Trump supporters have new rallying cry
For President Donald Trump’s reelection effort, “Investigate the investigators!” is becoming the new “Lock her up!”
Trump and his allies, seeking to amplify claims that the FBI spied on his 2016 campaign, are seizing on news reports and statements by Attorney General William Barr to launch a political rallying cry they view as an antidote to special counsel Robert Mueller’s findings.
Dismissed by critics as an outlandish conspiracy theory, socalled spygate is fast becoming a central feature of the Trump campaign as it seeks to go on offense in the wake of a report that identified 10 instances of potential obstruction of justice by Trump. The campaign is publicly calling for criminal investigations into former FBI officials, making “spygate” fundraising pitches and selling spy-themed merchandise. The goal, officials said, is to turn the Russia probe into a political winner that could help him secure another term.
“After two years of [investigations] and being vindicated, and now in fact the tables are turning in that the investigators will be investigated, there’s a certain amount of righteous indignation that’s warranted,” said Tim Murtaugh, communications director for Trump’s reelection bid. “The president has already shown that he wants to talk about it. He’s been tweeting about it. I’m sure he’ll talk about it at rallies. It’s something that the campaign will continue to point to.”
Murtaugh highlighted a Thursday article from The New York Times describing how the FBI sent an investigator posing as a research assistant to meet with Trump campaign adviser George Papadopoulos in 2016 — a covert effort to better understand the campaign’s links to Russia.
Murtaugh said it was “astounding” that the story had not received as much media coverage as some Russia-related episodes unearthed by Mueller.
Referring to the story Friday, Trump said it was “bigger than Watergate, as far as I’m concerned.”
Trump has long sought to paint his political opponents as criminally suspect, spending much of 2016 leading “Lock her up!” chants that targeted his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
After Trump’s own conduct became the subject of Mueller’s criminal investigation — which did not establish that his campaign conspired with Russia’s election interference but indicated that he may have obstructed justice — the president is aiming to change the narrative by highlighting the allegations of improper spying by the FBI.
Trump has gotten a boost from Barr, who used recent congressional hearings about Mueller’s probe to express concerns that the Trump campaign may have been the victim of improper surveillance. When pressed, Barr declined to offer evidence and said he was simply “concerned about it” and “looking into it.”
Republicans have long claimed that the FBI’s actions targeting Carter Page, the former Trump campaign adviser whose communications were secretly surveilled in late 2016 and early 2017 under a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, amounted to political spying. Surveillance of Page took place after he left the Trump campaign and was authorized by several judges.
Democrats have criticized Barr’s allegations as irresponsible and have dismissed Trump’s charges of spying as a political smokescreen aimed at distracting from Mueller’s findings.
“The Trump campaign is trying to use a debunked conspiracy theory to distract from the Trump administration’s attacks on the rule of law and its attempts to cover up Mueller’s findings,” said Daniel Wessel, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.
“Voters won’t be fooled.”