Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ defense of Donald Trump continues to recall the comic disavowal of reality for which Saddam’s propagandist Baghdad Bob was known. Her manner — derisive, sarcastic and resistant to the admission of error— recalls her parents, Mike and Janet Huckabee.
Monday, she said “no one” cares about contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign in 2016. Not a single person.
As the Washington Post points out, polls (which the Trump administration cites when they like them and scorns when they don’t, sort of like news events) tell a different story, as in a recent Post/ABC poll:
* 49 percent of Americans believe Trump tried to interfere with the Russia investigation in a way that amounts to obstruction of justice.
* 26 percent believe there is “solid evidence” supporting their belief.
* Half of Americans believe the Trump campaign colluded with Russia.
* Significant percentages of Trump’s base — old, conservative white people — believe the Russian connection.
Writes Eugene Scott of Sanders’ assertion:
While White House officials may believe that the Trump campaign did not collude with Russia, they have some work to do to convince millions of Americans that there was no interaction between Trump’s team and the team of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Does it matter? Does it matter that the Trump administration has gone to war against the FBI and Justice Department? Does it matter that there’s no longer any dispute about the deep involvement (legal questions aside) of Trump and his family with Russian oligarchs and government actors and a fondness for Putin’s style of government?
Can any of this be translated down the ballot in 2018, as Barack Obama translated so well for the Republican Party for eight years, down to the courthouses and city halls of Arkansas?
I fear the Russian specter doesn’t create the fear and loathing that an unusual name and dark skin did (and still does in Arkansas, judging by our politicians’ braying about overturning the environmental, human rights, justice, consumer protection, worker protection and other initiatives of Obama’s time in office.)
But back to the White House secretary by way of LR Central and OBU:
She’s in need of a Baghdad Bob equivalent. There was Hanoi Hannah. And Seoul Sue. And Tokyo Rose. Suggestions welcome.