Charles Pierce: Donald Trump Doesn't Give a Damn About the Legitimacy of His Presidency*

[babylonsister]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a22442974/trump-putin-michael-mcfaul-russian-interference-lying/

Donald Trump Doesn’t Give a Damn About the Legitimacy of His Presidency*
It's the spin du jour from the West Wing, but the idea doesn't hold up.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jul 19, 2018

snip//

Two weeks before his inauguration, Donald J. Trump was shown highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia had personally ordered complex cyberattacks to sway the 2016 American election.

The evidence included texts and emails from Russian military officers and information gleaned from a top-secret source close to Mr. Putin, who had described to the C.I.A. how the Kremlin decided to execute its campaign of hacking and disinformation.

Mr. Trump sounded grudgingly convinced, according to several people who attended the intelligence briefing. But ever since, Mr. Trump has tried to cloud the very clear findings that he received on Jan. 6, 2017, which his own intelligence leaders have unanimously endorsed.

Every time he’s denied it has been a lie. Every time he said he didn’t know what happened has been a lie. Every time he said he wasn’t sure who did it has been a lie. He took the oath of office knowing precisely how the Russians came to help his campaign and on whose orders they did so. The entire political and intellectual infrastructure of this administration* has been a farce. Everything this administration* has done—from swearing itself in to taking the country to Helsinki in a handbasket last week—is rendered utterly illegitimate. This is now an outlaw regime for all to see. And this is the guy who is chatting over with his “team” whether or not to send Mike McFaul off to Lubyanka? This guy should be on the sidewalk in front of the Willard right now, his belongings piled in boxes around him. More from the Times.

In the run-up to this week’s ducking and weaving, Mr. Trump has done all he can to suggest other possible explanations for the hacks into the American political system. His fear, according to one of his closest aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity, is that any admission of even an unsuccessful Russian attempt to influence the 2016 vote raises questions about the legitimacy of his presidency.

I don’t know if I buy this entirely, although it seems to be the spin du jour from the anonymous voices inside the West Wing. I don’t think the president* gives a damn about the legitimacy of his presidency. I don’t think he’s given it a second thought. I certainly don’t think he’s afraid of it. He’s grabbing all he can for as long as he can and the Constitution be damned.

snip//

In July 2017, just after meeting Mr. Putin for the first time, Mr. Trump told a New York Times reporter that the Russian president had made a persuasive case that Moscow’s cyberskills were so good that the government’s hackers would never have been caught. Therefore, Mr. Trump recounted from his conversation with Mr. Putin, Russia must not have been responsible.

He knew. He’s always known. He’s been lying about what he knows since before he began blathering about American carnage on the steps of the Capitol. His lies have become more desperate and more complicated as the baying of the hounds gets closer. Things are moving beneath other things right now. The system, that great indolent beast, now has one eye open and is stirring out of the deep trance that it’s been in for almost two years. The world is becoming new again. We're all stark mad Amos Lawrences now, forced by events to grapple with the unthinkable. They come for McFaul, they come for us all.

[Freethinker65]

1. Trump doesn't give a damn about the illegitimacy of his Presidency either

[GoCubsGo]

2. Right. He only cares about himself and money.

[Garrett78]

3. I can't get over how we have a president* who shouldn't have security clearance.

Are we all unwitting extras on a movie set?