Thursday, February 01, 2018

DON'T WORRY, THEY'LL HAVE SOMETHING ELSE TEED UP

Oh, dear -- if Axios's Jonathan Swan is right, I guess it's not worse than Watergate after all:
Inside the Trump administration, sources who've been briefed on the Nunes memo expect it will be underwhelming and not the “slam dunk” document it's been hyped up to be.

What we're hearing: There is much more skepticism inside the administration than has been previously reported about the value of releasing the memo, according to sources familiar with the administration discussions.

... Trump still wants to release the memo. But there are a number of people in the White House who are fairly underwhelmed, and there's internal anxiety about whether it's worth angering the FBI director and intelligence community by releasing this information.
I know that on some level Trump would like all of this to go away, but I think a part of him gets off on living this close to the edge. I think to some extent he likes the fact that firing Comey gave him Mueller, because hating Mueller and dreaming of beating Mueller add purpose to his life. He's still president and you're not. He hasn't been impeached. How long can he keep this up? And it'll be so great when he's vindicated, just you wait. So why not release the memo, piss off the FBI director, and get himself in more trouble? You think he can't skate after that? He thinks he can!

And as for the less-than-earth-shattering nature of the memo: For the rest of the right, it's just a mini-series that's having its special two-part final episode this week. If the memo falls flat, Fox and Breitbart and the rest will instantly pivot to some other outrage. What's Hillary up to? Isn't there a traitorous college professor out there somewhere? They'll find something. I'm sure they've already identified it and teed it up.

Shed no tears for these guys. They'll be fine.

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