Donald Trump, victim
Even as the impeachment curtains close around Donald Trump, he does what he does best: lie, obfuscate, and publicly fume at his imagined enemies. He has issued threats against the whistleblower and anyone who contributed to the complaint (though he has no idea of anyone’s identity). On Monday, he tweeted out that the “rules were changed” to allow the whistleblower’s complaint. Once again, Trump doesn’t know what he’s talking about and doesn’t bother to check.
Instead, as CNN reveals, Trump is getting his information from a right-wing propaganda site. Making it even worse, pro-Trump pundits and supposed lawmakers spread this propaganda on television and Twitter over the weekend, attempting to show some type of evil plot against Trump.
One of Trump’s biggest enablers, Jim Jordan, appeared on “State of the Union” and tried to convince Jake Tapper that “they changed the form.” This is an elected official who doesn’t even know the law. It’s almost embarrassing. Tapper fact-checked Jordan on air, telling him that “it has never been true that you need to have firsthand knowledge to be a whistleblower.” It’s a shame that a television personality has to enlighten an elected official when even most citizens know this to be the case. They are looking for anything to try to portray Trump as a victim. Trump is only a victim of himself.
As Paul Begala said in his recent opinion piece at CNN, if Trump wants to survive impeachment, his best bet will be to shut his ignorant, hateful mouth. Begala correctly points out that every time Trump opens his mouth “the more he confesses, covers up, opens new areas of inquiry, or pulls the rug out from under his previous defense.” It is incredible how little Trump has learned from his former scandals. You have to think that this is his narcissism at play. How else can you explain someone who has stepped in shit but keeps stepping in it because he’s the only one who can’t smell it?
Begala compares this impeachment inquiry to the Clinton inquiry where Republicans were looking for literally anything to try to hang on Clinton. All they could find was the affair with Monica Lewinsky. While people didn’t like that Clinton lied about it, they did like how he continued to fight for our country, lie notwithstanding. Trump, however, is a whole different ballgame. He’s only fighting to protect, as Begala so eloquently and truthfully states, “his greed, his grievances, his gripes.” By the end of the Clinton impeachment, the vast majority of Americans rallied around him as he continued to do great things for our country. The same cannot and will not be said for Trump.
Yes, Trump has his diehard supporters who believe he can do no wrong (God bless them), and he has the Republicans who are determined to support him no matter what (likely because of their own greed). In the end, however, Trump will have no defense and no reason for the majority of the country to rally around him. In fact, most of the country will be cheering for the inquiry (not Trump) to rid us of the cancer that has taken root in the White House.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years