It’s the Olympics for Trump Apologists By T

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It’s the Olympics for Trump Apologists

By THE NYT EDITORIAL BOARD JUNE 10, 2017


“He’s just new to this,” offered Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, by way of explanation for President Trump’s oafish efforts to get James Comey, then the F.B.I. director, to drop the bureau’s investigation of Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser.

Mr. Trump stumbled, Mr. Ryan went on, because he is “learning as he goes,” and because “he wasn’t steeped in the long-running protocols that establish the relationships between D.O.J., F.B.I. and White Houses.”

With these impressive bits of casuistry, Mr. Ryan became the unofficial leader of the Trump Excuses Caucus. This caucus is composed exclusively of Republicans.

That of course is a 'sub-caucus' of the Hypocrisy and Double Standards Caucus.

And any righty idiot who wants to challenge the validity of these sarcastically imaginative caucuses need only substitute 'President Clinton' for Trump. It should work well enough for even the slowest among you to concede the point. LOL!

Some of its members remain staunch supporters of Mr. Trump, while others are doubtless panicked about their political futures with Mr. Trump strutting about at the head of the party, insulting everyone and everything in sight: staff members, allies, laws, diplomatic decorum and common sense.

There was a day when Republicans like Mr. Ryan derided President Barack Obama as inexperienced. If Mr. Obama had fired an F.B.I. director who was leading an investigation of his associates — he didn’t, and there was never any such investigation — can you imagine Mr. Ryan treating the action as a learning experience?

I know it taxes limited righty imaginations but c'mon, give it a shot!

Thin-skinned as he is, Mr. Trump ought to be offended by Mr. Ryan’s condescension. The president obviously knows that it’s wrong to interfere in an investigation. As a candidate, he repeatedly condemned Bill Clinton’s tarmac conversation with Loretta Lynch, then the attorney general overseeing an investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server.

The claim of inexperience is but one of the excuses offered by the caucus, compelled by this president’s misbehavior and misadventures to grow more inventive by the day.

“What people don’t understand is that they elected an outsider president,” offered the governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, still an apologist despite the abuse he has taken from Mr. Trump.

“What you’re seeing is a president who is now very publicly learning about the way people react to what he considers to be normal New York City conversation.” (As in: People in Chicago talk about the weather; in Los Angeles, movies. In New York City, they say, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.”)

During Thursday’s hearing, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma suggested to Mr. Comey that Mr. Trump didn’t really want to shut down the Flynn investigation: “When the president asked you about he ‘hopes’ that you would let this go … this seems like a pretty light touch,” he said.

Senator James Risch of Idaho also tried the “I hope” excuse. “Do you know of any case where a person has been charged for obstruction of justice or, for that matter, any other criminal offense, where this — they said, or thought, they hoped for an outcome?” he asked Mr. Comey, who said he’d taken “I hope” as a “direction.”

(And yes, people have been charged on that basis.)

Marco Rubio, whom Mr. Trump ridiculed on the campaign trail, has sidled ever closer to his former adversary. He chided Mr. Comey for not clearing Mr. Trump. “You ever wonder why of all the things in this investigation, the only thing that’s never been leaked is the fact that the president was not personally under investigation?” he asked. Actually that information was leaked — by Mr. Trump, in his letter firing Mr. Comey.

Some Republicans, like the committee chairman, Richard Burr, appear to be taking the president’s transgressions far more seriously. And there are signs that members of the caucus are struggling to maintain their own contortions. Pressed on his absurd comment about Mr. Trump’s inexperience, Mr. Ryan admitted, “I’m not saying it’s an acceptable excuse.”

Republican officeholders are in a quandary, ashamed of Mr. Trump but terrified that if they speak out his voters will send them packing in 2018. If they can fake respect for him long enough, they might manage to enact their agenda. While Americans focused on the Comey hearing on Thursday, the House passed a bill rolling back Wall Street rules aimed at preventing another financial crisis. And in the Senate, behind closed doors, Republicans worked to shove a bill gutting health care coverage to a vote without a single hearing.


Michael Tyndall
SF 8 minutes ago

Congressional Republicans are simply trying to maximize their legislative, administrative, and federal court (and SCOTUS?) gains while hoping to minimize the damage done by Trump to their 2018 electoral chances. It's a difficult challenge.

In most off-year elections, the president's party loses some ground in congress, but gerrymandering and voter suppression activities continue to give Republicans a significant edge (unlike in a truly representative democracy). On the other hand, close to two thirds of the electorate is anti-Trump and riled up like never before.

McConnell and Ryan are calculating how late they can get rid of him and still reverse enough of the damage he's done to their brand. Six months is an eternity in politics, and an ouster or resignation, if deftly handled, might even make them look like the good guys finally cleaning house. They don't need to persuade the whole country, just enough in key districts and states. I'm sure their analytics people are already polling and modeling like mad.

In the end they'll just have to pretend they're shocked, shocked that Trump turned out to be an unfit president. Nothing to see here folks. Just move along.

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