President Trump started his day by trying to sell lies about the Trump dossier, including peddling the notion that Russia, the FBI, or the Democrats paid opposition research firm Fusion GPS for it. Anti-Trump Republicans actually funded the Steele Dossier originally.
As more and more of the Steele Dossier’s unverified in parts charges prove to be uncomfortably accurate, conservatives circled the wagons to sell Trump’s lies.
Workers of firm involved with the discredited and Fake Dossier take the 5th. Who paid for it, Russia, the FBI or the Dems (or all)?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2017
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Even though Russia clearly acted to help Trump and harm Clinton, given their fear of Hillary Clinton, Trump tried to smear her with his Russian taint:
.@foxandfriends "Russia sent millions to Clinton Foundation"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2017
Uranium deal to Russia, with Clinton help and Obama Administration knowledge, is the biggest story that Fake Media doesn't want to follow!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 19, 2017
The problems with this line of defense are many. Natasha Bertrand, a political correspondent for Business Insider who covers national security and foreign policy, explained why over a tweet claiming the same by the co-founder of the conservative Federalist and former “chief instigator” for Sen. Tom Coburn Sean Davis:
Fusion GPS execs are set to plead the Fifth on whether Russians paid them to meddle in our elections by peddling a bogus dossier.
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) October 19, 2017
As with all of Trump’s claims, the “incorrect claims” are too many to address in a single tweet.
I didn't know it was possible to fit this many incorrect claims in 1 tweet. This person literally has no clue what he's talking about. https://t.co/FbPXNt6wnB
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 19, 2017
1) they didn't plead the 5th
2) Republicans hired Fusion, Dems funded later
3) Steele wrote the dossier, not Fusion— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 19, 2017
The "Russia funded Fusion!!!!!" line stems from confusion over 2 totally separate projects. I explained that here: https://t.co/6XjExYcpuO
— Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 19, 2017
The real stinker here is that Republicans hired Fusion to investigate Trump originally. Democrats only started funding the research after Republicans dropped it when Trump won the nomination.
Smearing the Steele Dossier via Fusion not a new idea for Republicans. Bertrand reported that in March, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley “wanted the Justice Department to investigate Fusion’s role in overseeing ‘the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier of allegations of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians’ — the Trump-Russia dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele.”
Congressional Republicans “appear to be trying to discredit Steele’s work as a way of undermining special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation,” Vanity Fair reported in early September.
These desperate accusations are cover for the Republican Party and President Trump. Even now, in the face of Trump’s glaring incompetency and mental health crisis, Republicans continue trying to distract from his Russian connections and possible collusion with the Kremlin to impact the U.S. presidential election. Sadder words I can’t imagine typing. A major political party so corrupt that it is still, after all of this evidence, investigating the people coming forward with evidence against Trump that suggests he knowingly worked with Russia to “win.” These Republicans are almost as bad as Putin himself, attacking truth with coordinated missiles of propaganda, using subpoenas as proof of wrong-doing, wildly trying to distract citizens from the attack on their country that Republicans are aiding and abetting.
Donald Trump’s increasing paranoia and failure to even land on reality a few times a day should trouble everyone. The man has his hands on the red button, he is egging on a nuclear war with North Korea and isolating the U.S. even further by taking us out of the Iran Agreement.
The Republicans funded the Fusion Steele Dossier originally. It has not been verified completely, but the effort going in to discredit it is telling in and of itself.
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