Trump declares war
by digby
Axios:
"Within an hour of learning the findings," the WashPost reports, "Trump called for an investigation of his critics and cast himself as a victim."
"Aides say Trump plans to ... call for organizations to fire members of the media and former government officials who he believes made false accusations about him."
The president will use [Barr's letter] to cast doubt on investigations by House Democrats, or by other state and federal officials.
Now, the vengeance: Trump allies are already pushing to investigate the investigators and attack the media.
Don Jr., the president's eldest son, tweeted: "How this farce started and snowballed ... into one the greatest hoaxes ever perpetrated on the America should be discovered. Those responsible should be held accountable."
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said: "The public deserves to see the interviews, documents, and intelligence that 'justified' this investigation in the first place."
And Rudy Giuliani said on Fox News: "[T]here has to be a full and complete investigation, with at least as much enthusiasm as this one, to figure out where did this charge emanate, who started it, and who paid for it."
Here's Rudy:
Kevin McCarthy:
[Schiff] owes the American public an apology. Schiff has met the standard that he has imposed on other members of Congress of when they should step back from their positions. He has exceeded that standard, and there is no question he should step down from the Intel chairmanship."
Lindsey Graham:
Trump:
"We're glad it's over. It's 100% the way it should have been. I wish it could have gotten done sooner, a lot quicker. There are a lot of people out there who have done very, very evil things, very bad things, I would say treasonous things against our country. And hopefully people that have done such harm to our country -- we've gone through a period of really bad things happening -- those people will certainly be looked at. I have been looking at them for a long time, and I'm saying, why haven't they been looked at? They lied to Congress. Many of them, you know who they are. They've done so many evil things. I will tell you, I love this country. I love this country as much as I can love anything. My family, my country, my God. But what they did, it was a false narrative, it was a terrible thing. We can never let this happen to another president again. I can tell you that -- I say it very strongly. Very few people I know could have handled it. We can never, ever let this happen to another president again."
I'm not sure this is a wise course if they want to get back their moderate voters.
But it is completely inevitable. It's Trump. This is who he is. And who they are ...
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