Even if Hillary is corrupt, how exactly does that make Donald Trump not corrupt?
Let’s all agree on a few basic premises.
Hillary Clinton is not president, has never been president, and almost certainly will never be president. So whatever she did as secretary of state and as a candidate for president is — while not entirely irrelevant — of so little consequence that it’s hardly worth mentioning anymore.
The mainstream press has done a yeoman’s job of pointing out the Trump administration’s dishonesty in flogging the nonsensical Uranium One and Steele dossier nonscandals, but for the most part they’re missing the point — and as a result they’re getting dragged into what amounts to a heated argument with a moon-landing denier about which flavor of Tang Neil Armstrong liked best.
The real answer to “did Hillary Clinton collude with the Russians by funding the Steele dossier?” and “did she improperly sell uranium to the Russians?” is 1) absolutely not and, more importantly, 2) it doesn’t fucking matter.
Trump’s bout of whataboutism is so severe he can’t get past the fact that he stopped running against Hillary Clinton a year ago. Even if Trump’s Justice Department successfully prosecuted Hillary and had her beaten with bamboo rods during a very special episode of Duck Dynasty, it wouldn’t change the fact that Trump is in deep shit.
Why can’t the media see this more clearly? They don’t have to engage with every stupid thing that comes along, even if that stupid thing is the president of the United States.
Even if we accept that Hillary is irretrievably corrupt and has committed every single sin Fox News has ever accused her of, it’s basically irrelevant now. They might as well accuse Mike Dukakis of waxing his eyebrows. That ship has sailed, kiddos.
What is relevant is the fact that our sitting president is corrupt as hell. Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, folks.
Unfortunately, as dumb as they are, the Trumpites have become very adept at playing the distraction game.
It goes a little like this:
Sarah Huckabee Sanders: There’s clear, and now indisputable, evidence that Hillary Clinton is orange.
Washington Post: Sanders: Hillary is the real orange one
Trump, via Twitter: The dishonest fake news media, who badly missed on their election predictions, are now covering for Crooked Orange Hillary. I don’t spray-tan and NEVER WILLl!
National Review: Lady Marmalade: Hillary fends off fresh accusations about unusual skin tone
Sean Hannity: Tonight on Hannity: The out-of-control liberal media is resorting to name-calling and is once again — no surprise here — lobbing outrageous accusations at our president. Imagine if I had called Barack Hussein Obama a mocha-brown communist Kenyan soy boy. I would have been crucified, folks. I’ll talk to the third cousin of the widow of the co-founder of Pantone, who has the real scoop on Hillary’s “orange problem.”
Alex Jones: I don't like ‘em putting chemicals in the water that turn the freakin’ frogs gay!
Earnest New York Times op-ed: An Orange by Any Other Name
USA Today: Inside PigmentGate. Is Hillary the real orange menace?
Breitbart: Shocking new revelations conclusively place Hillary’s natural skin hue somewhere between vermillion and burnt sienna
Chuck Todd to Democratic senator on Meet the Press: On Tuesday, the Trump administration accused Hillary Clinton of being, quote, “orange,” unquote. This scandal has suddenly picked up a lot of momentum in the media over the past several days. How do you respond?
So yeah, get it together MSM. The fact-checks are nice, but what we really need are reality checks. When someone says something obnoxious, stupid, or completely immaterial to distract us from planet earth, it’s okay to ignore them.
Trump has been playing this same game for two years now. Get wise, and get a fucking grip.
