PM EST - Item ID: 854
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Trumpers Never-Ending Complaint about Hillary Clinton and the F.B.I.
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At Donald Trump's press conference on Wednesday, John Roberts, of Fox News, asked him if he would agree to sit down for an interview with Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking into possible Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election. Specifically, Roberts wanted to know if the President would do it without condition,r or would instead demand a strict set of parameters.r Trump routinely sets parameters, of course, which at times seem to bend reality, and he did so in his answer. Trump, who was sharing the stage with the Prime Minister of Norway, began with a quick dismissal of the idea that there had been any collusion between his campaign and Russia or between Trump and the Russians and he frequently refers to himself in the third person, and perhaps, to him, it sounds natural. Why make the distinction if Trump is as big as the world Then he launched into a ritual whine: When you talk about interviews, Hillary Clinton had an interview where she wasn't sworn in, she wasn't given the oath, they didn't take notes, they didn't record, and it was done on the Fourth of July weekend. Uh, that's, perhaps, ridiculous.r He said that last line with a dismayed twirl of his hands. And it did sound strange, if not inscrutable, to all but the initiated. Before Trump speaks, it would be useful to have something like the short recaps that play before episodes of TV series, pointing to scenes in previous seasons, to help explain his strings of shorthand references to purported scandals or outrages. In this case, though, the flashback has been doctored. Hillary Clinton did indeed have an interview, one she had agreed to without being compelled, about issues related to her private e-mail server, and it was over the Fourth of July weekend, four months before the 2016 election. She wasnrt rgiven the oathr but only because, in such interviews, there is no call for one: it is a crime to lie to federal agents. (Trump should know this; it was the charge that his former national-security adviser, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to, when he agreed to cooperate with Mueller.) And though the F.B.I.rs general practice is not to electronically record such interviews, the agents did take careful notes. Indeed, dozens of pages of those notes have been released. No matter. rA lot of people looked on that as being a very serious breach, and it really was,r Trump said, referring, again, to the supposedly lax parameters of Clinton's interview. As has become increasingly clear over the first year of Trump's Presidency, he cannot stop himself from turning almost any occasionralmost any critical noterinto a cue for a complaint about Clinton. The Hillary test he seems to administer is simple, illogical, repetitive, and tiresome: yes, he is in the White Houserbut why isnrt she in prisonr The question seems to baffle him, perhaps because he thought that the Presidency came with a sort of magic wand that could banish some people to towers, and others to silence. But his response on Wednesday also raises a specific question: If the F.B.I.rs interview of Clinton was the wrong way to question a Presidential candidate, what is the right way to question a Presidentr Does Trump want the treatment Clinton got (either the soft version he presents, or the reality), or the handling he thinks that she deserved to get, or a Trumpian deal of his very ownr And is the answer dependent on the requirements of the lawr rIrll speak to attorneys,r Trump told Roberts. rI can only say this: there was absolutely no collusion.r He called the Russian investigation a rphony cloudr before turning, again, in the direction of Clinton, saying that the whole story was a rDemocratic hoax that was brought up as an excuse for losing the election.r He added a complaint about how the Democrats, to his mind, had an Electoral College edge. The point seemed to be that Democrats, and the media, were talking about Russia when they should be talking about Trump. When Roberts pushed again about whether he would at least meet with Mueller, Trump said, rWerll see what happens.r He then reiterated that there was no collusion. Given that, he added, rIt seems unlikely that yourd even have an interview.r It was as if he were trying to save Mueller from the awkwardness of a situation, in which, once the Trump campaignrs non-collusion was taken as axiomatic, there would be nothing to say. If it comes to that, there might be plenty to say about, for example, Russian interference attempts, and whether or not they were met; other alleged crimes that Mueller has come across; the firing of James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, and possible obstruction of justice. (Insinuations that the F.B.I. somehow mishandled Hillary Clinton were also part of the Administrationrs rationale for dismissing Comey.) There might even be lessons about how to make the electoral process more secure the next time around. But Trump, as it happened, had his own idea for how the F.B.I. might better spend its time. rThere is collusion. But it really is with the Democrats and the Russians, far more than it is with the Republicans and the Russians. So the witch hunt continues.r And so, no doubt, will the wails about Hillary Clinton. Who, in that case, is being huntedr By Amy Davidson Sorkin January 11, 2018
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