It’s starting to look like the fix is in. For two years, special counsel Robert Mueller investigated the Russian interference with the 2016 presidential election, and the possibility that Donald Trump’s campaign somehow colluded with this conspiracy. Now there’s a report, but whether we’ll actually get to see it is unclear, as the Republicans are rapidly working in formation to keep the actual contents of the report from public view.
The strategy they’re using will feel awfully familiar to those of us who lived through the George W. Bush administration’s conspiracy to bamboozle the American public into accepting a war with Iraq: Distort the existing evidence. Lie whenever necessary. Exaggerate any evidence, no matter how iffy, that supports the desired conclusion. Stifle any contradictory evidence as much as possible. And manipulate a gullible media into amplifying the spin instead of reporting the truth.
The Mueller report is weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq, all over again. Republicans are using the same playbook to protect Trump that they used to hype the Iraq war, and the strategy seems, yet again, to be working.
View the complete March 26 article by Amanda Marcotte from Salon on the AlterNet website here.