President Donald Trump has described a recent spate of damaging leaks and news reports out of Washington as a “witch hunt,” and at least one veteran political journalist says there may be a good reason for that.
“It’s been crazy. I mean, what else can you say?” said Michael Isikoff, chief investigative correspondent for Yahoo News.
Speaking with The West Block‘s Vassy Kapelos this weekend, Isikoff speculated that Trump may actually be laying the groundwork for a refusal to cooperate with any probe linked to potential collusion with the Russian government.
“It is standard in situations like this, and I’ve covered many of them … that White House officials come out and say, ‘we’re going to cooperate with the investigation,'” Isikoff said.
“I’ve never seen anybody who comes out and says, ‘we’re going to cooperate with a witch hunt.'”
Trump has been facing serious questions about potential links to Russia (and Russian interference in the election) for weeks, and now each day seems to bring a fresh bombshell.
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Trump’s abrupt firing of FBI director James Comey and revelations that the president shared top-secret intelligence information with the Russians during an Oval Office meeting only seemed to make things worse.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department appointed Robert S. Mueller III, a former F.B.I. director, as special counsel to oversee the investigation into ties between Trump’s presidential campaign and Russian officials.
Trump’s “witch-hunt” comments could additionally be a way to try and discredit that investigation in the minds of Americans, Isikoff said, and could even set stage for the president demanding that Mueller be fired.
“I don’t think it’s at all inconceivable,” he said.
For now, this “major scandal” is sucking up all the oxygen in Washington and is unlikely to die down anytime soon, he added. Democrats are all thinking the “i” word, Isikoff explained, referring to impeachment. But that’s still a long way off, if it ever happens.
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“We’re at a Watergate level of hysteria going on here and yet we still don’t have anybody charged, much less convicted, of an actual crime,” he noted.
“What’s so astonishing about this is that so much of it is self-inflicted wounds.”
Watch the full interview with Michael Isikoff above.