With each passing day, the Russia story seems to balloon and grow a whole new facet for the media to talk about. During NBC’s Sunday Today, fill-in host Hallie Jackson noted how it was wearing down the President. “President Trump is calling this Russia story 'fake news,' you've got Republicans like Lindsey Graham now saying they're not going to ease up on this investigation. New revelations about Mike Flynn,” she stated before asking Chuck Todd, “Let me put it this way, its opening day in baseball, so what inning are we in with this Russia story, Chuck? What do you think?”
“Oh, I think we're only in the second or third inning at this point,” Todd joked as he alluded to all to the potential headaches President Trump was going to have, “President himself, obviously, he's consumed by the Russia story because all you have to do is look at his Twitter feed to see it.” Todd’s solution for Trump was for him to imitate liberal icon former President Bill Clinton.
“He has to figure out how to borrow a page from the Bill Clinton playbook of the 90s,” he argued, “Bill Clinton had plenty of scandal clouds hovering over his—his White House at any given moment.” He praised Clinton’s ability to act like the investigations were not happening, he also issued a warning for Trump:
He may have been seething about it behind the scenes, but he compartmentalized it for better or for worse. And he tried to find a way to put it in a box and focus on other things, and focus-- In fact, that that was sort of his way, he would sit there and dismiss questions about the investigation and say I'm focused on the agenda for the American people. Somehow, the West Wing has to get their arms around the Russia investigation. Get the President to accept the fact that it exists, and compartmentalize it and focus somewhere else. Until he does that, it's going to consume him.
It’s was easy for Clinton to pretend like his plethora of sex and money scandals weren’t happening because the media was doing the exact same thing. They didn’t want the give the stories of the many victimized women credence and acted like they were minor hiccups during his time in office. To this day, they act as though the Clinton years were heaven for America.
For Trump, it’s the exact opposite. The media today are openly hostile to the President. There are ridiculous figures in the media who equate him to a dictator, some claim his thoughts are “masses in the brain,” while others go to press briefing to chide the press secretary.
The only reason Clinton was able to make it through eight years the still look good is because the media acted as his accomplices. Trump hasn’t been in office for 100 days and they’re already declaring his credibility shot, but meanwhile Clinton lied under oath and was impeached for it. So where in the “Clinton playbook” is that scenario explained?
Transcript below:
NBC
Sunday Today
April 2, 2017
8:04:49 AM EASTERNHALLIE JACKSON: Hey, listen. You heard Kelly report there. President Trump is calling this Russia story “fake news,” you've got Republicans like Lindsey Graham now saying they're not going to ease up on this investigation. New revelations about Mike Flynn. Let me put it this way, its opening day in baseball, so what inning are we in with this Russia story, Chuck? What do you think?
CHUCK TODD: Oh, I think we're only in the second or third inning at this point. And look, the Senate investigation is going to be methodical and it's going to take months and yes, it's possible that the political pressure will get so ugly on Capitol Hill where we'll have an independent investigation. Well, that would mean in instead of months is it will take years.
But this is a challenge for the west wing right now, Hallie, where you spend so much time these days. They have got -- and the President himself, obviously, he's consumed by the Russia story because all you have to do is look at his Twitter feed to see it. He has to figure out how to borrow a page from the Bill Clinton playbook of the 90s. Bill Clinton had plenty of scandal clouds hovering over his—his White House at any given moment.
He may have been seething about it behind the scenes, but he compartmentalized it for better or for worse. And he tried to find a way to put it in a box and focus on other things, and focus-- In fact, that that was sort of his way, he would sit there and dismiss questions about the investigation and say I'm focused on the agenda for the American people. Somehow, the West Wing has to get their arms around the Russia investigation. Get the President to accept the fact that it exists, and compartmentalize it and focus somewhere else. Until he does that, it's going to consume him.
