The video discusses the ongoing scandals surrounding the Trump administration, which have been referred to as "Stupid Watergate." It highlights the Mueller investigation, which has charged multiple people and companies and gathered guilty pleas. The video expresses concern that public support for the investigation is decreasing, potentially giving Trump the confidence to shut it down. It also discusses the tactics used by Trump's TV friends, such as redefining the investigation, employing whataboutism, and building a counter-narrative to delegitimize the investigation. The video provides examples of these tactics, including the focus on FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page and the promotion of the inaccurate claim of Spygate.

- The video discusses the inaccurate claim of Spygate, which suggests that the FBI planted a mole in the Trump campaign.
- The claim is based on the fact that the FBI sent an informant to speak to two Trump campaign advisors with suspicious contacts linked to Russia.
- Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy, known for investigating Hillary Clinton, states that the FBI acted properly in this matter.
- Trump supporters turn on Gowdy for his comments, accusing him of being part of the establishment and deep state.
- The video highlights the aggressive nature of the conspiracy theory machine, which even evidence cannot slow down.
- Hannity, a Trump supporter, deflects negative stories about Trump and creates conspiracy theories to sow doubt and shut down the investigation.
- The video compares Trump's tactics to those used by O.J. Simpson's defense team, which successfully cast doubt on evidence.
- The importance of the investigative process is emphasized, and there is concern that even if irrefutable evidence is found, Trump could pardon himself and many would believe him.

John Oliver explains how the president and his allies are going full O. J. in order to undermine the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

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We thought we'd update you on the ongoing Trump administration scandals that we've been calling Stupid Watergate.

A scandal potentially on the scale of Watergate, but where everyone involved is dumb and terrible and bad at everything.

Now, last month marks the 1 year anniversary of the Mueller investigation, or as the president and his supporters call it...

Robert Mueller's illegitimate runaway witch hunt.

It is and it has been from the beginning a witch hunt.

Yes, they've been derisively referring to the Mueller investigation as a witch hunt, which is a little ironic, because you just know, if Giuliani, Hannity, and Trump had been alive back when people burned witches, they'd have had front row seats toasting marshmallows while trying to conceal their boners.

Now, it's also a strange claim, considering that Muller's team has, in the past year, charged 20 people and 3 companies and gathered 5 guilty pleas.

So if this is a witch hunt, witches exist.

Meaning, we should probably change all references on our history books to 16th century witch hunts to read, that time we were right to murder all those teenage girls in a lake.

And the fact The investigation has been moving fast is good news, because set aside for right now, how you feel about Trump or politics, the question, did a hostile foreign government try to manipulate our election, is something any reasonable person should want answered quickly.

And yet, an increasing number of Americans seem to want the investigation to stop.

Last July, support for investigation stood at 62 percent.

But a recent poll found it's now down to just 54 percent, and that is troubling.

Because remember, Trump has actually considered shutting the investigation down before, and if that number keeps dropping, he may well feel empowered to try and actually do it.

So tonight, let's talk about the Mueller investigation.

Not about its contents, because we don't know what they are yet, but about the effort to actively undermine it.

Not just from Trump and his lawyers, but from, and more importantly than you might think, Trump's TV friends.

Specifically, Pumpkin Dad, Captain Virgin, Bad Judge, White and Megyn Kelly, The Dunce Bus, The Dunce Bus Jr.

For Presidents, and of course, Michael Cohen client number 3, Sean Hannity, a man voted most fuckable by Nana Needs New Glasses magazine.

And if you're thinking, well, hold on, I don't watch Fox News, I tune all of that stuff out, it's actually important that you know what's been happening on it for reasons that, and I cannot believe I'm saying this, Rudy Giuliani explained best.

Because when he was recently asked why he was going around spouting unsubstantiated nonsense, he offered this explanation.

Eventually, the decision here is gonna be impeach, not impeach.

Members of Congress, Democrat and Republican, are gonna be informed a lot by their constituents.

