As someone else so perfectly pointed out, this is what happens when Donald Trump is cooped up inside all day, freebasing Fox News, until he passes out on the bathroom floor (h/t Kilgore).
Late Saturday evening, the president took to Twitter to rail, mindlessly (As if he knows any other way) about the FBI, the Parkland shooting, and the Russia investigation.
According to Trump, had the FBI not been investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, along with all the nasty threads that seem to link to Trump’s campaign team, the Parkland shooting would not have happened.
Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
Yes, he went there. He used a national tragedy as a weapon to defend himself against a lawful investigation.
The problem with this take is that it wasn’t just the FBI.
Certainly, the FBI dropped the ball. In a statement, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that protocols were not followed, which allowed for Cruz to slip through the cracks.
The FBI were already looking into a YouTube account with the name “Nikolas Cruz,” after a statement had been made, saying he wanted to become a “professional school shooter.”
The comment was made on a video from a Mississippi bail bondsman, who reported the comment to the FBI Mississippi field office, back in September.
They contacted the man, Ben Bennight, immediately to ask questions. He heard from them again, after the shooting.
At the time, the FBI said they couldn’t confirm the identity of the person behind the comment.
YouTube removed the account that the comment came from, due to violations of their rules on violence.
In January, someone called the FBI tip line to report concerns about his weapons and violent nature. The Florida field office was not notified.
It’s all tragic, and the FBI certainly needs to do some internal butt-kicking over this one. The signs were there that Cruz was a dangerous, unhinged individual, but what happened can’t be hung around their necks, solely.
The Broward County Sheriff’s Department was alerted about Cruz around 20 times. Authorities at the school knew about him. Security specialists at the school received complaints from students.
There are a lot of agencies and individuals who need to reassess their actions.
What’s more, the idea that every FBI agent was off chasing Russians just doesn’t fly, and it’s not ok to say. It’s not ok to exploit this tragedy, while parents are burying their children.
As a sociopath, Trump is incapable of expressing human emotion or empathy that isn’t written out for him. Even when it is, he seems plastic and uncomfortable with it, like he’s holding something sour on his tongue.
He even took a swipe at his national security adviser, H.R. McMaster last night (This one was straight from Hannity).
General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
He didn’t say it, because that’s secondary to the fact that you were proven wrong: Russia did attempt to meddle in a U.S. election, as well as to sow confusion, anger, and discord among Americans.
THAT is where your concerns should be today, you ridiculous, gilded toad.
So, how about signing off on those sanctions that our lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of? That everyone agrees that Russia was out to disrupt not just an election, but to cause division and chaos in our streets, so much so that they came together to vote on increased sanctions, and you have balked and ignored your duty to implement those sanctions is telling.
Tweet about that, next.
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