With Clarifications Like This, Who Needs Confusion?

So, the president’s ‘clarification’ is that he meant to say the opposite of what he said? The opposite of what he has been saying and tweeting for months? That is a clarification? Here is how AP describes the situation:

“Blistered by bipartisan condemnation of his embrace of a longtime U.S. enemy, President Donald Trump strained Tuesday to “clarify” his public undermining of American intelligence agencies, saying he simply misspoke when he said he saw no reason to believe Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. election.

Rebuked as never before by his own party, including a stern pushback from usually reserved Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the U.S. president sought to end 27 hours of recrimination by delivering a rare admission of error.”

I am not even sure this counts as admitting an error. He ‘clarifies’ that his weak deference to Putin and selling out our national security was actually not an error at all, just one missing word.

Yet another lie. We have been hearing his say and tweet for months that this is a witch hunt and that he believes Putin when he says he did not do it. So now we are supposed to believe it was just one missing word?

Or should we believe it was… “Blistered by bipartisan condemnation of his embrace of a longtime U.S. enemy… [and] Rebuked as never before by his own party,” he caved and lied again, believing no one will notice that this clarification is another lie?

AP finds it hard to swallow, noting that this ‘clarification’ does not “explain why Trump, who had tweeted a half-dozen times and sat for two television interviews since the Putin news conference, waited so long” to only ‘clarify’ with “scripted cleanup” comments “the least defensible of his comments.”

And, of course, even in his scripted ‘clarification’ he adds “it could be other people and there is no collusion.” It seems he cares more about protecting himself than our national defense.

The list of statements he made that still need to be ‘clarified’ remains long and this AP article provides an overview.

Russia is attacking America and this is his response?

Mitch McConnell has to reassure our allies that our president does not speak for us, reminding anyone who believes in gravity that “European countries are our friends, and the Russians are not.”

Remember: not democratic talking points. McConnell is one of the president’s most ardent supporters. These are comments from his own team.

Another leading member of the president’s team added this:

“Let’s be very clear, just so everybody knows: Russia did meddle with our elections,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, another steady Trump political ally.

With clarifications like this, who needs confusion?

Here is another clarification from conservative columnist Michael Gerson in today’s paper:

Trump’s approach to foreign policy “is the replacement of national pride with personal vanity. Any diplomatic outcome—not matter how useless or harmful—is claims by President Trump as a victory. Any complications are pinned on the ‘stupidity’ of previous presidents. Trump’s negotiating style is a panting desire for the appearance of accomplishment, making him the easiest mark of modern presidential history. This was on full display at the Helsinki summit.”