The most annoying thing about the Trump era are all the evidence-free assertions made by public figures and media entities.
After a while, trying to correct the record feels like an act of extreme futility, like attempting to empty a well with an eyedropper.
Here’s a fun one:
Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., claimed Friday that House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., may be conspiring to leak classified documents to President Trump’s legal team.
Naturally, the Illinois congressman has zero evidence to back up this claim.
Quigley claimed Friday on CNN that Nunes attended a classified briefing at the Department of Justice in order to gather important background information on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The way Quigley tells it, Nunes’ real purpose at the briefing may have been to “turn this information over to the Trump legal team to help them prepare their defense.”
CNN host John Berman interjected to say, “Alright, that last part is an explosive charge right there. You’re charging that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee [Nunes] is handing over information to the president’s personal legal team. Do you have any proof of that?”
“No, I certainly don’t. What is their purpose?” Quigley responded. “Prove me wrong.”
Fun, but that’s not how burden of proof works.
The congressman added, “None of this makes sense in the opposite direction. Trying to prove the other thing makes absolutely no sense at all, that they would be so blindly attacking the Justice Department. Why are you doing this? It’s either to aid the president legally or politically, which I’m suggesting here, or just to obstruct the investigation.”
Speaking for the rest of the country, CNN host Poppy Harlow asked Quigley whether leveling baseless accusations against other members of Congress could be dangerous. The congressman defended himself by claiming the GOP are guilty of doing exactly that, because, “They do it, too!” is a response that definitely looks good on a grown man.
“They put the Department of Justice on trial,” Quigley said in his defense. “The Department of Justice is independent. This is a key component of the rule of law. I think you flip this. They don’t really work for us. They’re independent of us. That is the whole purpose. Otherwise we could obstruct those investigations, as the Republicans have so far in this investigation.”
This sort of evidence-free nonsense has always been with us. Congressmen lobbing baseless accusations against each other is not exactly new.
What’s weird is that it seems like there has been an extreme uptick in this sort of thing lately. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. If this type of behavior is indeed on the rise, and I really think it is, I’m willing to bet it’s partly because we’re growing numb to it. When we stop caring, there’s basically no reason for public officials to even pretend they do, too.