So, our jury is the American, as it should be, is the American people.

He's related by blood to his first wife, but he is right.

Because, because it is the long-standing view of the Justice Department that you cannot indict a sitting president.

So to the extent that Trump can be held accountable, it's gonna be through impeachment, where public opinion is key.

Basically, when Giuliani goes on TV, he's arguing to the jury, and that is us.

And I know you're probably thinking right now, -"Fuck jury duty!

Time to act like a racist idiot to get out of it!" -$50,000!

Well, that is not a disqualifier this time, not by a long shot.

So, with that in mind, let's look at a few techniques that they've been using to influence public opinion.

And the first involves attempting to redefine the investigation on their terms.

Because whenever they discuss it, it's inevitably framed like this.

Mueller is there to show collusion between Russia and Trump, and there's none so

So just so we're clear, everyone, 4 words.

I just thought we'd have some fun with words.

All we did was witness the closest anyone in the Trump administration has ever come to making or hearing rap music.

But it is important to remember, Mueller wasn't tasked with finding proof of collusion.

The word collusion doesn't even appear in his appointment letter.

In actuality, he was tasked with looking into links and coordination between the Russian government and anyone associated with the Trump campaign, as well as any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation.

So saying the investigation has to shut down if there's no collusion is like saying a game of Scrabble has to end because you fit all the letters in your mouth.

Well, congratulations, but those aren't really the rules that we agreed to.

And that is far from the only diversionary tactic here.

Now, we've talked about this on the show before.

It's the practice of shifting the debate to someone else's wrongdoing.

And he responds to any negative news about Trump with epic rounds of the What About Game.

What about fired FBI director James Comey?

What about anti-Trump lovebirds struck in Paige?

What about Christopher Steele, the foreign national that Fusion GPS hired and funneled the money Hillary did through the law firm, and a foreign national got Russian lies to influence the American people in an election?

What about who lied to the FISA court judges?

That is a lot of names to throw up on a screen and just say, what about them?

Hey, Sean, have you thought about these 15 people?

We're not talking about the FBI until you answer, what about Cher, Sean?

Now, Hannity's point there is that other people did bad things, so therefore, Trump's bad things don't count.

Whether or not someone else did something shitty has no bearing over whether you did something shitty.

If that were true, every movie that got a bad review could simply say, -"What about from Justin to Kelly?" -$5,000.

And the critic would be legally required to give their movie 5 stars.

That whataboutism is an important part of the third tactic on display here, building a counter-narrative.

Essentially trying to delegitimize the investigation by framing it as part of a grand conspiracy to bring down Trump.

Hannity has a series of carry-from-homeland-is-off-her-meds conspiracy boards with Mueller and Clinton as the head of 2 different crime families, and whatever the fuck is happening on this 1.

Well, night after night, Hannity paints a picture where the investigation is itself 1 gigantic scandal, with the Democrats, the FBI, the deep state, and establishment Republicans teaming up to take down Trump.

And he's got a favorite phrase to convey its scope.

That's like, Watergate's like stealing a Snickers bar.

Makes Watergate look like stealing a Snickers bar.

This makes Watergate like stealing a Snickers bar.

That's just an odd number of mentions for Snickers, considering it doesn't sponsor Hannity's show.

Presumably, Snickers simply couldn't hang with big hitters like his actual advertisers, MyPillow, RectiCare Cream, and of course, Sock Slider.

Just bending over to put on your socks is brutally painful every day.

The pain-free, no bend-over way to comfortably put on your socks every day.

I have been waiting for someone to invent a gadget that I can preload with a sock condom and then foot fuck my way to comfort every morning.

Now, unsurprisingly, Hannity's narratives tend to fall apart pretty quickly.

Take 2 of the names on his family feud board, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

They are FBI agents who worked on the investigations into both Hillary and Trump.

And the key thing you learn about them, if you follow conservative media at all, is that they were making sex at each other.

