Today’s Campaign Update, Part II

(Because The Campaign Never Ends)

Ok, if you’re still sitting around worrying that Attorney General William Barr has gone all wobbly – even after yesterday’s pointed statements by he and U.S. Attorney John Durham in response to the IG Report – then I think I may have found your cure. Earlier today, MSNBC aired an interview involving one of their hack reporters and Attorney General Barr, and boy, is it epic. Mr. Barr is making no bones about his continued consistent views on what he bluntly still refers to as the “spying” on the Trump Campaign by the Obama FBI, and is not backing off even a little bit from his assessment of the contents of the IG Report.

Below is a clip of the first 3:17 of the interview, followed by a transcript. Watch and/or read, and if you don’t feel better after doing that, then I’m afraid there is nothing more I can do to help you.

AG Barr on the IG Report and FISA Abuse pic.twitter.com/rvapwMpaaY — Benny (@bennyjohnson) December 10, 2019

Now, the Transcript, lovingly and laboriously prepared by we here at the Campaign Update for our audience made up mostly of voracious readers:

MSNBC Hack: Why do you say the FBI opened the investigation on the Trump Campaign on the “thinnest of suspicions?”

Barr: Well, I’m glad to get into the issue of predication, but let me just start out by saying that I think you have to put this in context. I think the heart of the IG’s report really focused on how the investigation was conducted once it got going, and that is especially the very serious abuses of FISA that occurred, much of which has in my view not been accurately reported by the press over the last day.

But, in one area I do disagree with the IG, and that was whether there was sufficient predication to open a full-blown counterintelligence investigation, specifically using the techniques that they did to collect intelligence about the Trump Campaign.

MSNBC Hack: W, w, well as a policy matter, why not open an investigation on a thin pretext? [Seriously???] I guess on the one hand you could say that it’s a presidential campaign, it’s very sensitive, you need better evidence. On the other hand, you could say, it’s a presidential campaign, we have to be very careful, it’s a threat to our political process.

Barr: I think probably from a civil liberties standpoint [Which liberals USED to be concerned about – remember?] the greatest danger to our free system is that the incumbent government use the apparatus of the state – principally the law enforcement agencies and the intelligence agencies – both to spy [!] on political opponents, but also to use them in a way that could affect the outcome of the election.

As far as I’m aware, this is the first time in our history that this has been done to a presidential campaign. The use of these counterintelligence techniques against a presidential campaign. And we have to remember, in today’s world, presidential campaigns are frequently in contact with foreign persons, and indeed, in most campaigns there are signs of illegal foreign money coming in [!!!].

And we don’t automatically assume that the campaigns are nefarious and traitors and acting in league with foreign powers. There has to be some basis before we use these very potent powers in our core first amendment activity. And here, I felt this was very flimsy.

Basically, I think the Department has a “rule of reason” which is, at the end of the day, what you’re relying on – sufficiently powerful to justify the techniques you’re using. And the question there is, how strong is the evidence? How sensitive is the activity you’re looking at? And what are the alternatives?

I think when you step back here and say, what was this all based on?, it’s not sufficient.

Remember, there was and never has been any evidence of “collusion.” And yet, this campaign, and the President’s Administration has been dominated by this investigation into what turns out to be completely baseless.

[End]

Things to note in this:

Barr’s intentional and pointed use of the word “spy” to describe what the Coup Cabal did to the Trump Campaign. He knows this will cause Democrats and the media to fry their own brains. Epic.

to describe what the Coup Cabal did to the Trump Campaign. He knows this will cause Democrats and the media to fry their own brains. Epic. Barr’s unqualified statement that “there was and never has been ANY evidence of ‘collusion.'” That tells you that he – and presumably also Durham – simply do not accept that there was ANY premise at all for operation “Crossfire Hurricane” to begin in the first place, nor was there ANY reason for the appointment of a special counsel, much less a two-year-long investigation by Mueller. That is bad, bad news for not just Comey, Strzok, Page and McCabe, but also for Mueller and Rosenstein, who made the decision to appoint Mueller based on…nothing.

That tells you that he – and presumably also Durham – simply do not accept that there was ANY premise at all for operation “Crossfire Hurricane” to begin in the first place, nor was there ANY reason for the appointment of a special counsel, much less a two-year-long investigation by Mueller. That is bad, bad news for not just Comey, Strzok, Page and McCabe, but also for Mueller and Rosenstein, who made the decision to appoint Mueller based on…nothing. Also very interesting is this statement’s phrasing: “… the greatest danger to our free system is that the incumbent government use the apparatus of the state…”. The use of the words “incumbent government” rather than the more limited “Department of Justice,” or the even more limited “FBI” is very, very interesting, and implies that Barr and Durham are not limiting their investigation to those outside of the Obama White House, but may well be looking inside it as well. Boom, if so.

The use of the words “incumbent government” rather than the more limited “Department of Justice,” or the even more limited “FBI” is very, very interesting, and implies that Barr and Durham are not limiting their investigation to those outside of the Obama White House, but may well be looking inside it as well. Boom, if so. Then there’s the seemingly gratuitous noting of the fact that “…in most campaigns there are signs of illegal foreign money coming in.” Think about that one: Which two recent campaigns have been most prominent in having allegations of benefiting from foreign money? If you said “the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Campaigns,” you win the prize.

William Barr is a man with a well-earned history of choosing the words he uses carefully and with intent. He doesn’t just shoot his mouth off in public without giving a lot of forethought to exactly what the message is that he wants to convey.

There are a lot of very powerful messages directed at the bad actors from the Obama years in that short three-minute clip.

Those messages are also directed at those of you who still doubt Mr. Barr’s real intentions here. Are you listening?

Addendum: Here is another 57 seconds of that Barr interview and it is just as EPIC:

The reason the FBI went for the FISA on Carter Page was to get access to the campaign communications. pic.twitter.com/kG9n8M5ufj — Tim Donnelly (@PatriotNotPol) December 10, 2019

Transcript:

MSNBC Hack: So do you still stand by your statement that the Trump Campaign was spied upon?

Barr: [Incredulous that the question would even be asked.] Oh, it was CLEARLY spied upon. I mean, that’s what electronic surveillance is. I think wiring people up to go in and talk to people and make recordings of their conversations is spying. I think going through people’s emails, which they did as a result of the FISA warrant, they went through everything, you know, from Page’s life…

MSNBC Hack: Of course, he wasn’t in the campaign at the point where they got the surveillance…

Barr: [Even more incredulous at this raging hack.] No, but his emails go back. The main reason they were going for the FISA warrant initially was to go back historically and seize all his emails and texts and all that stuff from back – months and even years. So, they were covering the period when he was in the campaign and that’s exactly the reason they went for the FISA – to get that stuff.

[End]

Feeling better yet?

That is all.

Today’s news moves at a faster pace than ever. Whatfinger.com is my go-to source for keeping up with all the latest events in real time.

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