The propaganda push to clear Donald Trump of all responsibility for the Russian interference in the 2016 election is in full force. The chair of the Republican National Committee has blamed it all on President Obama. Fox News is trivializing it as Rocky and Bullwinkle stuff. And now the White House Deputy Press Secretary, Hogan Gidley, is making statements that baselessly allege crimes by Democrats that are worse than what the Russians are alleged to have done.

On Saturday morning’s episode of Fox and Friends (where else), Gidley was stroked – I mean interviewed – by the “Curvy Couch” potatoes in a segment that addressed the indictments against Russia by special counsel Robert Mueller. Gidley’s remarks were so offensive and dishonest that I’ll just leave them here with little commentary (video below):

“First of all we have to understand, this began in 2014 under then-President Barack Obama’s nose. He didn’t do a thing about it. Long before Donald Trump announced for president this was going on. Also it points out clearly that in this process there was no collusion, as you just pointed out. The President said it multiple times. This makes it clear and concise for the American people and proves the President correct. No collusion between Donald Trump, his campaign, and Russia. And also, I think this is important too. It did not affect the outcome of the election whatsoever.”

First of all, what we really have to understand, is that the fact that Russia began interfering in American elections in 2014 does not vindicate Trump. It actually makes it worse that he and his associates had anything to do with foreign operatives who were already engaged in espionage against the United States. And the Mueller indictments do not in any way say that there was no collusion or that the outcome of the election was not affected. They simply say that these particular indictments are not alleging that. Which leaves the door wide open for such allegations in future indictments.

But if Gidley wants to assert that Mueller is proving Trump correct, that’s fine. It makes it that much harder for them to later say that Mueller is biased and try to fire him. However, Gidley had not yet reached the most disgusting part of his interview. He continued:

“What the Russians were trying to do, as outlined by Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein, was create chaos in the American election system. And I’ll just say this: There are two groups that created chaos more than the Russians. That’s the Democrats and the mainstream media who continued to push this lie on the American people for more than a year. And, quite frankly, America should be outraged by that.”

Really? So Gidley is now contending that Democrats and the American media are more guilty of election tampering and fraud than the Russians who have just been indicted by a Grand Jury? He is essentially accusing Democrats and journalists of being a bigger enemy than Russia, and of criminality on a scale that exceeds actual spies from a hostile foreign nation. And the twerps on Fox and Friends just sat there and nodded in agreement. The whole bunch of them are so determined to exonerate their beloved Orange Messiah that they are willing to make scurrilous accusations of treason. It’s an attack on both democracy and the free press. And it’s another new low for the Trump White House.

How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

.@hogangidley45: The Russia investigation has proven President Trump correct, there was no collusion between Trump, his campaign and Russia and this did not affect the election pic.twitter.com/4RtBgbyec7

— FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) February 17, 2018