Did these 2 cheating lovebirds, who are still married to other people at the time, have any opportunity to actually do their jobs at the FBI.

Peter Strzok and his in-office fellow FBI agent and secret lover, Lisa Page.

Peter Strzok, who, along with his go-mod Lisa Page, another FBI lawyer, are getting off in their fight to save the country from Donald Trump.

They were doing the nasty, doing the slam-bam in the ham, stuffing the muffin, fishing for kippers.

They were poking them in 44 and piercing them in 52.

They slid the wand into the goblet of fire.

They were dining at the all-you-can-bone buffet at BJO Porkington's.

And in doing that, in having that affair, they apparently relied on FBI work phones to hide it from 1 of their spouses, which is undeniably bad judgment.

Plus, texts like these made it clear that they very much preferred a Hillary presidency to a Trump 1, which is a political opinion they're entitled to as long as it doesn't affect their work at all.

And the DOJ is looking into that question right now, but Robert Mueller himself didn't wait.

He removed Strzok from the investigation immediately when he learned about the texts, and Page had already left.

So, these 2 People haven't been part of this investigation for nearly a year now.

And the Wall Street Journal read the 7,000 messages between them and found that they show no evidence of a conspiracy against Trump.

And just for a moment, spare a thought for the reporter who had to read 7,000 sects between 2 horny FBI agents.

But Hannity still brings up Strzok and Page all the time as just 2 of the many threads in this elaborate counter-narrative.

His latest obsession is something called Spygate, the inaccurate claim that the FBI planted a mole in the Trump campaign.

Now, here is what the Spygate story is actually based on.

As part of the effort to investigate Russia's meddling in the election, FBI agents sent an informant to talk to 2 Trump campaign advisors who had suspicious contacts linked to Russia.

But here is how bullshit their theory is.

Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy, who you may remember, led a more than two-year inquiry into Benghazi.

So, he is someone who is no stranger to digging for dirt on Hillary.

You believe the FBI acted properly in this matter?

Based on what I have seen, I don't know what the FBI could have done or should have done other than run out a lead that someone loosely connected with the campaign was making assertions about Russia.

I would think you would want the FBI to find out whether or not there was any validity to what those people were saying.

He's saying the FBI did what they were supposed to do.

And the headline, FBI Investigates Possible Crime, is like the headline, Domino's Delivers Pizza, or Harley Davidson Sells Midlife Crisis Mobile to Local Dads.

Yeah, no kidding, that's their whole reason for existence.

And yet, rather than accept that pushback, some Trump supporters turned on Gowdy instead.

I'm naming names here, I'm through with it.

I mean, Trey Gowdy is a complete schizophrenic.

He is absolutely in the service of the establishment and the deep state, whether intentionally, consciously, or purposefully, he is exactly that.

Anyone who questions the conspiracy becomes part of the conspiracy itself.

And for the record, The only thing that is completely schizophrenic about Trey Gowdy is his hairstyle over the years.

Look, Trey, Trey, my friend, when you are born with bad hair, just pick a look and stay with it.

The point here is this machine is now running so aggressively that even evidence can't slow it down.

And if you want more proof of that, just watch Hannity actively admit it in real time.

Mueller, If you got it, come on the show and tell America.

And by the way, if the media, if you have more proof that this is not a witch hunt, okay, I don't believe you.

Give me facts, and even if you do, I won't believe them.

He's basically bragging that he's proof-proof, which is a superpower that no 1 should want to have.

Like the ability to throw a baby 100 yards with a perfect spiral.

Sure, it's technically impressive, but maybe don't do it.

And all this can make it easy to forget just how bad what we actually do know already is.

Just as 1 example, we know that in 2016, Don Jr.

Knowingly set up a meeting in Trump Tower with a person described to him as a Russian government attorney with the promise that the person would provide information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia as part of Russia and its government's supports for Mr.

