Having seen World News Tonight anchor David Muir and streaming anchor Linsey Davis put on the horribly biased debate performance and correspondents Mary Bruce and Rachel Scott frequently shoveling anti-Trump drivel and pro-Kamala propaganda, ABC’s Good Morning America crew decided to do its part for the left on Tuesday by continuing to promote Trump-Russia collusion through the lens of a new book by two of the probe’s top lackeys.
Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos swooned:
We are back with the first look at the new book Interference: The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation. Two of the co-authors — Aaron Zebley, who was Mueller’s top deputy and Andrew Goldstein, a lead prosecutor — are here talking for the first time about how they investigated President Trump and the dangers of election interference right now.
He first went to Zebley with a softball: “And, Aaron, why don’t you start and talk about why it was so important for you to write this book. Because we all saw the report several years ago.”
Zebley gave the resistance wine moms what they wanted, which was continuing to rehash the 2016 election and, with a wink and a nudge, question Trump’s legitimacy:
We thought it was important right now because there are — there are two key messages in the book. One that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. And, with recent public reports, we think they’re continuing to do that now. And then, it’s also very important that there be a mechanism to investigate presidents and the book describes how we did that.
Stephanopoulos — an ardent liberal who’s publicly and privately called for Americans to reject Trump — reacted with childish lament that Americans still “call” the Mueller probe “the Russia hoax.”
Goldstein took this one, declaring “it wasn’t — it wasn’t a hoax” and argued “Russia interfered in the election in 2016 in sweeping fashion” and that it’s happening in 2024 (meaning Trump has a chance to win).
Goldstein dropped the funniest line of the whole segment: “[I]t’s important for American elections to be decided by Americans and not by foreign adversaries.”
So, by “Americans” did Goldstein mean the corporate media and intelligence agencies?
Stephanopoulos continued to help sell this grift of a book, boasting it “take[s] aim at William Barr, the attorney general” for his summary of their report.
Stephanopoulos used some of the remaining time to rehash the report with Goldstein noting that, while they didn’t find an official “criminal conspiracy between the President, or his campaign, and Russia”, they unearthed “many links and outreach that the Russian government made.”
The devout partisan wrapped with questions about this “important book” by worrying another probe of a president along the lines of what Mueller’s team did couldn’t happen again thanks to the Supreme Court and what Americans should “know...about...foreign interference” (click “expand”):
STEPHANOPOULOS: Since — since the report came out and in this election cycle, we saw the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity. Given the findings of the Supreme Court, the conclusions of the Supreme Court, could an investigation like the one you conducted even happen today?
GOLDSTEIN: It may not be. And one of the reasons we think the book has special relevance now is we document how we conducted what we think was a fair, fast, principled investigation and that kind of investigation into potential misconduct by a president might not be able to be done again.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And what’s the most important thing for Americans to know right now about what foreign — what kind of foreign interference is taking place and what we can do about it?
ZEBLEY: To be aware of it. It — it is happening. Andrew just said that the Russia election interference scheme was not a hoax. It really happened. It’s happening now. There are other adversaries who appear to be interfering. Iranians. There are reports as recently as today — that people need to be aware that it’s happen.
To see the relevant ABC transcript from September 24, click “expand.”
ABC’s Good Morning America
September 24, 2024
8:36 a.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: First on GMA; Mueller Prosecutors Talk New Book; “The Inside Story of Trump, Russia and the Mueller Investigation”]
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We are back with the first look at the new book Interference: The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation. Two of the co-authors — Aaron Zebley, who was Mueller’s top deputy and Andrew Goldstein, a lead prosecutor — are here talking for the first time about how they investigated President Trump and the dangers of election interference right now. Thank you guys both for coming in. And, Aaron, why don’t you start and talk about why it was so important for you to write this book. Because we all saw the report several years ago.
AARON ZEBLEY: We thought it was important right now because there are — there are two key messages in the book. One that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. And, with recent public reports, we think they’re continuing to do that now. And then, it’s also very important that there be a mechanism to investigate presidents and the book describes how we did that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: That’s the story you want to tell. One of the thing we’ve heard from former President Trump and his allies for the last several years — and it’s become almost a cliche — they call this the Russia hoax.
ANDREW GOLDSTEIN: And it wasn’t — wasn’t a hoax. The — Russia interfered in the election in 2016 in sweeping fashion. We document that both in the report and in the book. And we know that it is happening now and it’s important for American elections to be decided by Americans and not by foreign adversaries.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Part of the reason this ended up the way it did is what happened is immediately after you all released your report and the attorney general basically came close, he didn’t use the word exoneration, but said he wasn’t going to continue to prosecute former President Trump — President Trump at the time and you take aim at William Barr, the attorney general in this book.
ZEBLEY: Yeah, we do. What happened when we delivered the report is that the attorney general did not release our report immediately and instead released his own summary, which we think mischaracterized the full extent of our work. And we think that led to some confuse about what we had actually done and what we had actually found.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We keep hearing this word — the President uses the word no — no collusion. He calls it — he calls this a hoax. What exactly did you document about the ties between Donald Trump and Russia?
GOLDSTEIN: We were looking to see whether there was a criminal conspiracy between the President, or his campaign, and Russia. We did not establish that there was a conspiracy, but the report — in our book, we document the many links and outreach that the Russian government made while they were conducting their interference campaign. They were reaching out to the Trump campaign to let them know they were helping.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Is there anything you believe you could have done differently in order to prevent the mischaracterization of what happened in the report?
ZEBLEY: If we had to do it over again, I might think through how we delivered the report and do that in a different manner. Maybe deliver it ready for — for release immediately. It’s contrary to how prosecutors typically document results of an investigation, but I might do that differently.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Since — since the report came out and in this election cycle, we saw the Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity. Given the findings of the Supreme Court, the conclusions of the Supreme Court, could an investigation like the one you conducted even happen today?
GOLDSTEIN: It may not be. And one of the reasons we think the book has special relevance now is we document how we conducted what we think was a fair, fast, principled investigation and that kind of investigation into potential misconduct by a president might not be able to be done again.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And what’s the most important thing for Americans to know right now about what foreign — what kind of foreign interference is taking place and what we can do about it?
ZEBLEY: To be aware of it. It — it is happening. Andrew just said that the Russia election interference scheme was not a hoax. It really happened. It’s happening now. There are other adversaries who appear to be interfering. Iranians. There are reports as recently as today — that people need to be aware that it’s happen.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Thank you both for coming in. It’s an important book. It’s called Interference: The Inside Story of Trump, Russia, and the Mueller Investigation. It’s out now.
