Donald Trump’s lies go down the toilet
Matthew Whitaker made sure to go on television and attack the Trump-Russia probe so that “President” Donald Trump would see him. Whitaker was successful in his endeavor, and the preeminently unqualified Whitaker became Chief of Staff to Jeff Sessions, then was recently appointed as Acting Attorney General. There continues to be debate about whether the appointment was legitimate, and defendants around the nation already are attempting to have their charges dismissed.
Whitaker had one thing on his resume that was attractive to Trump – namely, Whitaker has been an outspoken critic of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, and made it clear he had no intention of recusing himself. Whitaker’s biggest push of his views came on August 6, 2017, just before joining the Trump administration, when he wrote an op-ed piece, “Mueller’s investigation of Trump is going too far.”
On various outlets on Sunday, Trump opened his mouth – which means of course lies are coming. Today’s lies have to do with his lack of knowledge of Whitaker’s views. On an interview for Fox, Trump had the following exchange with Chris Wallace:
WALLACE: Did you know, before you appointed him, that he had that record and was so critical of Robert Mueller —
TRUMP: I did not know that. I did not know he took views on the Mueller investigation as such.
WALLACE: And when you found that out? TRUMP: I don’t think it had any effect. If you look at those statements those statements that can — they really can be viewed either way, but I don’t think it will have any impact —
WALLACE: Well, he said there’s no collusion, he says– TRUMP: Chris, I’ll tell you what–
WALLACE: –he said you can starve the investigation.
TRUMP: He’s right. What do you do when a person’s right? There is no collusion. He happened to be right. I mean, he said it. So if he said there is collusion, I’m supposed to be taking somebody that says there is? Because then I wouldn’t take him for two reasons, but the number one reason is the fact that he would have been wrong. If he said that there’s no collusion, he’s right.
Donald Trump then said he would not interfere if Whitaker ended the investigation, and then confirmed in a different discussion that he would not sit down with Mueller for an interview. Trump’s denial of knowing what Whitaker’s views are is more proverbial BS, but this is a day ending in y – so we know Trump is lying as always.
Daniel is a lawyer writing and teaching about SCOTUS, and is the author of the book “The Chief Justices” about the SCOTUS as seen through the center seat.