Fox News host Jeanine Pirro got a shocking answer after she lobbed a softball to Donald Trump about whether he has ever worked for Russia.
Trump phoned into Pirro’s show last night. Apparently, he had nothing better to do than to spend nearly half an hour gabbing with his long-time pal (Pirro’s now-jailbird then-husband was kept on retainer by Trump while they were married).
I’m sure Pirro thought she was on safe ground asking Trump about the bombshell reporting from the New York Times that his behavior toward Russia raised so many concerns, the FBI opened a counter-intelligence operation to find out if he was “working on behalf of Russia against American interests.” Instead, Trump’s reply quickly went viral for its self-incriminating implications.
Pirro’s question, “Are you now, or have you ever worked for Russia, Mr. President?” was asked half in jest. But, as Think Progress noted, Trump’s answer to that simple question took a minute and 52 seconds. “He said 358 words, punctuated with Pirro’s affirming laughter. 'No' was not one of them."
This is Trump’s rambling, word salad of a response that never denies working for Russia, as per the Fox News transcript:
TRUMP: I think it’s the most insulting thing I’ve ever been asked. I think it’s the most insulting article I’ve ever had written and if you read the article, you’d see that they found absolutely nothing, but the headline of that article, it’s called the failing “New York Times” for a reason. They’ve gotten me wrong for three years. They’ve actually gotten me wrong for many years before that.
But you look at what’s going on, you know, I fired James Comey, I call him lying James Comey because he was a terrible liar and he did a terrible job as the FBI Director. Look at what happened with Hillary Clinton and the e-mails and the Hillary Clinton investigation. One of the biggest screw-ups that anybody’s ever seen as an investigation.
And what happened after I fired him, Andrew McCabe, Peter Strzok his lover, Lisa Page, they did it and you know, they’re all gone. Most of those people, many, many people from the top ranks of the FBI, they’ve all been fired or they had to leave and they are all gone.
This is what they were talking about and obviously, nothing was found and I can tell you this, if you ask the folks in Russia, I’ve been tougher on Russia than anybody else, any other - probably any other President period. But certainly the last three or four Presidents, modern-day Presidents, nobody’s been as tough as I have from any standpoint including the fact that we’re doing oil like we’ve never done it. We’re setting records in our country with oil and exporting oil and many other things.
So which is obviously not great for them because that’s what they - that’s where they their money for the most part, but many other things, so I think it was a great insult and the New York Times is a disaster as a paper. It’s a very horrible thing they said and they’ve gone so far than people that were necessary believers are now big believers because they said that was a step too far. They really are a disaster of a newspaper.
Pirro, a former prosecutor and judge, surely knew that Trump had suspiciously dodged the question. But she not only gave him a pass, she turned him into a heroic victim:
PIRRO: It is a shame. It is a waste of time. It’s a waste of energy, and you know, some people have to say to themselves, how can you deal with all of this? This “New York Times” article to be absolutely truthful with you just seems to be another rehash of the same players and the same arguments and the same dossier, you know, just to keep it going and they’ll keep it going as long as they can. What keeps you going?
I mean, you’ve got such fight in you, it is unbelievable.
Listen to Trump's guilty-sounding response and watch Pirro whitewash it below, from the January 12, 2019 Justice with Judge Jeanine. Pirro opens the topic of Trump working for Russia at about 7:46.
Specific to the NYT article, Trump’s main argument is to repeat crackpot deep state conspiracy theories from the conservative fever swamps and conclude the FBI found nothing. Well, the FBI found nothing because a few days after their investigation began Mueller took over. The only defense of Trump not saying “no” isn’t an admission of guilt is he wouldn’t have any hesitancy based on past experience and say “no” even if he knew it to be a lie.
My favorite part of the interview – and it’s very instructive of all the bulls—t spewing from Trump’s mouth – regards his Putin Helsinki meeting. He shrugs off the controversy and says (lies) he’ll gladly release the notes. Yet, forgetting the oddity of him letting no other in the room but an interpreter, he swore the interpreter to secrecy. Further he took her notes and has gone to great lengths to bury them from all eyes including his own staff. Even his Secretaries of
States have no clue what was discussed. Does anyone actually expect Trump to release the notes? Nope. It’ll end up like his taxes. They’re no big deal. Sure, I’ll gladly release them. Years later lame excuses why he hasn’t.
Eventually all of Trump’s corruption will come to light.