Rachel Maddow Asks One Question That Destroys The Trump-GOP Smear Campaign Against The FBI

With one question on Thursday, Rachel Maddow completely destroyed the Trump-GOP conspiracy theory that the FBI was working in 2016 to hurt Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Read: Kristi Noem Is Banned From 20% of South Dakota.

If that was the bureau’s intent, Maddow asked, then why didn’t they come forward during the campaign and tell the American people that there was a good possibility the Republican nominee for president was coordinating with a foreign adversary to influence the election?

The MSNBC host called the GOP’s inability to answer that question a “foundationally awkward thing” that completely undercuts the Republican Party’s smear campaign against the FBI.

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Maddow said:

The Republican case against Peter Strzok, them defining him as enemy number one. The way they have made him subject to public pillory is by claiming that his work on the Russia investigation was motivated purely by his partisan wish to hurt the presidential campaign of Donald Trump. If that’s the case then, honestly, why didn’t he or anybody else at the FBI tell the public at any point before the election that Donald Trump’s campaign was, in fact, the subject of a very serious counterintelligence investigation? If the whole thing was motivated by bias to try to make sure Trump didn’t get elected, then why didn’t they tell the American public that Trump shouldn’t be elected? It’s awkward, right? It is a foundationally awkward thing.

The Republican Party is desperate

The behavior of Republican lawmakers on Thursday made it clear that they had no intention of using their hearing to gather facts. Instead, they were using Peter Strzok as the latest punching bag in their ongoing effort to discredit the FBI.

If the GOP truly cared about getting to the bottom of important matters, they’d be focusing their time and energy on Russia’s interference in the 2016 election – and whether the Trump campaign was directly involved in that meddling.

But, sadly, the Republican Party under Donald Trump doesn’t know the first thing about putting country before political affiliation – especially when they know their president is in a boatload of legal trouble.

The entire GOP effort to paint the FBI and Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation as the enemy has always been a sham.  Thursday’s hearing only further confirmed that.

Sean Colarossi

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.