Even Fox News can't defend Trump and his crazy rage-tweets glurped out onto the Internet in a fit of pique. No matter how much they try, they just can't because they're scary, evil, totalitarian, and wrong.
Bloomberg News reporter Tim O'Brien describes the dynamic perfectly:
[I]t boils down to the president saying two things:
- “I’m worried.”
- “I think there are more indictments coming and I’m trying to smear Bob Mueller’s reputation before they land — but don’t call that obstruction.”
A judicious, sophisticated and anxiety-free person wouldn’t be playing with fire like this.
Lest we forget, this is a man who has cleared his public schedule after a disaster of a weekend so he can rage, rage some more, and answer interrogatories that Robert Mueller agreed to accept in lieu of a Grand Jury summons or face-to-face questioning, which Trump fears, since he would probably perjure himself.
So here we have Fox News host Sandra Smith desperately trying to defend Trump, while hammering Swalwell's description of Matt Whitaker as "an assassin hired to take out the Mueller probe." She is, of course, sufficiently indignant and shocked at such a rank description of Matty McGrifter Whitaker.
As Swalwell began to answer her question by reminding her that Trump is tweeting the obvious answer to how he feels about the Mueller investigation, Smith jumped in, concern trolling for Trump. Surely, Congressman, two years is long enough?
(Reminder for Sandra: Benghazi went on for FOUR DAMN YEARS)
"It's time to wrap things up, can you understand that?" Smith drilled, with absolutely no self-awareness or historic knowledge of what she is talking about.
Swalwell patiently explained the prosecutor's point of view, noting that investigations of this size take years because of course they do. Just following the money from Russia to Trump has been several orders of magnitude larger than most money laundering investigations. I'm sure having Trump's money man in Mueller's court is an asset, but it's still a long slog.
"When you tamper with witnesses, when you obstruct justice, when you lie to investigators it takes longer," he said, getting warmed up. "And when the president refuses to answer questions that have already been turned over to him six months ago, it's going to take longer."
Ooooh. Throw down on Fox News. And Smith took the bait. Shouting over Swalwell, she defended Trump. "We don't know there's a refusal there. The president is often said he'd be happy to sit down and answer questions, he's been advised --"
Swalwell, calmly and without rancor, shook his head and laid down the facts: Trump hasn't answered the questions. That is all.
Smith insisted. "--Hold on-- And there still could be prepared answers to those questions. We have to wait and see."
No, Sandra. Time's up.
Laughing, Swalwell asked, "How long is it going to take for this guy to turn in his homework?"
"He was given these questions six months ago. He is the one who is driving the direction of this investigation. He could end if he just sat in the chair and came clean," he concluded.
Watch Sandra Smith try and fail to have a snappy comeback to that. In two minutes, Rep. Swalwell told Fox News viewers that Trump was trying to kill the Mueller investigation because he's afraid of it and too lazy to turn in his homework. Good going, Congressman!