And we know this, not because of the Mueller investigation, or because there was a spy in the campaign, or because these 2 fuck buddies teamed up to frame anyone.

Tweeted out the emails setting up the meeting ahead of a newspaper publishing them.

So, that story is just a fact, and 1 that looks very bad for Trump.

But if you think Hannity isn't up to the challenge of deflecting that 1 as well, just watch him go to work.

Remember the now infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., a Russian lawyer, a Russian-American lobbyist, and a few others?

Recently unearthed, a transcript from a 2017 Senate hearing that the Russian-American lobbyist admitted to personally knowing Hillary Clinton.

You seem to be implying Hillary Clinton sent someone into Trump Tower to offer her opponent dirt on herself.

You have officially come up with the shittiest conspiracy theory ever.

And none of this even addresses the most obvious question.

If absolutely everyone, from Hillary, to the FBI, to Trey Gowdy, was in on a deep state plan to sabotage Trump.

Basically, everyone in the country got together to steal an election, and then for some reason, forgot to do it.

And look, we could pick apart conspiracies all night, but there is really, at the end of the day, no point, because there will always be another rabbit hole.

A metaphorical rabbit hole, that is, not to be confused with the rabbit hole, the gay club where, years ago, a young Marlon Bundo finally allowed his curiosity to overpower his shyness.

And in so doing, met someone really special himself.

But creating rabbit holes is kind of the point here, because I would argue that Hannity, Trump, and all the rest aren't really interested in getting to the bottom of any of these questions.

They're just trying to sow enough doubt that this number dips far enough below 50% to enable the whole investigation to be shut down.

And if you've seen any focus groups on TV, you know that at least some jurors are really listening.

It was a witch hunt to overturn an election.

All of this stuff that they say that Trump did, they're finding out that the Democrats did.

It's been going on for a year and a half.

We've been told, oh, there's something, there's something, We'll find it, we'll find it.

In this piece, we've argued that the tactics that you've seen tonight are transparent, illogical, and dumb.

But the other thing they definitely are is depressingly effective.

And the thing is, these tactics have worked in the past, quite famously, in fact.

A sociopathic, misogynist millionaire evolved from celebrity to undeserving folk hero, suddenly has evidence piling up that he may have done something terrible, and he puts the whole system on trial.

If that sounds familiar at all to you, it's because it's basically the story of O.J.

Well, in 1 sense, it means to murder 2 people.

But it also means to sway a jury by building a wild, implausible conspiracy that the system is corrupted.

The reason Hannity throws out so many theories may well be that he knows if he can discredit any part of Mueller's investigation, he convinced people the whole thing is a total sham.

And that is the same angle that OJ's lawyers took.

Just listen to 1 of them try to discredit all evidence because of doubts that he'd raised over a blood-soaked sock.

If they manufactured evidence on the sock, how can you trust anything else?

Although I will say, I also do have questions over how police got their hands on those socks, because the sock slider hadn't even been invented back then.

And sure, sure, there are differences between the 2 defenses.

The OJ trial had, if it doesn't fit, you must acquit.

We have collusion, delusion, conclusion, illusion, which, if anything, is even dumber.

And look, I'm not saying that Trump is guilty.

We honestly don't know, but even if the Mueller investigation doesn't prove that Trump personally colluded with the Russians, that doesn't mean the whole thing was a witch hunt or a waste of time.

The process of finding out is really important, and it needs to be seen through to its conclusion.

And my fear right now is that we are headed in a direction where even if Mueller comes back with irrefutable evidence, Trump could just pardon himself and put out a book called, If I Did It, and a very large portion of the country would fucking buy it.


Speaker 0: We thought we'd update you on the ongoing Trump administration scandals that we've been calling Stupid Watergate. A scandal potentially on the scale of Watergate, but where everyone involved is dumb and terrible and bad at everything. Now, last month marks the 1 year anniversary of the Mueller investigation, or as the president and his supporters call it...

