With the Russia collusion lie imploding, President Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign is coming out swinging against the Democrats who promoted this disgraceful hoax.
Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh called for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to be held accountable for her failure to discipline Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), two of the top Democrats who peddled Russiagate on cable news for two years, Breitbart reported exclusively.
Republicans are calling on Schiff to resign in the wake of Robert Mueller’s exoneration of the president for collusion, but Pelosi is standing by him.
Trump campaign slams Pelosi
Pelosi picked Schiff and Nadler to lead the Intelligence and House Judiciary committees, respectively. Murtaugh called on Pelosi to “answer” for her role in allowing the two men to share, with impunity, a false conspiracy narrative that pursued the president and his family for two years.
“Nancy Pelosi put Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler at the top of two of the most powerful committees in the House and they now have a severe credibility problem,” Murtaugh said in an email to Breitbart. “They were leaders of the two-year effort to lie to the American people, while the Speaker of the House sat silently and let them do it. Any investigations they undertake are hopelessly tainted by their repeated and egregious spreading of the malicious collusion hoax. Speaker Pelosi should have to answer for their actions.”
In a memo circulated by the Trump campaign to TV producers, Murtaugh details the slander spread by Schiff, Nadler, and other Democrats on networks for almost two years alleging the president conspired with Russia. Murtaugh cites a Sunday letter from attorney general William Barr which, in summarizing Mueller’s report, exonerated Trump of collusion and obstruction of justice.
“As you know, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report found that no one associated with President Donald J. Trump’s 2016 campaign colluded with Russia, despite repeated offers from Russia-linked operatives. The Special Counsel also made no recommendation on obstruction, which is a decision in itself. Using the information provided by Mueller, the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General determined that there was no obstruction,” Murtaugh wrote in the memo.
“The only way to interpret these conclusions is as a total and complete vindication of President Trump,” he continued. “The issuance of these definitive findings comes after two years of Democrat leaders and others lying to the American people by vigorously and repeatedly claiming there was evidence of collusion. They made many of these false claims, without evidence, on your airwaves.”
The Trump campaign is sending this memo to TV producers: pic.twitter.com/yhr03LAI7N
— Jonathan Swan (@jonathanvswan) March 25, 2019
“False, outlandish claims”
The memo cites Democrats Schiff, Nadler, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), DNC Chairman Tom Perez, and former CIA chief John Brennan as making “false, outlandish claims.” Schiff, who was among the top peddlers of Russiagate, routinely claimed that Trump had colluded with Russia, of which he claimed there was “evidence in plain sight” on CBS This Morning in August 2018. It cites Nadler as claiming that there is “obviously a lot of collusion. The question is how high,” on CNN’s Erin Burnett OutFront in October 2017.
Blumenthal is quoted as saying that there is “clear” evidence of collusion on MSNBC’s All In on air in October 2018. Swalwell, another top collusion peddler, claimed that there was “strong evidence of collusion” on CNN’s Wolf in March 2018. Perez alleged that there was a “mountain [emphasis added] of evidence of collusion…to basically affected our democracy” on NBC’s Meet the Press in April 2018.
Brennan, another key player in the hoax, accused the president of treason after Trump failed to confront Putin on election interference at the Helsinki summit in July. Brennan told NBC’s Meet the Press in August that he “[stands] very much by that claim.” He claimed as recently as two weeks ago that Trump would face indictments.
No accountability for collusion peddlers?
Schiff and Nadler, who have both launched investigations into Trump’s family, business, and Russia ties, have promised to continue investigating the president despite Mueller’s finding of no collusion. This comes after both committee chairmen appeared earlier this month to follow Pelosi in tamping down on talk of impeachment after she said it would be a mistake to proceed without compelling evidence of collusion.
Evidently, Schiff and Nadler lied, as both men are now claiming that there is still evidence of collusion despite Mueller, whose judgment they once heeded as beyond reproach, reaching the opposite conclusion. Schiff now appears to be engaged in more of the same double-talk, simultaneously claiming that impeachment is “not the end game” even as he and Nadler continue to pursue a partisan probe into the president.
With their collusion narrative in tatters, Democrats are now pivoting to attacking Barr’s credibility while demanding the full release of Mueller’s report, apparently in hopes that there is evidence of collusion hidden somewhere in the fine print. Pelosi told Democrats Tuesday to cheer up and focus on policy, and while she isn’t pushing for impeachment, she has joined Nadler and Schiff in following the media’s new spin that Trump was “not exonerated” of obstruction of justice.
Pelosi told Democrats that Barr thinks he is “above the law,” echoing Schiff, who all but smeared Barr on Monday as a sycophant taking orders from Trump, saying he has “done the job he applied for, which is attempt to exonerate Mr. Trump. That ought to deeply concern people.”
Mueller punted the decision on whether to exonerate Trump of obstruction of justice to Barr and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who both found that the evidence did not meet a threshold to prosecute, all but clearing Trump. At any rate, it’s difficult to imagine why Trump would obstruct an investigation into something that never happened.
Some say that the Democrats could overreach if they continue to investigate Trump after Mueller already cleared him. The Democrats could pay in the next election if there is a perception that they just want to take down the president regardless of the facts. Republicans who impeached, but failed to remove, Bill Clinton from office learned a harsh lesson when they lost seats in the following election
No apologies
Pelosi’s demurral seems to take that history into account, and while Pelosi isn’t fixating on impeachment, she isn’t apologizing, either, nor is she tamping down on the Democrats’ investigations. Pelosi has summarily rejected calls for Schiff to resign or apologize from numerous Republicans, including Donald Trump Jr., White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and others. In fact, Pelosi said that Schiff has done an “outstanding job.”
“Chairman Schiff has done an outstanding job and that’s the reason why he’s subject to these ridiculous attacks,” Pelosi spokeswoman Ashley Etienne told The Hill.“Democrats aren’t going to be intimidated by the White House or Congressional Republicans, we’re not going to be distracted from securing the release of the full Mueller report and the underlying evidence, and we will continue to pursue legitimate oversight because that’s what the Constitution requires,” she added.
Despite there being no collusion, Schiff and Nadler are as shameless as ever in their pursuit of the president. Will the Democrats ever be held accountable?
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