Trump's Espionage-A-Lago

Before I get into this post about Trump's latest bullshit, I want to take a moment to reflect on Richard Nixon.

On August 9, 1974, Richard Nixon resigned as the President of the United States. 

Nixon resigned because he didn't want to be impeached. The old "you can't fire me, I quit" routine.

Nixon was about to be impeached when enough Senators from his own party straight up said that his involvement with the Watergate break in and subsequent cover up was truly some bad shit.

Now the Republican Party was not on board with impeaching Nixon from the get go. When the first drip-drops of scandal first began to break regarding Watergate, Republican were still loyal to the leader of their party. 

But as provable, irrefutable facts began to pile up and Nixon's culpability became clearer and clearer, even his loyal supporters could see the reality and face those facts and determined Nixon needed to go.   

Which brings us to the the last seven years and life under the shadow of Donald Trump.

Time and time again, Li'l Donnie has been caught up in one scandal after another and another ad nauseum and time and time again, even as provable, irrefutable facts began to pile up and Trump's culpability in each of these scandals became clearer and clearer, most Republicans refused to acknowledge  reality and face the facts that Trump was damaged goods.

On a public stage with Vladmir Putin, accepting the word of an American adversary over his own government's intelligence operatives, an action bordering on treason? We all saw him and heard him and yet Republicans saw no harm in it.  

Coercing Ukraine by withholding aid for his own personal political gain? Absolutely proven but refuted by Republicans.  

Instigating a violent insurrection for his own personal political gain? Once again, absolutely proven but once more refuted by Republicans.  

The current investigations by Congress and by the Department of Justice into Trump's role in that insurrection even as sworn testimony under oath and tons of damaging evidence complete show Trump as violating his own oath of office for his own personal political gain? Republicans decry and undermine the process.  

And what of current investigations into Trump's business practices, actively cheating the system to manipulate the value of his holdings to gain investments of other people's money or avoid taxes? Republicans remain in lock step that it's all a politically partisan hit job with no merit.   

Time and time again, the default mode of the Republican Party is to defend this son of a bitch. 

Which brings us to the latest bullshit Trump is involved in. 

The FBI is investigating Donald Trump for a potential violation of the Espionage Act and that agents removed classified documents from Trump’s Florida estate earlier this week. Some of these documents may relate to nuclear secrets.   

There are laws regarding such material and it appears that Trump has broken those laws. 

Trump's defense of having this classified material border is rife with arrogance.  This is from a statement released on Friday:  “The power to classify and declassify documents rests solely with the President of the United States. The idea that some paper-pushing bureaucrat, with classification authority delegated BY THE PRESIDENT, needs to approve of declassification is absurd.”

Trump's autocratic tendencies are on display here, putting himself above the laws and regulations that govern everybody else.  

Trump also had this to say: “Nuclear weapons issue is a Hoax, just like Russia, Russia, Russia was a Hoax, two Impeachments were a Hoax, the Mueller investigation was a Hoax, and much more. Same sleazy people involved."  

Trump does have a point about the same sleazy people being involved. In each of these instances, well, Donald Trump is there. Same sleazy person each and every time.

Trump also claimed that Obama (specifically identified by Trump as Barack Hussein Obama) held onto classified material related to nuclear weapons after leaving office. This claim was made without any evidence.

The National Archives and Records Administration issued their own statements that the records Trump had referred to were not classified and are not under Obama’s control in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.

Republicans are still rallying behind him and suggesting without evidence that President Joe Biden sought to weaponize DOJ against a political rival.

Which would be kind of funny if it wasn't so god damn typically hypocritical. Fucking Donald Trump spent his entire time in office trying to weaponize governmental functions for his own personal political gain.   

Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York accused Biden and his appointees of “complete abuse and overreach of [their] authority and targeting their political opponents." 

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) tweeted, “We must destroy the FBI.”

“DEFUND THE FBI!” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) added.  She also filed a motion from the House of Representatives to have Attorney General Merrick Garland impeached for... reasons?

Rep. Steve Scalise (La.)  suggested  without evidence, that some FBI agents went rogue.  “It concerns everybody if you see some agents go rogue,” he said Thursday on Fox News.

Which was a bit much for even perennial Trump kiss ass Fox News host host Steve Doocy: “Steve, who went rogue? They were following a search warrant.”

Trump also planted the suspicion that FBI agents were planting evidence. Look, I've seen enough Law & Order to know the whole "they planted evidence" is the last resort of a guilty scoundrel. But that didn't stop Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) from running with it:  “Do I know that the boxes of material that they took from Mar-a-Lago, that they won’t put things in those boxes to entrap him? How do we know? Their lawyers weren’t allowed to see the boxes go.”

Here was another defense: the secrets in those secret documents weren't all that secret. As  Rep. Mike Turner put it,  “I can tell you that there are a number of things that fall under the umbrella of nuclear weapons but that are not necessarily things that are truly classified. Many of them you can find on your own phone."    

And where would a Republican defense of Trump be without some "whattaboutism". Yep, Hillary Clinton's emails shambled into the light from the Tomb of Republican Grievances. Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) claimed there was no “media frenzy” over the 33,000 classified emails on Clinton’s private email server that she used while secretary of state.

Sigh! 

Well, yes there was a media frenzy over Clinton’s private server that arguably cost her the  2016 presidential election.  And there were not 33,000 classified emails. According to Politifact, “Of the tens of thousands of emails investigators reviewed, 113 contained classified information, and three of those had classification markers.”

And there is this suggestion that the secrets are not nuclear secrets but... something else? 

Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) asked,  “Was it nuclear? Was it ― heck, maybe it was aliens." 

Going out on a limb here but no, it's probably not aliens.  

So on one hand it seems that the FBI investigating Donald Trump for a potential violation of the Espionage Act should be a significant game changer, the one thing that may finally defuse the cult of personality around Trump that maintains a fever grip on the Republican Party.

On the other hand it seems that the FBI investigating Donald Trump for a potential violation of the Espionage Act  is just another fucking day at the office for the Republican Party.

And I think Richard Nixon looking in on all this from whatever afterlife he is consigned to would be appalled.

Or pissed off he could've gotten away with so much more.

Or surprised. "Wait! There are aliens?!? Nobody told me!"