I just read another of Marc Thiessen's hyperventilating defenses of the criminal Trump, "Democrats are crippling America’s response to Russian interference," and I am weary. It takes a lot of stamina to tolerate this former Bush speechwriter's Big Lies, in the mold of both his hero and Sean Hannity. In fact Thiessen is so taxing, I limit my reading of him to roughly once a month. I just don't have the strength — or ignorance — of a Trumpeteer.
Part of what wearies any conscientious reader is in deciding which of Thiessen's Big Lies, in any given column, is the Biggest Lie. After no little labored thought about today's column (which also includes the suggested silliness of Trump's innocence because Mueller hasn't yet indicted him, and the supposedly exonerating fact that Russia's assault on the U.S. began in 2014, before Trump's entrance into the race), I have chosen this:
"Perhaps evidence of collusion between Trump officials and Russia will still emerge. If it does, those officials should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But Trump’s response is not the behavior of someone who is worried that Mueller will find evidence he knowingly engaged in collusion."
The Big Lie often succeeds because it is … BIG. That is, it's so obviously mendacious and enormously fraudulent, people figure that no one would just make it up. There must be some truth to it. To write that Trump's "is not the behavior of someone who is worried that Mueller will find evidence he knowingly engaged in collusion" is such a lie.
What's especially amusing about Thiessen's column today is that right next to his cris de coeur of Trump's innocence act is David Von Drehle's column, titled "For an innocent man, Trump sure does act guilty."
"Surprising as this is in a veteran of showbiz," writes Von Drehle, "Trump seems not to understand how a close-up magnifies every gesture. His jumpiness around the subject of Russia; his hand-wringing over ways to end the investigation; his rhetorical flop-sweat at the mention of the letters F, B and I — all these and more have his audience thinking: Gee, for an innocent man he sure does act guilty."
He sure does. And surely, even Thiessen has noticed. But I guess he's rehearsing to guest-host for Sean Hannity.