Steve Benen conveniently summarizes GOP reaction to the release of the report generated by the investigation of the FBI investigation of the Trump Campaign as conducted by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz:
White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham appeared on Fox News, for example, and said the Horowitz report pointing to “a government trying to overthrow a president,” which is the opposite of what the Horowitz report actually said. RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel argued that the inspector general’s findings proved that the FBI “spied on” the Trump campaign, which again, is the opposite of what the Horowitz report actually said.
Similarly, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said his takeaway from the inspector general’s findings was that partisans in the Justice Department “spied on a political opponent,” which is the opposite of what the Horowitz report actually said. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who happens to be the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, went so far as to describe the FBI’s investigation into the Russia scandal as a “criminal enterprise,” which in no way reflects what the Horowitz report actually said.
I skipped over President Trump’s commentary. In case you missed Benen’s opinion in the above, here it is:
We’re left with a dynamic in which Republican leaders, en masse, have examined our reality, found it politically inconvenient, and replaced it with an alternate reality they find more satisfying.
I haven’t read the Horowitz report yet. Perhaps I shall during my Christmas vacation. Perhaps I won’t. Why? Because I’ve found that in the few spot checks I’ve had time to perform, such as with the Mueller Report, the GOP and conservative media has a far, far worse performance in interpreting the reports and events than do the mainstream, traditional media sources.
That’s not to say the traditional sources are always right, but if you don’t have time to read these sometimes huge reports, it’s best to go with the organizations with the best track record, and who will print corrections and retractions when necessary. Democratic sources, in this case, I’d consider to be directed towards their partisans and not towards serious observers.
But my real point here is this: Aren’t the GOP leaders who persist in misinterpreting and spinning the various results getting farther and farther out on that spindly limb called
M E N D A C I T Y
and when it breaks they’ll discover they were hanging over a cliff’s edge called
R E G R E T S ?
With each lie, spin, and manipulation, conservative (or what passes for conservatism these days) becomes less and plausible, believable, and trustable. Perhaps the GOP leadership should consider the future of its movement, if it even believes this is an ideology rather than a cover for raking in the dollars, and maybe put out the word:
B E T R U T H F U L .
Same, of course, goes for Democrats – but it may not sting so much for them.
But can they? Or are is the GOP so caught up in winning – fighting the internecine war, as Professor Turchin might put it – that they see no value in simple truth? That’s my bet. McConnell and his fellows will throttle any efforts to make Trump pay for his rampant mendacity, they’ll celebrate their immediate victories – and if anyone ever lays out for the base, in convincing detail, how they were scammed, the current GOP leadership may never recover their effectiveness or reputations.
