Diane Feinstein: I'm Sorry I Released Those Transcripts Without Grassley's Permission; I Was Pressured to Do So.
Wait, I Wasn't Pressured; I Had a Headcold.
Oh My God I'm So Old and Infirm, The Pieces of My Mind are Slipping Away From Me

Dianne Feinstein has a spirited argument with the one person she has a chance to beat, herself:

Who pressured her? Could it be that people from Fusion GPS pressured her? Or Christopher Steele?

Or was it Democrat Mega-Donor Tom Steyer?

Oh, nevermind, now she says she wasn't pressured. She's just senile. Or, as senile people say, "experiencing a headcold."

When Sean Davis began badgering Manu Raju -- last seen feeding the American public the #FakeNews about Trump getting a secret heads up from Wikileaks with "decryption keys" before it was publicy available (all a mistake based on an easily-checked date) -- about why he hadn't followed up and asked Feinstein Who pressured her?, exactly, Dianne -- and Manu -- quickly changed their stories:

Remember, Trump's mentally unfit for office and has early onset dementia, but if Dianne Feinstein takes actions without thought due to a "headcold," or claims one minute she was "pressured" then later says there was no pressure at all and that she simply "misspoke," this is all fine and certainly no reason for the media to ask clearly-necessary follow-up questions.

David Harsanyi suspects this isn't about a headcold -- rather, it's about protecting the Fusion Collusion.

Those who bought, compiled and spread the Trump dossier's rumors have been walking back its claims for a while. And that's likely one of the reasons Democrats have been scrambling to retroactively diminish its importance in any investigation.

In fact, Simpson’s description of Steele's reasons for approaching the FBI aren't even true. In the dossier, Steele alleges to be offering extensive evidence of a "conspiracy between Trump’s campaign team and the Kremlin." In his deposition in a libel case late last year, however, the former spy says it was merely "possible" that collusion had taken place and the dossier reflects "limited intelligence."

We see a similar downgrading of the dossier’s significance and veracity in Simpson's own testimony. "The question that is asked generally is whether it's credible," he explained. "You don't really decide who's telling the truth."

Well now that Michael Cohen, Trump's personal attorney, is filing a pair of lawsuits -- one in federal court against Fusion GPS and the other in New York against BuzzFeed-- the truth may take on some renewed importance. Add to that the fact that Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham asked the Department of Justice to open a criminal investigation into Steele's inconsistencies, and surely we can look forward to more clarifications and walkbacks in the future.

This is likely what prompted Feinstein to release the transcripts -- which, incidentally, excluded not only a number of important contextual exhibits from Simpson's testimony but also redacted all sorts of relevant information about the players in the case.

By the way, if Trump's obsessiveness and determination to punch back at enemies is a sign of his "mental unfitness," what does this say about CNN?

posted by Ace at 12:30 PM

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