Trump Claims His Russia Investigation Comments Were Doctored, Despite Televised Video Proof
Photo by Stephanie Keith/GettyIt’s a losing game for anyone involved, trying to keep up with the President’s latest Twitter tantrum.
Along with his usual talking points on Twitter Thursday morning—the stock market, the Russia investigation that never happened but is also a “witch hunt,” and Don McGahn, the latest fallen White House staffer whose firing was completely normal and well thought-out—Trump claimed the “fudging” of his televised May 2017 interview with Lester Holt on NBC News, in which he admitted to “this Russia thing” as part of his decision to fire FBI director James Comey.
What’s going on at @CNN is happening, to different degrees, at other networks – with @NBCNews being the worst. The good news is that Andy Lack(y) is about to be fired(?) for incompetence, and much worse. When Lester Holt got caught fudging my tape on Russia, they were hurt badly!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 30, 2018
This, of course, didn’t happen. You can find an extended 13-minute video, as well as a transcript, released soon after the interview was televised.
Even famously mealy-mouthed CNN “pundit” Chris Cillizza had to weigh in and state the blindingly obvious, offering the incisive “analysis” that “there is ZERO evidence of any doctoring.”
During his presidential campaign, Trump also famously claimed that it wasn’t his voice on the Access Hollywood tape, in which he made “lewd” remarks about women.
There’s no hope in fighting back with facts against someone whose narcissism has completely insulated him from anything that paints him in a bad light. The one hope is, soon enough, we won’t have to live in the same suffocating media and political ecosystem.