This is an interesting way of dragging the goal posts. Rep. Swalwell appeared on Martha MacCallum’s show where he was asked about a past statement he made on MSNBC. Specifically Smalwell was asked by host Chris Matthews, “Do you believe right now the president has been an agent of the Russians?” To which Smalwell replied, “Yes, I think there’s more evidence that he is…”

“Agent?” Matthews interjected.

“Yes, I think all the arrows point in that direction. I haven’t seen a single piece of evidence that he’s not,” Smalwell said.

MacCallum wanted to know if Swalwell felt like revising those remarks: “Do you still believe that the president is a Russian agent?” she asked.

“I think he acts on Russia’s behalf and he puts Russia’s interests ahead, too often, of America’s interests,” Swalwell said.

MacCallum asked again if it was “too strong” to call the president a “Russian agent.” “That is a very strong charge and you said you had evidence to back that up,” she said.

Swalwell then offered a list of policy disagreements, i.e. “he seeks to reduce the role of NATO.” When MacCallum pointed out for a third time that he had said Trump was a “Russian agent” Swalwell interjected, “acts on their behalf.”

“Agency is acting on someone’s behalf,” Swalwell clarified.

This is what comic book fans call a retcon. When you have an inconsistency in your storyline you just tell people that the old story didn’t mean what it meant or didn’t happen the way you told them it happened. You retcon the mistake. In this case, Swalwell is claiming that his agreement on MSNBC that Trump is a Russian agent did not mean what everyone watching thought it meant. He just meant that Trump had some different foreign policy stances. You can see MacCallum’s reaction in the photo above. She’s having a hard time keeping her eyeballs from rolling out of her head.

“Is that what you really meant when you called the president a Russian agent?” she asked.

Swalwell tried to get back to his talking points and MacCallum refused to fall for it. “We’re talking about the original charge, which was that the President of the United States in your words was a Russian agent and that he had worked with the Russian government to through his campaign to throw an American election,” she said. She continued, “So now there’s all these kind of revisions being made to the argument…Isn’t it time for a little bit of reflection on everything that’s happened?”

If you thought that at this point Swalwell might decide to stop playing games and be a bit more forthcoming, you’re going to be disappointed. For the second time in this segment, he compared the collusion narrative to the Jussie Smollett story. But as MacCallum pointed out, the Smollett case didn’t have the top cop giving the all clear after two years of investigation. On the contrary, in Smollett’s case, the cops and even the Deputy SA who dropped the charges all said Smollett committed a hoax. That’s not what Mueller said about Trump.

But according to Swalwell, not only is Trump still a Russian agent, the entire Russia dossier is still entirely credible. Again, MacCallum is struggling to believe what she’s hearing and I don’t blame her.

Honestly, it’s tough to make it through this watching Swalwell’s smug excuses for his own irresponsible comments. This line of bull will probably work out fine for him on CNN or MSNBC where the hosts won’t bat an eye at this lame excuse, much less press him on it. He should peddle this garbage there instead.