Denial

Jonathan Chait published an excellent piece in New York magazine yesterday (link here) with the title "The Peculiar Logic of the Trump-Russia Scandal Deniers." His focus, in particular, is on the professional columnists who whistle past the graveyard in print after every damning revelation about Donald Trump and his associates.

These individuals "have confidently explained that every new indictment or revelation of malfeasance does not seriously indict the President or is not a revelation at all." They base this entirely on wishful thinking.

"Their method for dismissing every incremental advance in the investigation is the same. First, they examine every new charge in isolation, ignoring the broader pattern of behavior in which it is contained. Then they assume the most innocent possible interpretation for each isolated fact, further assuming that no other incriminating evidence will emerge. It is not clear whether they have decided to act like lawyers for Trump, presenting the most plausible defense they can muster, or if they simply trust he would never do something like collude with Russia, and are working backward from their heartfelt presumption of innocence."

This reader comment takes these theme and runs with it: "To defend Trump, you have to do three things. One -- as Chait mentions -- is to take every accusation and incident as a totally separate item, ignoring patterns. Second, you have to treat a notorious micromanager like Trump as being totally ignorant of what is going on around him instead of a clear effort to manufacture deniability. Third, you have to ignore a number of thoroughly damning details, like the hiring of Manafort and several others with well-known Russian connections, Junior's effort to set up a back-channel with the Russians, Trump's meetings with Putin without any US staff involvement, and his obsequious, even fawning behavior toward Putin in Helsinki. Trump rudely pushes aside the leader of Montenegro and picks fights with almost every allied leader, and yet he shows by his behavior and body language that he is completely cowed by Putin. He treats no other man in the world like that."

And to top this off came a new report of yet another secret meeting between Trump and Putin where all his own White House staffers were barred from attending (details here). What is Trump trying to keep secret from everyone?