There are some obvious signs Donald Trump is terrified that the Russia scandal is blowing up in his face, like his latest Twitter tantrum about today’s Sally Yates hearing before the Senate.
But Rachel Maddow pointed out the clearest clue yet on Monday night, reporting on a move the Trump administration made as soon as today’s hearing ended.
Video:
Maddow points out that, right as #SallyYates hearing ended, Trump re-declared war in Afghanistan – a sure sign the White House is terrified pic.twitter.com/Z32sBAhyfH
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
— Sean Colarossi (@SeanColarossi) May 9, 2017
Maddow said:
We now know a lot more about this investigation, specifically about the still-unexplained behavior of this White House when it came to this red-hot issue of their secret contacts with the Russian government. That is bad news. That is very, very bad news for this White House. And as soon as this hearing ended today, the White House floated the news that they are considering basically redeclaring war in Afghanistan, starting the war there all over again in its 16th year, which had the practical effect of shoving the headlines on this hearing today down toward the bottom of the page, at least at the Washington Post. And that is as cynical as I have felt about anything else in politics in many, many years. It has been 108 days of this presidency so far – that’s it – and already we are at this level of cover-up and scandal.Â
As Maddow noted, the administration essentially redeclared war in Afghanistan in an obvious effort to divert attention away from the new information revealed by Yates – and it worked, at least in one newspaper.
It’s the clearest sign yet that the president is terrified of where this investigation is headed, and he will go to any length to distract from it, even if that means redeclaring war in the Middle East.
Despite today’s news, there is still a lot of information that remains unknown to the public, much of which Yates could not reveal in today’s hearing. But between the information she disclosed and the behavior of the President of the United States following the hearing, it’s clear that this scandal is far from over – and that is, as Maddow said on Monday, “very, very bad news for this White House.”
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
