I took a look at the entire Russia portion of Jake Tapper’s interview with Scaramucci today, and it’s even more alarming than the excepts I’d seen earlier. To his credit, Tapper gets to the heart of the matter. He notes that Trump is virtually the only U.S. government official who refuses to acknowledge that the Russians interfered in the U.S. election. He points out that congressional Republicans and loyalists appointed by Trump to lead the intelligence agencies all agree with the consensus view that Russia meddled in the election.
Tapper made it clear that Trump’s refusal to acknowledge this and take action poses a huge, ongoing danger since Russia will continue to interfere in our elections. Scaramucci’s response was somehow both lame and enraging. Check it out — the relevant portion starts around the five minute mark:
To summarize, Scaramucci says Trump views the focus on Russian interference as an attempt to delegitimize his glorious victory. He basically acknowledges that this is why Trump refuses to take Russian meddling seriously. That’s a pretty stunning admission.
Scaramucci assured Tapper that once he, Scaramucci, obtains security clearance, he’ll review the intelligence himself, and if it convinces him that Russia interfered, he’ll say so to Trump. Uh, okay. I’m not sure how that’s supposed to make a difference when Trump’s own IC appointees haven’t been able to convince Trump to get off his ass and do something to address this urgent issue.
But in the meantime, Scaramucci claims “there’s no harm in letting him [Trump] do it [his fucking job, which is to protect and defend the United States against a foreign foe] at his own time and pace,” and that “he’s not hurting anybody” by pouting and refusing to take action six months and counting into his presidency.
It’s just fucking surreal that this is the argument. Even if you buy the theory that Trump was the unwitting beneficiary of Russian interference (and I don’t, not for a fucking second), it’s amazing that his new spokes-rat would go on TV and so blithely downplay an unprecedented assault on our national sovereignty.
Last thought: It’s easy to see from that clip why Trump pulled Scaramucci into the White House. He (Scaramucci) turns virtually any remark into an opportunity to kiss Trump’s ass. If there were an Obsequious Olympics, he’d have more gold medals than Michael Phelps.