Mueller report kills Russiagate, media goes into target-seeking overdrive
With the Mueller report exonerating US President Donald Trump of colluding with Russia, 'Resistance' media lost no time in shifting their angle of attack – it's now all about ‘obstruction’ and AG William Barr.
After AG Barr went before the press and quoted bits of Mueller's now-released report, as well as his personal conclusions, panelists on CNN went all-out blaming him for trying to portray Trump as innocent of obstruction of justice. In a packed studio, eight people spent hours bouncing back and forth on a few of the same talking points – mostly attacking Barr's presentation of Mueller's release.
Echoing Democratic leaders’ accusations of partisanship, CNN legal analyst Carrie Cordero said Barr “had an opportunity to rise above the politics” and only talk about the dry process of reaching conclusions, “and he blew it.”
CNN has 8 people talking about this & they all vehemently agree with one another on every last thing. This has been a major part of the problem from the start. All humans are more likely to err or worse if they are insulated from challenge or dissent. It's inherently corrupting: pic.twitter.com/6U5aZqzgPn
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
They took particular issue with how Barr mentioned Trump’s anger and frustration in the face of attacks by ‘Russiagate’-peddling media (like the CNN). Laura Coates, another legal analyst, went as far as calling it an “Oprah moment”, following it up with an emphatic “you’ve got to be kidding me!”
CNN’s chief legal analyst and a staff writer for the New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin, insisted on Twitter that Trump’s overall frustration with the investigation against him was somehow proof of his guilt.
Happy people don't obstruct justice. Trump's frustration at leaks and investigation are evidence of guilt, not innocence. But let's see the report . .
— Jeffrey Toobin (@JeffreyToobin) April 18, 2019
A claim that investigative journalist, Ben Swann, turned down as “nonsense” as he appeared live on RT.
Mueller’s conclusion that there was no conspiracy between Trump and Russia is no longer a problem, it seems. But Barr repeated that conclusion “over and over and over again, six or seven times, that’s excessive,” says Jake Tapper, whose network has spent the past two years repeating the opposite – over and over and over again.
The host of CNN's Cuomo Prime Time, Chris Cuomo, took the argument even further, saying that Trump might not have been conspiring with the Russians, but he was still guilty of “collusion.” And it didn’t matter to the show's anchor that Special Counsel Robert Mueller repeatedly stated that the latter wasn’t a crime.
“If you want to use ‘collusion’ by the Webster Dictionary [it means] ‘clever behavior, secretive behavior.’ There’s tons of that documented [in the Mueller report]. And those actions were lied about, repeatedly,” Cuomo insisted.
Fellow ‘Resistance’ pundits and journalists rained down similarly damning takes on Barr’s behavior…
For my money, this is the most damning example of Barr’s malicious intent. Borrowing an apt phrase from former Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Barr wretched the words from their proper context. He is without shame. https://t.co/sFPcMjet9U
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) April 18, 2019
That arrogant, willfully misleading press conference was shocking even by 2019 standards. We continue to underreact to our government's transformation into an authoritarian junta.
— Michelle Goldberg (@michelleinbklyn) April 18, 2019
Reminder: George Herbert Walker Bush could have been impeached if not for William Barr acting as his attorney instead of the attorney general of the United States.
— Siva Vaidhyanathan🗽🤘🏽 (@sivavaid) April 18, 2019
it's hard to describe how dishonest Barr has to be to read this report and announce it exonerates Trump. just completely mind boggling.
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) April 18, 2019
While others pointed out the mainstream media’s obsession with taking down Trump and anyone standing in the way to that.
They're not even pretending, and don't even have a token dissenter who gets to speak for 30 seconds once every 10 minutes. It's the most emotional thing I've ever seen from TV news people.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) April 18, 2019
Blown away by this take. The media, Congress, EVERYONE has been using the term "collusion" for two plus years, and this guy is criticizing Barr for using it? IS THIS EVEN REAL LIFE https://t.co/7dK9Qjk38l
— Chicks On The Right (@chicksonright) April 18, 2019
It’s pretty stunning. When I turned it on, a "legal analyst" was (of course) comparing Barr to Roy Cohn
— Michael C Moynihan (@mcmoynihan) April 18, 2019
Watching MSNBCBrian Williams is complaining about AG Barr saying the word "collusion" so oftenBecause "collusion" is not a term recognized in the lawThen WHAT WERE YOUR NETWORKS DOING FOR THE LAST TWO YEARS BRIANpic.twitter.com/s9hZq5i7im
— Will Chamberlain 🇺🇸 (@willchamberlain) April 18, 2019
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