You may want to mark down today’s date as the first time a Republican ever told the truth on Fox “News” without bursting into flames.
Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX) was a guest on Fox & Friends Sunday morning to discuss the indictments of 13 Russian nationals which were announced Friday by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as part of the ongoing investigation into the 2016 election. Host Todd Piro asked Ratcliffe:
“The question now, what does this mean for the Clinton campaign? And can they be charged for their alleged ties to that anti-Trump dossier?”
Ratcliffe’s reply no doubt stunned the Fox host:
“There is nothing inherently illegal about doing opposition research or even using foreign sources to do that.”
The Texas Congressman also said that the indictments handed down do not mean Trump is in the clear, despite what Trump is saying on Twitter:
“I do think that the negative here is that Bob Mueller has clearly indicated in the indictment that the investigation will continue. When a prosecutor uses the term that there are others ‘known and unknown’ to the grand jury that are part of the conspiracy, that’s a signal that there are other either superseding indictments to come or additional indictments about additional conspiracies.”
Meanwhile, Trump continues to try and spin Friday’s indictments as a vindication of him, tweeting out this Saturday night:
Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
And this on Sunday morning:
I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said “it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.” The Russian “hoax” was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia – it never did!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
As the old saying goes, There are none so blind as those who refuse to see.