Character assassination from the bully pulpit

Character assassination from the bully pulpit

 by digby

This is disgusting. He made it up to entertain the ecstatic cult followers:
This is a lie. Nothing like this ever happened.

I wish we had a president who knew how to act like one. SAD!https://t.co/7YQaQRxWzu
— Lisa Page (@NatSecLisa) December 11, 2019
I don't usually post commentary by Max Boot but I thought his observation was important:
In 1987, former labor secretary Raymond Donovan, who had resigned from President Ronald Reagan’s Cabinet after being indicted on fraud charges more than two years earlier, was acquitted by a New York jury. “Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?” he asked angrily.

I thought of Donovan’s famous lament this week after the Justice Department inspector general concluded that, while the FBI had made some mistakes in its investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia, it had legitimate grounds to open the investigation, it did not spy on the campaign and it was not pursuing any political agenda.

So much for the vitriol President Trump has been spewing for years about former FBI director James B. Comey (“Leakin’ Lyin’ James Comey”), former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe (“a major sleazebag,” “a disgrace to the FBI and a disgrace to our Country”), former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and former FBI agent Peter Strzok (“incompetent & corrupt FBI lovers”), Justice Department attorney Bruce Ohr (“in legal jeopardy, it’s astonishing that he’s still employed”), former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III (the “highly conflicted” leader of “18 Angry Democrats”) and various other individuals. Trump accused them of concocting a “Phony & Treasonous Hoax” and of attempting to “overthrow the President through an illegal coup.”

All lies. Damnable lies. The only hoax was the one Trump was perpetrating.

We are so used to the venomous way Trump tweets and talks that we have forgotten how unprecedented, appalling and unhinged this actually is. No president has ever reviled so many individual Americans by name. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was more respectful in discussing convicted atomic spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg than Trump has been in referring to dedicated law enforcement professionals who have served our country for decades.
Trump likes to go on and on about lives that have been ruined. Most of the one's he's talking about are in jail because they committed crimes. The people Trump has degraded and demeaned in public have had their characters assassinated and their lives ruined because the president is an abusive, pathological liar. And apparently, his followers love him for it, which is even worse:
Trump supporters at the president's rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania tell CBS News their thoughts on impeachment and the possibility of his removal: "It would become the second Civil War." https://t.co/jPUmfWREbX pic.twitter.com/bzT0v9oaWN
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 11, 2019
Some more highlights of his sickening rally last night:
"That's her husband, he's supposed to be living in the house. I don't think she's seen him for 10 years ... did you ever see such a phony, disgusting deal?" -- Trump, who reportedly doesn't share a room w/Melania, attacks Warren for posting corny social media videos w/her husband pic.twitter.com/otOdds7LLZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2019

"Darling I want to watch television tonight and there's no damn wind, what do I do?" -- Trump still thinks that wind energy means people won't be able to watch TV reliably pic.twitter.com/w6xwi9qgfL
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2019

Trump refers to Adam Schiff as a "crooked bastard." #BeBest pic.twitter.com/kA1kgHXpQQ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2019

"Should we give it a shot? Maybe we will. I'm only kidding" -- Trump muses about shredding the Constitution and serving as many as 29 years in office pic.twitter.com/TeyhCCuEJn
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) December 11, 2019