Speaker 1: Robert Mueller's illegitimate runaway witch hunt. It is and it has been from the beginning a witch hunt.

Speaker 0: This is a witch hunt.

Speaker 2: This is a witch hunt.

Speaker 1: Basically a witch hunt.

Speaker 2: The witch hunt, if you will. It's a damn witch hunt.

Speaker 0: Yes, they've been derisively referring to the Mueller investigation as a witch hunt, which is a little ironic, because you just know, if Giuliani, Hannity, and Trump had been alive back when people burned witches, they'd have had front row seats toasting marshmallows while trying to conceal their boners. Now, it's also a strange claim, considering that Muller's team has, in the past year, charged 20 people and 3 companies and gathered 5 guilty pleas. So if this is a witch hunt, witches exist. Meaning, we should probably change all references on our history books to 16th century witch hunts to read, that time we were right to murder all those teenage girls in a lake. And the fact The investigation has been moving fast is good news, because set aside for right now, how you feel about Trump or politics, the question, did a hostile foreign government try to manipulate our election, is something any reasonable person should want answered quickly.

And yet, an increasing number of Americans seem to want the investigation to stop. Last July, support for investigation stood at 62 percent. But a recent poll found it's now down to just 54 percent, and that is troubling. Because remember, Trump has actually considered shutting the investigation down before, and if that number keeps dropping, he may well feel empowered to try and actually do it. So tonight, let's talk about the Mueller investigation.

Not about its contents, because we don't know what they are yet, but about the effort to actively undermine it. Not just from Trump and his lawyers, but from, and more importantly than you might think, Trump's TV friends. Specifically, Pumpkin Dad, Captain Virgin, Bad Judge, White and Megyn Kelly, The Dunce Bus, The Dunce Bus Jr. For Presidents, and of course, Michael Cohen client number 3, Sean Hannity, a man voted most fuckable by Nana Needs New Glasses magazine. And if you're thinking, well, hold on, I don't watch Fox News, I tune all of that stuff out, it's actually important that you know what's been happening on it for reasons that, and I cannot believe I'm saying this, Rudy Giuliani explained best.

Because when he was recently asked why he was going around spouting unsubstantiated nonsense, he offered this explanation.

Speaker 2: Eventually, the decision here is gonna be impeach, not impeach. Members of Congress, Democrat and Republican, are gonna be informed a lot by their constituents. So, our jury is the American, as it should be, is the American people.

Speaker 0: You know what? He's right. He's related by blood to his first wife, but he is right. Because, because it is the long-standing view of the Justice Department that you cannot indict a sitting president. So to the extent that Trump can be held accountable, it's gonna be through impeachment, where public opinion is key.

Basically, when Giuliani goes on TV, he's arguing to the jury, and that is us. And I know you're probably thinking right now, -"Fuck jury duty! Time to act like a racist idiot to get out of it!" -$50,000! Well, that is not a disqualifier this time, not by a long shot. So, with that in mind, let's look at a few techniques that they've been using to influence public opinion.

And the first involves attempting to redefine the investigation on their terms. Because whenever they discuss it, it's inevitably framed like this. Mueller is there to show collusion between Russia and Trump, and there's none so

Speaker 3: far, so why not end it?

Speaker 1: Where is any evidence of collusion? Show us. Nothing so far. Not a whiff.

Speaker 3: There is 0 evidence of Russia collusion. So just so we're clear, everyone, 4 words. Conclusion, collusion, no. Illusion, delusion, yes. I just thought we'd have some fun with words.

Speaker 0: Oh, well, we didn't. We didn't have fun with words there. All we did was witness the closest anyone in the Trump administration has ever come to making or hearing rap music. But it is important to remember, Mueller wasn't tasked with finding proof of collusion. The word collusion doesn't even appear in his appointment letter.

