To focus the dispute with Eli, there are many factual problems. But the core of it comes at the beginning: the claim that “Obama’s FBI” was in fact “spying” on Trump and his campaign. Lawful surveillance and “spying” can involve the same activities. But “spying” is by ...
2/ definition illicit or extra-illegal. So right at the top we have the effort to claim Trump was the target or victim of some kind of plot or wrong. Just as with Trump the core dishonesty is baked into the very words. This may sound like a mere semantic point and folks like Eli
3/ try to poo the significance of the word. But the point is to distract from the fact that we have counter intelligence agencies to protect the country from foreign intelligence plots and those who might involve themselves in those plots. The FBI was doing precisely what ...
4/ it is meant to do in these cases and indeed using the least intrusive means and bending over backwards to keep the whole probe secret so as not to harm Trumps campaign. Using the word “spying”, while seeming to be a mere flourish, is actually a very focused and intentional ...
5/ way to pretend none of that is true. It’s meant to trick and bamboozle people. It’s meant to paint the President as a victim as opposed to someone who was welcoming and conniving at a foreign plot in his favor. It put US counterintelligence officials in the near impossible ...
6/ position of having to conduct such an investigation into a major presidential campaign during the heat of a presidential election and keep the whole thing secret. Trump and his cronies victimized them. The use of this single word is meant to obscure all of that, to turn ...
7/ everything upside down. It’s classic Trumpism. And that’s why Trump partisans use it.
