The Boy Who Cried Hoax
Earlier this month — while Trump was struggling to answer questions about his long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein — Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, released a report purporting to show that senior Obama administration officials participated in a 'treasonous conspiracy' in 2016 that was designed to hurt the incoming Trump administration.
Last week the Justice Department piled on. It announced that it was creating a 'strike force' to 'assess' Gabbard's evidence and 'investigate potential next legal steps.' For his part, Trump reposted a fake video depicting former President Barack Obama's arrest.
And he's kept on posting. Days later he reposted a meme that Photoshopped Obama into the infamous white Bronco from O.J. Simpson's police chase in 1994, with JD Vance and Trump himself Photoshopped into police cars.
It's tempting to write these developments off as nothing more than ploys to direct the base away from the ongoing Epstein saga by playing one of MAGA's greatest hits: the claim that Trump was the victim of a witch hunt, that the establishment attempted to destroy him even before he began his first term.
For those who followed the Russia investigation in its many manifestations, Gabbard's report was an obvious red herring. It hinged on the claim that there was 'no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count.' But the actual vote count was never the basis for the allegations against Russia.
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