{"id":39037,"date":"2017-08-05T08:03:45","date_gmt":"2017-08-05T08:03:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=39037"},"modified":"2017-08-05T08:03:45","modified_gmt":"2017-08-05T08:03:45","slug":"trump-turns-to-russia-probe-to-poke-at-his-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/dna\/trump-turns-to-russia-probe-to-poke-at-his-critics.html","title":{"rendered":"Trump turns to Russia probe to poke at his critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trump turns to Russia probe to poke at his critics<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Trump turns to Russia probe to poke at his critics:- President Donald Trump is trying to turn the Russia investigation into a rallying cry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Far from avoiding talk of the accelerating probe into his campaign\u2019s ties to Moscow, Trump is instead using it to stoke the outrage of his most loyal supporters. The probe, he argues, is an outgrowth of the bias and resentment media elites and Democrats hold against his white, working-class base. The investigation is a nefarious attempt to undo the results of the election and seize power from the voters who have been marginalized, he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey can\u2019t beat us at the voting booths so they are trying to cheat you out of the future and the future that you want,\u201d Trump said in a defiant tone during a Thursday night rally in Huntington, West Virginia. \u201cThey are trying to cheat you out of the leadership you want with a fake story that is demeaning to all of us and most importantly, demeaning to our country and demeaning to our Constitution.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The message falls in line with Trump\u2019s longstanding appeal to the voters he has called the \u201cforgotten men and women of our country\u201d who lack a voice in government. Trump casts himself as the voice of the aggrieved who understands their troubles.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this heavy reliance on his loyal base, which comprise far short of an electoral majority, carries risks. Long-term, it\u2019s unclear how his message will appeal to mainstream Republicans, some of whom are conducting investigations into his Russia ties in Congress and are unlikely to see special counsel Robert Mueller, the by-the-book former FBI director and decorated Vietnam War veteran, as the face of a witch hunt.<\/span><\/p>\n

The message also obscures the issue his base cares most deeply about: the economy.<\/span><\/p>\n

For now, Trump appears to be on solid ground on that front. He has presided over a strong economy during his first six months in office \u2014 he repeatedly noted this week that the stock market had risen to new heights. He pointed Friday to the latest job report, which showed more than 200,000 new jobs in July and an unemployment rate of 4.3 percent, matching a 16-year low.<\/span><\/p>\n

But a slip in the nation\u2019s economic fortunes before the 2020 election, especially in states key to Trump\u2019s victory like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, could make it harder for Trump to hold onto his base.<\/span><\/p>\n

In some respects, Trump is taking a page from his favorite scapegoats: Bill and Hillary Clinton. During the late 1990s, Bill Clinton assailed House Republicans and independent counsel Ken Starr as fierce partisans for pushing investigations into his affair with a White House intern and his role in an Arkansas land deal. Hillary Clinton famously called it a \u201cvast right-wing conspiracy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Two decades later, when Republicans pursued a lengthy investigation into her handling of the 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya, she said it was a partisan attempt to hurt her 2016 campaign.<\/span><\/p>\n

This time, Trump has taken the partisan argument to a new degree, parlaying it with his longstanding indictment of the Washington \u201cswamp\u201d of insiders whom he says hurt many Americans.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not just doing the partisan playbook, but he\u2019s making it about the system in some ways going after him and going after what the voters wanted,\u201d said presidential historian Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zelizer said the reliance on base politics carries risks for Trump, who has already sustained cracks in his support, embodied by strained relations with Republican leadership, Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake\u2019s book criticizing Trump\u2019s leadership, and three GOP senators\u2019 unwillingness to go along on repealing \u201cObamacare.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat could be a dangerous path. Just the base can\u2019t protect him,\u201d Zelizer said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most Americans don\u2019t seem to share Trump\u2019s views on the investigation. Nearly 60 percent of Americans say they don\u2019t think Trump is taking the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election seriously enough and roughly the same percentage think he\u2019s tried to derail the probe, according to a Quinnipiac poll published this week.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, before a raucous crowd in West Virginia, the president called the Russia story \u201ca total fabrication\u201d and an excuse promulgated by Democrats for their 2016 defeat.<\/span><\/p>\n

His surrogates at the White House were quick to spread that message.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe media, the investigators, the Democratic Party \u2014 they\u2019re not just denying the election results for Donald Trump. They\u2019re denying the American people who put him here,\u201d White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway said Friday on Fox News\u2019 \u201dFox and Friends.\u201d She added: \u201cAnd they\u2019re trying to cheat them out of their rightful presidency but also all of the good that\u2019s going to come from this presidency.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/analysis-trump-turns-to-russia-probe-to-poke-at-his-critics\/2017\/08\/05\/cbe1c044-79a9-11e7-8c17-533c52b2f014_story.html?utm_term=.84d6ecc65515<\/span><\/p>\n

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