Donald Trump wasn’t done this morning when he praised Fox News’ fake scandals in an effort to divert attention from the Russia scandal that threatens to destroy his presidency. He followed that up by desperately pointing his finger at John Podesta and Hillary Clinton in a childish play on the tried and true schoolyard diversion of “Oh yeah? What about her!”
His first tweet pointed the finger at GOP bogeyman John Podesta:
Was the brother of John Podesta paid big money to get the sanctions on Russia lifted? Did Hillary know?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017
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His next tweet focused on his old and oft-debunked complaint about Hillary Clinton getting answers to the debate:
Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? Just asking!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017
Oh dear. He really didn’t think this one through, as Toronto Star fact checker Daniel Dale quickly pointed out:
…there are no answers to a debate https://t.co/2qPJpus4TC
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 3, 2017
Right. Let’s assume he meant “questions” then. Even then, getting debate questions ahead of time, even if true, is not even in the same ballpark as selling out your country to the Russians. Nice try, but that’s not going to sell.
As PolitiFact said of Trump’s tweets a few days ago on the same subject – Hillary Clinton, John Podesta, and Uranium to Russia – “Trump is downplaying reality here.”
The fact is, there is no scandal about Hillary Clinton or Clinton associates and Russia. The scandal surrounds Trump’s own people – Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, and even Attorney General Jeff Sessions, possibly all the way to Trump himself.
Pointing fingers at Clinton at this late date is desperation defined. As PolitiFact went on to say,
“In his tweets, Trump seems to suggest that the Clintons and their associates were working on behalf of Russia’s interests. That’s hard to square with the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia interfered in the election in order to harm Hillary Clinton and elect Trump instead.”
And that is Trump’s problem here. All along he has relied on the old Republican tactic of accusing Democrats of what Republicans are already guilty of.
The evidence has led straight to Trump’s – not Clinton’s – doorstep. And pointing fingers at Hillary Clinton isn’t going to save Donald Trump from the consequences of his own deeds.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
