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Compromise, Perfidy, Mental Illness
Why won’t Donald Trump defend U.S. against Russian attack
One trick to a “three card monte” game is to direct the mark’s attention away from the money card. This classic con can be worked many ways but a good sleight of hand artist can regularly focus the mark’s attention on the wrong card, the card that doesn’t pay off. Waiting out the report on the Mueller investigation has been a classic example of this principle. President Trump’s 500 or so declarations that “there was no collusion” has focused most of the attention, from both his supporters and detractors, on the one question posed to Mr. Mueller that was least likely to pay off, the question of conspiracy.
Two other questions were just as important; did the Russians interfere in the 2016 election, and did the president attempt to derail the investigation into that possible interference? The answer to the first question was yes, despite the president’s many denials and deflections on this point, Mueller found that it was not “a 400 pound guy on his couch” who hacked into the Clinton campaign and the DNC, it was in fact the Russians. The answer to the second question appears to be yes as well. Mueller found evidence that President Trump attempted to derail or block the investigation into Russian interference, though for as yet unknown reasons Mueller declined to recommend prosecution.
