In Trump World, “truth isn’t truth,” so I suppose it stands to reason that the president believes crimes aren’t crimes.
In another tweet, later Wednesday morning, the president suggested that [Michael] Cohen’s admitted campaign finance violations “are not a crime.”
“Michael Cohen plead guilty to two counts of campaign finance violations that are not a crime,” he tweeted. Trump added that “President Obama had a big campaign finance violation and it was easily settled!” — an apparent reference to a $375,000 fine levied by the Federal Election Commission in 2013 against Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign for failing to report more than 1,000 contributions.
First, if you said it was only a matter of time before Trump started whining about Barack Obama as part of his response to his growing crises, now is the time to pat yourself on the back.
Second, the Obama campaign’s FEC reporting mistake is in no way similar to the criminal conspiracy hatched by the Republican president’s former “fixer” –“in coordination with and at the direction of” Trump — to make illegal payoffs to some of the president’s alleged former mistresses.
But even putting that aside, for Trump to argue that “campaign finance violations … are not a crime” suggests the president’s desperation is starting to get the better of him. The presidency is a powerful position, but it does not include the ability to redefine the word “crime” in a more politically convenient way. A Washington Post analysis added, “It’s a bit baffling that Trump would assert that criminal charges accepted by Cohen aren’t a crime. Perhaps he’s arguing that the alleged crimes didn’t occur or that prosecutors crafted their charges in a way to maximize Cohen’s exposure to legal risk. It’s not clear. It’s not true.”
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