In actuality, he was tasked with looking into links and coordination between the Russian government and anyone associated with the Trump campaign, as well as any matters that arose or may arise directly from the investigation. That's a pretty broad mandate. So saying the investigation has to shut down if there's no collusion is like saying a game of Scrabble has to end because you fit all the letters in your mouth. Well, congratulations, but those aren't really the rules that we agreed to. And that is far from the only diversionary tactic here.

There's also whataboutism. Now, we've talked about this on the show before. It's the practice of shifting the debate to someone else's wrongdoing. The master of this is Sean Hannity. And he responds to any negative news about Trump with epic rounds of the What About Game.

Speaker 1: We have a two-tier justice system. What about fired FBI director James Comey? What about Bruce and Nellie Orr? What about anti-Trump lovebirds struck in Paige? What about lying Susan Rice?

What about Christopher Steele, the foreign national that Fusion GPS hired and funneled the money Hillary did through the law firm, and a foreign national got Russian lies to influence the American people in an election? What about who lied to the FISA court judges?

Speaker 0: That is a lot of names to throw up on a screen and just say, what about them? It's also a little easy as an argument. I'll prove it. Hey, Sean, have you thought about these 15 people? What about them?

What about Archduke Ferdinand, Sean? What about Cher? We're not talking about the FBI until you answer, what about Cher, Sean? Now, Hannity's point there is that other people did bad things, so therefore, Trump's bad things don't count. And look, let me be clear on this.

Whether or not someone else did something shitty has no bearing over whether you did something shitty. If that were true, every movie that got a bad review could simply say, -"What about from Justin to Kelly?" -$5,000. And the critic would be legally required to give their movie 5 stars. That whataboutism is an important part of the third tactic on display here, building a counter-narrative. Essentially trying to delegitimize the investigation by framing it as part of a grand conspiracy to bring down Trump.

Hannity has a series of carry-from-homeland-is-off-her-meds conspiracy boards with Mueller and Clinton as the head of 2 different crime families, and whatever the fuck is happening on this 1. Well, night after night, Hannity paints a picture where the investigation is itself 1 gigantic scandal, with the Democrats, the FBI, the deep state, and establishment Republicans teaming up to take down Trump. And he's got a favorite phrase to convey its scope.

Speaker 1: This is bigger than Watergate. That's like, Watergate's like stealing a Snickers bar. Makes Watergate look like stealing a Snickers bar. This makes Watergate like stealing a Snickers bar.

Speaker 0: That's just an odd number of mentions for Snickers, considering it doesn't sponsor Hannity's show. Presumably, Snickers simply couldn't hang with big hitters like his actual advertisers, MyPillow, RectiCare Cream, and of course, Sock Slider. It's true. Take a look. You struggle,

Speaker 2: you strain, you're so far away. Just bending over to put on your socks is brutally painful every day. Well, not anymore. Introducing Sock Slider. The pain-free, no bend-over way to comfortably put on your socks every day.

Speaker 0: Oh, thank goodness! I have been waiting. I have been waiting for someone to invent a gadget that I can preload with a sock condom and then foot fuck my way to comfort every morning. Now, unsurprisingly, Hannity's narratives tend to fall apart pretty quickly. Take 2 of the names on his family feud board, Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.

They are FBI agents who worked on the investigations into both Hillary and Trump. And the key thing you learn about them, if you follow conservative media at all, is that they were making sex at each other.

Speaker 4: Did these 2 cheating lovebirds, who are still married to other people at the time, have any opportunity to actually do their jobs at the FBI.

Speaker 1: There she is, FBI lovebird, Lisa Page.

Speaker 4: Peter Strzok and his in-office fellow FBI agent and secret lover, Lisa Page.

Speaker 3: Peter Strzok, who, along with his go-mod Lisa Page, another FBI lawyer, are getting off in their fight to save the country from Donald Trump.

Speaker 0: Oh, yeah, they were fucking! They were doing the nasty, doing the slam-bam in the ham, stuffing the muffin, fishing for kippers. They were poking them in 44 and piercing them in 52. They slid the wand into the goblet of fire. They were dining at the all-you-can-bone buffet at BJO Porkington's.

