Rachel Maddow has Trump dead to rights as she cut through the memo madness to get the heart of the White House plan to kill the Russia investigation.
Video:
Rachel Maddow untangles why the Nunes memo is suddenly very important to the future of the Russia investigation. #ReleasetheDemMemo pic.twitter.com/aFpBhtK3Lw
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) February 10, 2018
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Maddow said:
Republicans haven’t even alleged anything specifically wrong about that FISA renewal or specifically about Rod Rosenstein’s role on signing off on it but as long as you don’t bother reading it and watch Fox News to count on them to tell you what is in there, it’s clear what that memo was designed to do is set up rod Rosenstein to be fired. As they prepare to release the memo, they were able to report based on multiple sources that was the White House strategy behind taking this extraordinary and unprecedented step to declassified that information and release it to the public.
As The Washington Post said among multiple news organizations that got this story, it was seen as something the memo was something the president saw as quote key to making changes at the justice department particularly pushing out Rosenstein who oversees Mueller’s investigation. The point of the nonsense about the Republican memo was to try to kill Rod Rosenstein. Try to get him out. To create a pretext, to create a political environment that would be expected that the president would fire him and just tonight, the president said that the democratic rebuttal to that Republican memo can’t be released. The whole point of that whole exercise was to lay the groundwork for the president to fire Rosenstein who oversees the investigation.
The Nunes memo is a means to obstructionist end
The Nunes memo was never about what was in the memo. It was a cover story, and the definitive proof that Trump intends to fire Rosenstein and then Mueller came when the White House refused to release the Schiff Memo.
The contents have never mattered. Trump need a vehicle, not an argument.
Rachel Maddow untangled the long game here for the White House. Instead of impulsively firing everyone associated with the Russia investigation, people are being picked off one by one.
However, the midterm election is creeping up on Trump, which that he is running out of time because a Democratic House will protect Robert Mueller. Trump has one last big play in him to kill the Russia investigation, and that gambit involves a bogus memo, firing Rod Rosenstein, and ending the Mueller investigation.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
