Trump's Russia scandal keeps getting deeper: At this point, campaign collusion might be the least... [View all]

[DonViejo]

MONDAY, MAY 15, 2017 09:00 AM EDT

Trump’s Russia scandal keeps getting deeper: At this point, campaign collusion might be the least of his problems

Firing Comey didn't end the collusion inquiry — but Trump's clumsy coverup and financial ties are his real problem

BOB CESCA

With every passing day and every passing derp, President Donald Trump makes his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia to hijack last year’s election seem almost secondary. Surely that’s not his intention — indeed, it’s exactly the opposite. But anyone, regardless of politics, who has observed Trump’s reactions to the deepening Russia story can plainly see that the 45th president is way out of his depth.

Anyone with even a remedial understanding of politics and public relations understands that Trump is bungling the White House reaction to the ongoing investigation, turning an already harrowing treason probe into a harrowing treason probe made far more toxic by an obvious coverup.

It’s still unclear exactly what’s wrong with the president that he continues to botch and fumble the political reaction to the widening Russia scandal. We should definitely rule out, with prejudice, any argument that the president is practicing “three-dimensional chess” — that is, the “crazy like a fox” theory suggesting that Trump is working his way through a twisty Machiavellian strategy that we mere mortals are incapable of understanding. There’s nothing like that going on here. Chances are, Trump is being perpetually stymied by a combination of his desperation to kill the Russia probe; his clinical delusions, in which he believes certain things are real that clearly aren’t; his political ignorance; and, of course, his erratic kneejerk style of blurting gibberish and lies without any message discipline or self-censorship.

As a result, we’re treated to events like last week in which the president fired James Comey, the now-former FBI director who was deeply involved with investigating Trump’s links to Russia, followed by a shit-show the likes of which we have rarely witnessed in presidential politics since 1974. As if the firing of Comey wasn’t suspicious enough, the White House at first tried to claim that it happened specifically because of the way Comey had handled Hillary Clinton email scandal. That was the line throughout the first 24 hours of the aftermath.

Then came the whiplash.

Contrary to everything the White House, including Vice President Mike Pence, had said about Comey’s firing, Trump inexplicably confessed to NBC News’ Lester Holt that he fired Comey because he wanted the Russia scandal to end — which, of course, screams out obstruction of justice. Trump said to Holt, “And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said, ‘You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story. It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.'”

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http://www.salon.com/2017/05/15/trumps-russia-scandal-keeps-getting-deeper-at-this-point-campaign-collusion-might-be-the-least-of-his-problems/