They were having an affair. And in doing that, in having that affair, they apparently relied on FBI work phones to hide it from 1 of their spouses, which is undeniably bad judgment. Plus, texts like these made it clear that they very much preferred a Hillary presidency to a Trump 1, which is a political opinion they're entitled to as long as it doesn't affect their work at all. And the DOJ is looking into that question right now, but Robert Mueller himself didn't wait. He removed Strzok from the investigation immediately when he learned about the texts, and Page had already left.

So, these 2 People haven't been part of this investigation for nearly a year now. And the Wall Street Journal read the 7,000 messages between them and found that they show no evidence of a conspiracy against Trump. And just for a moment, spare a thought for the reporter who had to read 7,000 sects between 2 horny FBI agents. That's not why they got into the game. But Hannity still brings up Strzok and Page all the time as just 2 of the many threads in this elaborate counter-narrative.

His latest obsession is something called Spygate, the inaccurate claim that the FBI planted a mole in the Trump campaign. Now, here is what the Spygate story is actually based on. As part of the effort to investigate Russia's meddling in the election, FBI agents sent an informant to talk to 2 Trump campaign advisors who had suspicious contacts linked to Russia. That's it. That is the whole thing.

But here is how bullshit their theory is. Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy, who you may remember, led a more than two-year inquiry into Benghazi. So, he is someone who is no stranger to digging for dirt on Hillary. Even he says this is nonsense.

Speaker 3: You believe the FBI acted properly in this matter?

Speaker 5: Based on what I have seen, I don't know what the FBI could have done or should have done other than run out a lead that someone loosely connected with the campaign was making assertions about Russia. I would think you would want the FBI to find out whether or not there was any validity to what those people were saying.

Speaker 0: Right. He's saying the FBI did what they were supposed to do. And the headline, FBI Investigates Possible Crime, is like the headline, Domino's Delivers Pizza, or Harley Davidson Sells Midlife Crisis Mobile to Local Dads. Yeah, no kidding, that's their whole reason for existence. And yet, rather than accept that pushback, some Trump supporters turned on Gowdy instead.

Speaker 6: I'm naming names here, I'm through with it. I mean, Trey Gowdy is a complete schizophrenic. He is absolutely in the service of the establishment and the deep state, whether intentionally, consciously, or purposefully, he is exactly that.

Speaker 0: And that's the problem. Anyone who questions the conspiracy becomes part of the conspiracy itself. And for the record, The only thing that is completely schizophrenic about Trey Gowdy is his hairstyle over the years. I mean, what exactly is happening here? Look, Trey, Trey, my friend, when you are born with bad hair, just pick a look and stay with it.

Trust me, man, I am an expert on this. -... -... The point here is this machine is now running so aggressively that even evidence can't slow it down. And if you want more proof of that, just watch Hannity actively admit it in real time.

Speaker 1: No evidence of Trump-Russia collusion. Mueller, If you got it, come on the show and tell America. And by the way, if the media, if you have more proof that this is not a witch hunt, okay, I don't believe you.

Speaker 0: Wow! Think about that. Give me facts, and even if you do, I won't believe them. He's basically bragging that he's proof-proof, which is a superpower that no 1 should want to have. Like the ability to throw a baby 100 yards with a perfect spiral.

Sure, it's technically impressive, but maybe don't do it. And all this can make it easy to forget just how bad what we actually do know already is. Just as 1 example, we know that in 2016, Don Jr. Knowingly set up a meeting in Trump Tower with a person described to him as a Russian government attorney with the promise that the person would provide information that would incriminate Hillary and her dealings with Russia as part of Russia and its government's supports for Mr. Trump.

And we know this, not because of the Mueller investigation, or because there was a spy in the campaign, or because these 2 fuck buddies teamed up to frame anyone. We know it because Don Jr. Tweeted out the emails setting up the meeting ahead of a newspaper publishing them. So, that story is just a fact, and 1 that looks very bad for Trump. But if you think Hannity isn't up to the challenge of deflecting that 1 as well, just watch him go to work.

