This was as predictable as the sun rising in the east. If you didn’t see it coming, if you didn’t know they were getting ready with it before it even started, you’re as naive and foolish as . . . Jeff Flake.
And you don’t want that.
Before the Democrats started demanding a new FBI investigation of the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh, they already knew the investigation was going to turn up nothing to corroborate the accusations. They were stalling for time, and they were already preparing various rationales to reject the FBI’s findings. The most obvious? Why, Donald Trump is ultimately the boss of the FBI! You can’t trust anything they say!
Of course, the White House insists the investigation is on the up and up, but they wouldn’t have to deny they’re micromanaging it if the media weren’t dropping the implication in the first place:
The FBI is free to investigate any sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh that it deems credible, two White House spokeswomen said on Sunday, rebuffing suggestions the administration has tried to limit the probe.
“The White House is not micromanaging this process,” White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in an interview with “Fox News Sunday.”
“The Senate is dictating the terms,” she said. “The FBI, this is what they do. And we’re out of the way and letting them do exactly that.”
Trump bowed to pressure from moderate Senate Republicans and ordered an FBI investigation after Christine Blasey Ford, a California university professor, detailed her claims at a Senate hearing on Thursday that Kavanaugh tried to rape her in 1982 when the two were still high school teenagers.
NBC News reported on Saturday that the White House had constrained the FBI investigation by limiting its parameters. Trump denied that story, tweeting that he wanted the FBI to interview anyone they “deem appropriate.”
Trump said on Twitter the NBC report was incorrect.
“Actually, I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion. Please correct your reporting!” he wrote.
Kellyanne Conway emphasized that the probe will be limited in scope, and necessarily so, because the idea is to deal with specific claims and not to become a fishing expedition.
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They’re also limiting the probe to claims they consider credible, which apparently include the Blasey Ford accusation and the Deborah Ramirez “penis in my face” accusation, but not the “gang rape ring” nonsense peddled by Michael Avenatti. That seems perfectly reasonable to me – even generous to the Ford and Ramirez claims – but any limit whatsoever is going to engender complaints that Trump is trying to spike the whole thing.
Next you can expect complaints that a week isn’t enough time, followed by charges that the probe was biased because they talked to too many people who didn’t corroborate the allegations.
It was a foolproof play by the Democrats. If the FBI comes back and says it uncovered evidence to back up the charges, Kavanaugh is finished. If they don’t (and they won’t), you can’t believe what they say because they answer to Trump.
It was always going to go this way. This has never been about anything but delaying the vote long enough to scare weak-kneed Republicans like Flake, Collins and Murkowski into voting no. You can be sure that in a week’s time, when it’s time to call the vote, we’ll be regaled by Democrats with complains of how this whole thing is an unfair whitewash, and how sexual assault victims are being told to go to hell by every senator who votes to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.
And once again, the likes of Flake, Collins and Murkowski will become the targets of pressure campaigns to become heroes and save the day. I’d like to say I’m confident they’ll stand up against the pressure and do the right thing.
I’m not.
This was as predictable as the sun rising in the east. If you didn’t see it coming, if you didn’t know they were getting ready with it before it even started, you’re as naive and foolish as . . . Jeff Flake.
And you don’t want that.
