Tactic Number One Countering Nunes Memo: Denial

Tactic Number One Countering Nunes Memo: Denial

By Thomas Lifson

The institutional might of the Trump-hating establishment was mobilized Friday to deflect the impact of release of the Nunes Memo. Faced with evidence that the FISA Court was deceived in order to use the awesome electronic spying power of the NSA against a presidential campaign, there is ample reason for panic.
As the day unfolded, watching Trump-hating media (with a focus on CNN, the most vehement member of that group), several different tactics were visible. In their panic, metaphorically they were throwing anything at the wall to see what would stick
The first of tactic was to contest the factual assertions, using anonymous source (of course). Jim Sciutto of CNN did the dirty work, claiming that the FISA warrant didn’t really rely on the Steele Dossier, apparently implying that even if the FISA Court was deceived about dossier, it doesn’t matter-- a very dubious argument.
  


It did not take long for Representative Lee Zeldin, who actually heard McCabe’s testimony and knows that the transcript of it can and will be released after going through the declassification process used on the Nunes Memo, to destroy this argument:



This tactic of contesting the facts won’t stand the test of time but that is almost beside the point. The initial strategy of the media is to comfort their constituency that the Nunes Memo is no big deal, not really worth taking seriously. They don’t want them to focus on the seriousness of the abuse, the weaponization of the universal electronic monitoring capabilities of the NSA to spy on the political opposition.

Tactic Number Two Countering Nunes Memo: Inversion

By Thomas Lifson

See also: Tactic Number One Countering Nunes Memo: Denial
Faced with evidence of criminality in weaponizing the NSA spy apparatus for use against the Republican presidential nominee, a second tactic was rolled out yesterday by the many enemies of Trump in the media and political establishment. Let’s call it “inversion.” Instead of putting responsibility for corrupting the FBI and Department of Justice on those who corrupted them, the inversion strategy blames those who exposed the corruption.  
The best (actually, worst) example of this came from Senator John McCain, who at least has the excuse of being gravely ill. The HuffPost gleefully reported:

“The latest attacks against the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests ― no party’s, no President’s, only Putin’s,” McCain added. “The American people deserve to know all the facts surrounding Russia’s ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation must proceed unimpeded. Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the lens of politics and manufacturing political sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”

Wolf Blitzer, who has no excuse other than the imperatives of bosses and his personal limitations, applied the same inversion tactic:

Blitzer accused Stewart and the GOP of allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to succeed given the member created doubt in U.S. government agencies.
“So, Putin has succeeded because that’s what’s happening right now,” he said. “The whole nature of the support for the intelligence community, the law enforcement community, the fighting that’s going on here in Washington, he’s sitting back and he’s smiling, saying, guys, good work. We succeeded.”

So, shut up, because complaining does the work of Putin. It’s the same old “Russia, Russia, Russia!” strategy we’ve seen for almost a year and half, with a new paint job. A simple thought experiment demonstrates the idiocy of this tactic. Apply this same reasoning to #BlackLivesMatter complaints about the police. Those who criticize the police are undermining our faith in the key institution of law enforcemnet and doing the work of the criminal class.