Speaker 1: Remember the now infamous 2016 Trump Tower meeting between Donald Trump Jr., a Russian lawyer, a Russian-American lobbyist, and a few others? Oh, we have new information. Recently unearthed, a transcript from a 2017 Senate hearing that the Russian-American lobbyist admitted to personally knowing Hillary Clinton.

Speaker 0: So, let me get this 1 straight. You seem to be implying Hillary Clinton sent someone into Trump Tower to offer her opponent dirt on herself. You know what? Congratulations, Sean Hannity. You have officially come up with the shittiest conspiracy theory ever.

And none of this even addresses the most obvious question. If absolutely everyone, from Hillary, to the FBI, to Trey Gowdy, was in on a deep state plan to sabotage Trump. How the fuck is he president right now? Basically, everyone in the country got together to steal an election, and then for some reason, forgot to do it. And look, we could pick apart conspiracies all night, but there is really, at the end of the day, no point, because there will always be another rabbit hole.

A metaphorical rabbit hole, that is, not to be confused with the rabbit hole, the gay club where, years ago, a young Marlon Bundo finally allowed his curiosity to overpower his shyness. And in so doing, met someone really special himself. But creating rabbit holes is kind of the point here, because I would argue that Hannity, Trump, and all the rest aren't really interested in getting to the bottom of any of these questions. They're just trying to sow enough doubt that this number dips far enough below 50% to enable the whole investigation to be shut down. They are just working the jury.

And if you've seen any focus groups on TV, you know that at least some jurors are really listening.

Speaker 5: They call it a farce by... Created by the deep state.

Speaker 7: It was a witch hunt to overturn an election. All of this stuff that they say that Trump did, they're finding out that the Democrats did.

Speaker 5: It's been going on for a year and a half. They've found nothing. We've been told, oh, there's something, there's something, We'll find it, we'll find it. There's nothing.

Speaker 0: Exactly. In this piece, we've argued that the tactics that you've seen tonight are transparent, illogical, and dumb. But the other thing they definitely are is depressingly effective. And the thing is, these tactics have worked in the past, quite famously, in fact. Think about it.

A sociopathic, misogynist millionaire evolved from celebrity to undeserving folk hero, suddenly has evidence piling up that he may have done something terrible, and he puts the whole system on trial. If that sounds familiar at all to you, it's because it's basically the story of O.J. All over again. Trump is going full OJ and it's working. Now, what does it mean to go full OJ?

Well, in 1 sense, it means to murder 2 people. But it also means to sway a jury by building a wild, implausible conspiracy that the system is corrupted. The reason Hannity throws out so many theories may well be that he knows if he can discredit any part of Mueller's investigation, he convinced people the whole thing is a total sham. And that is the same angle that OJ's lawyers took. Just listen to 1 of them try to discredit all evidence because of doubts that he'd raised over a blood-soaked sock.

Speaker 2: If they manufactured evidence on the sock, how can you trust anything else?

Speaker 0: And the jury bought that. Although I will say, I also do have questions over how police got their hands on those socks, because the sock slider hadn't even been invented back then. Seems impossible. And sure, sure, there are differences between the 2 defenses. The OJ trial had, if it doesn't fit, you must acquit.

We have collusion, delusion, conclusion, illusion, which, if anything, is even dumber. And look, I'm not saying that Trump is guilty. We honestly don't know, but even if the Mueller investigation doesn't prove that Trump personally colluded with the Russians, that doesn't mean the whole thing was a witch hunt or a waste of time. The process of finding out is really important, and it needs to be seen through to its conclusion. And my fear right now is that we are headed in a direction where even if Mueller comes back with irrefutable evidence, Trump could just pardon himself and put out a book called, If I Did It, and a very large portion of the country would fucking buy it.

You

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