I hate politics. I usually go out of my way to avoid them. Alas, the current state of affairs in DC make that impossible. Donald Trump routinely says things that are easily proved to be false and then claims “the media is against him” when anybody with access to Google has the ability to verify the truth. A couple very obvious examples include the size of his inauguration crowd and the supposed “longest time ever” to get his cabinet filled, but there are dozens if not hundreds more.
The latest item to add to the list is his response to the Nunes memo. In spite of Trump’s claims that he’s “vindicated” by it, that’s light years from the truth. One obvious example- Trump’s claim that the Democrats initiated the probe are categorically false, and that’s with a Congressman widely seen to be in his past pocket having written it!
Even more troubling is how serious people are taking this memo. Let me put this into very small words- IT’S JUST A MEMO. It’s one guy’s retelling of a series of events. It’s more of a “letter to the editor” than “official government document”. In spite of being presented on official Congressional letterhead it holds about as much actual weight as the blog post you are reading right now. It’s closer to that creative writing course you took in college than actual document of fact. And, given the fact that its release is likely to result in Nunes’ removal from the House Intelligence committee, it would suggest Nunes didn’t get an A in that class.
There is going to be a Democrat response to this memo, which is somewhere between amazing and insane. Again, this is a MEMO. But, in the knee-jerk news cycle we live in it’s politically necessary I suppose.
What does this mean to you? It means that now more than ever, it’s on each and every one of us, as US citizens, to not jump to conclusions. To fact-check. To verify from multiple sources what is truth and what is not. To not rely on any one person or one news outlet to tell us how to think. Especially anyone from DC.