President Trump is trying to make spygate a thing.
“But a lot of bad things have happened.
We now call it 'Spygate'.”
"They had spies in my campaign, during my campaign, for political purposes. That would
be unprecedented in the history of our country.”
It would be unprecedented... if it were true.
The FBI and special counsel Robert Mueller are currently investigating Trump’s campaign
ties with Russia. Trump created the Spygate scandal to discredit them in the public eye.
He’s used this tactic before.
And it works.
Trump charges that an FBI representative was implanted into his campaign, early on, for
political purposes by Democrats.
Here’s what actually happened.
The FBI began their investigation into Russian interference in the election in July of 2016.
They asked Stefan Halper — a Cambridge University professor and longtime Republican insider
with ties to the intelligence community — to speak with two of Trump’s campaign foreign
policy advisors — Carter Page and George Papadopoulos.
The FBI opened the investigation after Papadopoulos drunkenly bragged about Russia offering him
dirt on Clinton.
Page was also on the FBI’s radar because they knew he had taken a trip to Moscow earlier
in July.
Papadopoulos, you’ll remember, has already plead guilty to lying to federal agents in
Mueller’s probe.
The FBI was investigating Russia’s efforts to infiltrate the Trump campaign, not doing
any work on behalf of the democratic party, or President Obama.
There’s no evidence it was for political purposes.
Spygate - as Trump coined it it - is a complete fabrication — a conspiracy theory.
Halper was not implanted into the Trump campaign.
He didn’t start working with the FBI very early on or long before the Russian interference
stories.
This started in July, after Trump was already the Republican nominee and Russia was already
in the news.
The investigation actually started after this.
“Russia, if you’re listening, I hope you’re able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing.”
So, if true, it’s a big political scandal… but it’s not.
Even top Republicans dispute the president’s version of events.
“The F.B.I. did exactly what my fellow citizens would want them to do when they got the information
they got, and that it has nothing to do with Donald Trump.”
“I have seen no evidence to the contrary
of the initial assessment that Chairman Gowdy's has made."
Trump’s twitter obsession with Spygate has gone from demanding the Department of Justice
investigate Obama, to claiming the FBI paid Halper a lot of money to spy - there’s zero
evidence of that.
Trump also completely misquoted the former director of national intelligence.
Clapper actually said the opposite.
"Was the FBI spying on Trump’s campaign?”
“No, they were not.
They were spying on — a term I don’t particularly like — but on what the Russians were doing.”
Trump, coincidentally, does like the term “spy.”
The Associated Press reported that he told an ally that branding Halper as such would
stick.
True or not, Trump’s accusations might be believed by his base.
We know because he’s done this before.
Like when he tweeted that Obama wiretapped his phones at Trump Tower.
He even had the White House officially back him up.
"When he talked about 'wiretapping,' he meant surveillance."
Despite it not being true...
But a majority of Republicans still believe it.
Or when Trump tweeted that he won the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people
who voted illegally.”
Again, the White House backed him up.
“I think there's been studies.
There's one that came out of Pew in 2008 that showed 14 percent of people who voted were
noncitizens.”
Pew did no such study,
because the claim isn’t true.
But again, most Republicans still believe millions of illegal immigrants voted.
Almost half think he won the popular vote.
So even though Spygate isn’t true, it doesn’t matter.
The thinking goes: If Trump can delegitimize the FBI, then he might be able to survive
whatever Mueller’s investigation finds.
And the American people’s trust of the FBI has already been eroded by Trump’s previous
attacks.
“FBI has been in turmoil.
You know that, I know that, everybody knows that.”
This chart shows exactly how much that trust has eroded.
It’s not insignificant.
And these attacks resonate with Trump’s base.
The vast majority of Trump voters believe the FBI is biased against him.
Only 32% of all Americans believe that.
Which brings us back to Spygate.
If history is any evidence, Trump’s base is likely to side with him again on this fabrication.
"They had people infiltrating our campaign.
Can you imagine?”
Booooooo.
Whatever Mueller’s team finds at the end of their investigation, Trump may have already
have won the public opinion.
"It is for public opinion, because
eventually the decision here is going to be impeach, not impeach.
So, our jury is the American -- as it should be -- is the American people. “