After the FBI executed a court-approved search warrant at Mar-a-Lago last summer, House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik was among the many GOP voices who scrambled to defend Donald Trump. In fact, the New York Republican settled on a specific line of argument that was part of a broader rhetorical push.
“This is Russia hoax 2.0,” Stefanik told Axios last August.
Over the weekend, after the former president predicted that he’ll soon be indicted by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, the Republican Conference Chair again turned her attention to the Russia scandal. Stefanik’s tweet on Saturday read:
“The Radical Left is continuing the disgraceful and unconstitutional pattern going back to the illegal Russian collusion hoax to attempt to silence and suppress the will of the voters who support President Trump and the America First Movement.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence was apparently thinking along the same lines, arguing in a radio interview on Saturday that the investigation in New York “reeks of the kind of political prosecution that we endured back in the days of the Russia hoax.”
To be sure, on the surface, this isn’t altogether new. Republicans have spent years trying to dismiss the Russia scandal, largely out of partisan necessity: The truth was a disaster for Trump and his political operation, so their allies set out to assure Americans that we need not trust our lying eyes.
But revisiting our earlier coverage, this has become a go-to response to practically every legal mess the former president finds himself in. The FBI showed up at Mar-a-Lago to retrieve classified documents Trump refused to give back? This is just like the Russia scandal. Trump’s hush money scandal appears likely to lead to his indictment? This is reminiscent of the Russia scandal, too.
It’s quite possible that for those living in a conservative bubble — folks, for example, who were led to believe former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report “
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