THE SMOLLETT SYNDROME

Jusse Smollett reported that he had been assaulted by two white guys wearing MAGA hats and shouting gay smears. The story never passed the smell test. A whole lot of people stupidly believed him and loudly screamed outrage. But Smollett was lying, about everything. It soon became beyond obvious that he not only made everything up, he literally hired people to fake an assault. Even worse, he left a trail of evidence that is impossible to ignore. Those people foolish enough to go public with their support  of Smollett were humiliated. Many of them responded by throwing Smollett completely under the bus. A few people gave weak statements of support but no one, and I do mean no one, even pretends to believe him anymore.

The Mueller case is like the Smollett case on steroids. The FBI started an investigation of Donald Trump, for alleged Russian collusion, even though they knew there was no evidence to support that. Frankly the theory was always absurd. Anonymous sources constantly leaked stories to the MSM, which gleefully ran with them, only to be totally discredited within hours. Yet, they continued to believe. I mean, who could make something like this up? Just like the Jusse Smollett case, this had to be true, right? Even when the evidence against Russian collusion kept piling up, people were too committed to back down. Right up until the end, many who should have known better were still making absurd predictions. John Brennan was predicting criminal indictments of people like Donald Trump, Jr. as recently as two weeks ago.

This continued even after Mueller turned in his report and they learned there would be no more indictments. Some at least feared the worst, but they pretended that somehow Mueller would still save the say. He didn’t. Instead he slammed the door on the entire Russian Collusion theory. He came, he saw and reported that there never was any collusion. That means there never was a legitimate reason to appoint him in the first place. If there is no evidence now, there sure was no evidence then.  This was all a gigantic waste of time. Everyone who bought into this has to feel betrayed. They are heartbroken that Trump not only survived, he triumphed. But most of all they are angry, much in the way those people who stupidly believed Jusse Smollett are angry.

It gets worse. Those people who watched CNN, desperately wanting to believe that Trump was about to be impeached are now confronted with the brutal truth that everything they heard was a lie. They can’t even blame Mueller, because CNN has spent the last two years ‘xplaining’ why Mueller must be allowed to investigate with no interference. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi begged people to let Mueller do his job. It was Mueller, Mueller, Mueller. They went all in on Mueller and they ended up with less than nothing.

The results will be very similar to what happened to Jusse Smollett. Everyone is pissed at him. Those who believed him are just as angry as those who knew he was lying from day one. The only thing that unites them is their hatred for the person(s) who caused this.

Fox will have a field day. They will show non-stop video of the usual suspects making accusations that in retrospect are absolutely ridiculous. Those people with egg all over their face have few choices. They will continue to be in a state of denial, for a while, but eventually the truth will be beyond obvious. When that happens, they can either own up to their own incompetence or try and throw someone else under the bus. “We believed this because we trusted people who were lying to us.” It’s not our fault. It is unlikely to work but it will be tried.

This is such an enormous fiasco that the day of reckoning is coming. Don’t be surprised if people like Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon find themselves watching CNN by candle light while their replacement talks about the need to be fair and balanced. At best, they will just disappear from public life. At worse, they will become symbols of bias and stupidity. Jeff Zucker may even turn on them, because even he realizes this is a nightmare that won’t go away anytime soon and if he does not blame someone else, everyone will blame him.

Democrats should also be afraid, very afraid of demanding that the full Mueller report be released. Much is the information is likely to be more embarrassing for Democrats than for Donald Trump. The reason for that is that we already know pretty much everything Trump did. Much of the really damaging stuff may hurt Democrats more than Republicans. One would think they would know that, but this is one subject where liberals have been willfully ignorant. The smart move would be to demand disclosure and then make sure it never really happens. Perhaps Nancy Pelosi knows this, because she has already demanded full disclosure while rejecting a closed-door hearing making that possible.

This, by the way, is a standard tactic by Democrats to obstruct information. I do not like Thomas Clapper, but it is important to understand the circumstances when he allegedly lied under oath. Senator Wyden from Oregon asked Clapper a question in open session that involved highly classified information. Wyden already knew the answer. He also knew he should never has asked the question in open session. That left Clapper with three choices. He could tell the truth and be guilty of disclosing classified information. He could lie and deny the information. Or he could refuse to answer, which would have amounted to disclosing classified information. He chose to lie and protect the classified program. The real scoundrel here was Wyden who deliberately did this to Clapper with no regard to national security.

The one thing absolutely certain is that neither Democrats nor their fawning disciples in the MSM will even consider just doing the right thing for the right reason.

TDM