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From Caitlin Johnstone Website
The Robert Mueller hearing on Tuesday was widely regarded as a humiliating disaster, not just by critics of the establishment Russia narrative, but by mainstream Democratic pundits. We haven't seen a US official look so befuddled and disorganized during a congressional hearing since that time John McCain started babbling gibberish at James Comey, and he had a tumor eating his brain.
"A frail old man, unable to remember things, stumbling, refusing to answer basic questions," tweeted liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore after the circus had ended. "I said it in 2017 and Mueller confirmed it today. All you pundits and moderates and lame Dems who told the public to put their faith in the esteemed Robert Mueller just STFU from now on."
"Much as I hate to say it, this morning's hearing was a disaster," tweeted virulent Russia-gater Laurence Tribe. "Far from breathing life into his damning report, the tired Robert Mueller sucked the life out of it. The effort to save democracy and the rule of law from this lawless president has been set back, not advanced."
"On the optics, this was a disaster," summarized NBC's Chuck Todd.
As you'd expect, this widespread sentiment is shared by Trump himself, who told reporters -- after the hearing that "We had a very good day today."
A frail old man, unable to remember things, stumbling, refusing to answer basic questions...I said it in 2017 and Mueller confirmed it today All you pundits and moderates and lame Dems who told the public to put their faith in the esteemed Robert Mueller just STFU from now on.
Michael Moore (@MMFlint) July 24, 2019
It is entirely possible that the Democrats and their allied media outlets handed Trump a re-election in 2020 with their nonstop fixation on a fact-free conspiracy theory that was doomed to failure, and many progressives have been pointing this out.
"This whole setup has done more damage to the Democrats' chances of winning back the White House than anything that Trump could ever have dreamed up," former MSNBC host Kristal Ball said after the hearing. "Think about all the time and the journalistic resources that could have been dedicated to stories that, I don't know, that a broad swath of people might actually care about? Healthcare, wages, the teachers' movement, whether we're going to war with Iran?"
"It's a self-soothing fantasy that makes people like Hillary Clinton and her allies feel better, but in reality all of this stood to help Trump, which is why from the very beginning I thought that this was such a disaster," journalist Aaron Mate' told CGTN America's The Heat -- regarding the Russia-gate conspiracy theory.
"It's great to see more leftists & liberals recognizing that channeling the anti-Trump Resistance into a stupid conspiracy theory was a massive mistake, but for next time: let's try harder to voice that when it's actually happening for 2+ years, not after it finally collapses," tweeted Mate', whose unparalleled reporting on the gaping plot holes in the Russia-gate narrative won him an Izzy Award earlier this year.
It's great to see more leftists & liberals recognizing that channeling the anti-Trump Resistance into a stupid conspiracy theory was a massive mistake, but for next time: let's try harder to voice that when it's actually happening for 2+ years, not after it finally collapses.
Aaron Mate' (@aaronjmate) July 27, 2019
Mate' can reasonably be described as today's leading authority on the Russia-gate narrative and the arguments for and against it, and he is right not to only single out liberals in his criticism. It is true that there have been plenty of leftists and progressives who've continuously opposed Russia-gate right from the get go, at least in part for the reasons Mate' offers, but it is also true that it wasn't just liberals who got lost in the conspiratorial haze of Trump-Russia hysteria.
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