The Trump press conference yesterday has left me thinking that goldfish might do a better job of covering this guy than the people currently doing so.
As I’ll describe, after covering it live, many outlets have chosen to bury what a blubbery mess the former President was. Then NYT, which assigned multiple reporters on any given day to repeat, “Joe Biden old,” had taken all stories about the presser off its front page by the time it released the Dead Tree version.
Admittedly, there wasn’t much news.
But there was a piece that I think merits more attention. Trump was apparently asked (the entire presser was set up such that Trump claimed not to be able to hear the questions, and they weren’t picked up on the coverage) whether the FBI had interviewed him as part of the investigation into the Thomas Crooks shooting attempt. He described:
They have. The FBI came to see me about the shooter. Uh, I think they’ve done a very good job. And I think they did a very good job with respect to this other lunatic that they have in custody.
The reference to “this other lunatic” is likely a reference to Asif Merchant, the Pakistani man accused of attempting to solicit paid killers to assassinate Trump on behalf of Iran.
This is newsworthy!
It’s newsworthy, because Trump’s allies in Congress are gunning for Chris Wray regarding the Crooks investigation.
And its newsworthy, because Trump has spent years demonizing the Deep State, only to commend them when they preempt an attack on him.
Nevermind that (as LOLGOP and I laid out in one of our Ball of Threads episodes) almost everyone the FBI first targeted in Crossfire Hurricaine (including Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Mike Flynn, and Paul Manafort) were, or were attempting to, monetize their access to Trump. Trump was, at first, one of the victims of that investigation too.
If you believe what Konstantin Kilimnik told Paul Manafort in December 2016, Page even went to Russia and claimed to be negotiating on Ukraine on behalf of Trump.
Trump could have viewed himself as a victim of that influence peddling, but his narcissism prevented that.
He undoubtedly does view himself as the victim here, rightly so. And because of that, he’s willing to commend the work the FBI does.
That answer deserves wider coverage, not least so the Trump mob that has been targeting the FBI might tone things down.
Alas, the media wants horserace, and to hell with US democracy and rule of law.
Update: ABC describes that during Trump’s victim interview, he quizzed them for more details about Crooks.