Donald Trump's Flying Circus, 6/24/17

If Republicans want to be known as the Party of Personal Responsibility, could they please choose a leader who has some grasp of that concept?  Donald Trump's unwillingness to take personal responsibility for anything at all is a wonder to behold.

The Washington Post has now run a story  revealing just how much Obama knew in advance about Russian meddling with the election and his failure to do anything about it.  And while Donald Trump may not have known the full extent of what was going in, he was certainly eager to benefit from it.  He denied in the face of all evidence that Russia was behind the hacking, encouraged Russia to hack  more, dismissed the fact of the hacking as insignificant compared to what it revealed and regularly quoted hacked material on Wikileaks and stories from Russian propaganda.  And up till now, he has continued in the light of all evidence to deny that Russia was pulling for him.

Until the story came out.  Then he cheerfully accepted that Russia had been meddling in the election on his behalf -- but it was all Obama's fault.  He tweeted out, "Since the Obama Administration was told way before the 2016 Election that the Russians were meddling, why no action? Focus on them, not T!"  And also, "Just out: The Obama Administration knew far in advance of November 8th about election meddling by Russia. Did nothing about it. WHY?"  And then, of course, his storm:

The reason that President Obama did NOTHING about Russia after being notified by the CIA of meddling is that he expected Clinton would win.....and did not want to "rock the boat." He didn't "choke," he colluded or obstructed, and it did the Dems and Crooked Hillary no good. The real story is that President Obama did NOTHING after being informed in August about Russian meddling. With 4 months looking at Russia.....under a magnifying glass, they have zero "tapes" of T people colluding. There is no collusion & no obstruction. I should be given apology!

 Look, there is certainly room to criticize Obama for not acting more forcefully.*  But failing to stop the hacks was one thing.  Eagerly accepting and seeking to benefit from them is quite another.  Dude, you were more than happy to use this to your advantage.  Eagerly using Russian hacks and leaks as the centerpiece of your campaign and then saying it was Obama's fault for not stopping them is chutzpah up there with killing your parents and then throwing yourself on the mercy of the court because you are an orphan.

And, just for what it is worth, this is a pattern with Trump.  Trump spouted ridiculous conspiracy theories about Ted Cruz's father being involved in the Kennedy assassination.  When called on it, he said that he was just quoting what he read in the National Inquirer and should not be held responsible for what they say.  When Marco Rubio mocked him for having small hands, Trump felt the need to deny that his hands were small in televised debate -- and also that anything else was small, either.  When asked whether this was prudent, Trump's response was that he was criticized for his hands and had no choice but to issue a public denial.  His overall response to just about anything has been to tweet out why it is not his fault.

Honestly sometimes I think that if he really did shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, he would tweet out that he wasn't his fault that the other guy stepped in the way of the bullet and besides, his bodyguards saw him point the gun, so why didn't they wrest it from his hands.

But maybe at least he would accept personal responsibility if he were ever determined to have committed the most heinous offense possible.  Sending state Department e-mails from a private server.





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*And also some basis to defend him.  More on that later.