Thread by @kurteichenwald

1. In a weird way, I almost feel sorry for Trump. He has been done in by four things, with the starting point being his aching ignorance coupled with his belief he is a genius. Starting with that flaw, his enemies:

1. @RudyGiuliani: By spinning irrational conspiracy theories...

@RudyGiuliani 2. about an "investigation of Hunter Biden" that never took place (the founder of a company was investigated for money laundering in 2013, Biden joined the board of that company after the founder was cleared in 2015.) By jumping off the fact train and into the delusion train....

@RudyGiuliani 3...Giuliani - who seems to have lost his mind - persuaded Trump that there was some huge investigation of Hunter Biden by an incredibly ethical Ukranian prosecutor, when there was no Hunter investigation and even the inquiry of the founder was handled by an prosecutor deemed...

@RudyGiuliani 4...by EU, IMF, foreign investors, Ukranian officials, the prosecutor's deputy, Ukranian political parties to be corrupt and must go. When this nonsense was spun to Trump, he did not have the intellectual chops to know this was all nonsense, and because he cuts himself off...

@RudyGiuliani 5...from people who don't believe what he does, he did not have information to counter Rudy's delusions..

The next enemies of Trump:

B. Fox News, @seanhannity @foxandfriends et al. They were some of the ones who could have signaled to Trump that this entire Hunter story...

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends 6...made absolutely no sense, that it didn't fit with the timeline of events, that there was no Hunter Biden inquiry ever, that the prosecutor was removed because of global pressure on Ukraine to clean up its corruption. But they couldn't. Instead, they saw a conspiracy theory...

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends 7...about a democrat, and ran with it. Their casual disregard for the truth gave Trump a drum-banging reaffirmation of the crazy stuff Giuliani was telling him. And because it was always covered in a glaze of compliments for Trump, he could not see that these people were....

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends 8...actually his enemies. When you have a man who is a fan of conspiracy theories, who does not do work to know reality, who is fed conspiracy theories by his favorite channel, chance he will run toward the cliff is quite strong.

The next cause:

C. Trump's casual corruption...

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends 9...I believe with every fiber of my being that Trump has no idea what was wrong with what he did. People will slam him as corrupt, but he will think it is all lies. Pressing people to give him what he wants - because of his malignant narcissism - is completely rational to...

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends 10...him. He doesnt see the problem. And he never will. He will rage from now to forever, and he will never understand what he did wrong, particularly since other sycophants like @LindseyGrahamSC are continuing to tell him the conspiracy theories are real....

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends @LindseyGrahamSC 11...So there is the chain of responsibility:

A. Trump's ignorance and belief in his intelligence.
B. @RudyGiuliani
C. Fox News, (@seanhannity @foxandfriends et. al.)
D. Trump's casual corruption...

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends @LindseyGrahamSC 12... the lesson for this, I HOPE, that will be learned by the @GOP:

Conspiracy theories pushed out through Fox are your party's crack cocaine. They give you a quick rush of power, but in the end they are destructive...

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends @LindseyGrahamSC @GOP 13...you have a party that has been so buried in your nonsense that the majority of them still truly believe that a former President of the United States was born in Kenya and is a Muslim. Some of you have admitted - you just did it because it was fun. And you used weasel...

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends @LindseyGrahamSC @GOP 14...words - "I take the president at his word" - to signal to your voters that the conspiracy theory was true, while not taking responsibility.

You tried to convince your voters that military exercise Jade Helm was an Obama effort to take over Texas. You knew it was nonsense..

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends @LindseyGrahamSC @GOP 15...and a conspiracy that made no sense - America was going to take over an American state? And do what with it? Its part of America. You knew it was a lie but kept it up, even after one of your voters was arrested in a conspiracy to attack the military to stop the "takeover"...

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends @LindseyGrahamSC @GOP 16...you pushed all of them - democrats are murdering babies after they are born, millions of illegals are voting, Benghazi was a democratic...ummm...I never understood what the conspiracy was there. But you just screamed "Benghazi!" and everyone raged, including Fox...

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends @LindseyGrahamSC @GOP 17...no American political party can survive forever on the crack cocaine of fantasy. Fox pushed it, you joined in, and deluded your voters. Then you got stuck: You elected a man who wasn't in on the scam, who didn't know this was all nonsense, that you knew it was nonsense....

@RudyGiuliani @seanhannity @foxandfriends @LindseyGrahamSC @GOP 18...you had the ultimate Fox viewer in the White House, and that proved to be literally true.

None of this excuses Trump. He is the president of the United States. He cannot get the "Oh, he didn't know any better" escape hatch.

But you did this. Learn the lesson. Return to re