Trump Aides Work Overtime to "Explain" His Words: Up Against Doublespeak Redux

Trump-Bannon: Rise of Alt-right, fall of Hillary Clinton, the forces 

behind the biggest upset in American political history

(squarely in our collective face)

(The above book)

This most-interesting story from The Hill: Allies and aides for President Trump on Sunday sought to clarify the president's frequent attacks on what he refers to as the Russia hoax, while attempting to pivot focus toward his efforts to combat Russian interference in future elections.

“Doublespeak” Orwell combined “Doublethink and Newspeak” that is used as Doublespeak often today: Those are words that deliberately obscure, disguise, distort, or reverse the true meaning of words.” 

Kellyanne Conway, White House counselor, and John Bolton, NSC adviser, both argued on separate Sunday TV shows that the president has a more narrow focus in mind when he repeatedly calls the Mueller investigation a “witch hunt and a hoax.”

Conway on CBS “Face the Nation” said: “The president, when he says 'Russia hoax,' he means the investigation and some others on TV never under oath wanting to suggest that somehow Russian meddling in the 2016 election was successful in changing a single vote or indeed the electoral outcome”

Bolton on FOX “News Sunday” said: “The hoax is the idea that the Trump campaign was a beneficiary of a concerted effort together with the Russians to affect the 2016 election. Everybody who participated in the press conference Thursday agreed, as has the president on several public occasions that the intelligence community assessment of Russian meddling in 2016 is valid.”

In an unusual move, the administration trotted out Bolton, DNI Dan Coats, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and NSA Director General Paul Nakasone, to detail their agencies' efforts to address election meddling.

Conway and Bolton both also credited Trump with directly asking those top intelligence officials to attend a White House press briefing and to detail their efforts to blunt foreign influence campaigns ahead of this year’s midterm elections.  

(I note: But at the time, no one mentioned that Trump had asked them to the White House to hold that press conference and their announcement – so that seems bogus and weak now well after the fact).

The White House has attempted to shift the conversation to what is being done to block future foreign influence campaigns despite Trump’s numerous attempts to undercut his national security officials calling Russian meddling a hoax. 

The president has tweeted about the Mueller probe or collusion roughly a dozen times in the last week alone, most notably escalating his attacks when he recently called on AG Sessions to end the special counsel’s investigation. 

The NY Times reported that Mueller also is examiningTrump tweets as part of an investigation into whether the president obstructed justice. Investigators are reportedly interested in the president's tweets as part of a larger pattern of behavior.

Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's attorneys in the Russia investigation, dismissed the concept of obstruction of justice by tweet as absurd on ABC's This Week, saying: “Obstruction of justice by tweet is absurd. The president has a First Amendment right to put his opinions out there.” Note: That statement from Sekulow echoes a number of other Trump's allies who again sought to dismiss the president's tweets as a matter of opinion or his right to “free speech.”

My 2 cents: I am not a lawyer, any kind of prosecutor (active or “former”) but I do have some common sense and I do a lot of research on stories and links and such to make sure I have the facts of the stories I read are accurate as much as possible. 

My belief is that Trump will be charged with obstruction of justice and his own words, deeds, actions, and yes, even tweets prove that point and I’m sure that S/C Mueller has a “lock” on the aspect as well. The only who don’t are Trump himself and those around him as shown by their weak support for him and his deeds and such.

Obstruction got Richard Nixon (during the Watergate mess), got Bill Clinton (during the Monica Lewinsky scandal), and it surely will I believe will get Donald J. Trump, too at the end of the day – and that day is fast approaching. 

Time will tell – stay tuned as usual. 

Thanks for stopping by.