The “gate” suffix has been wearing thin since the break-in scandal that gave it its birth. Since Watergate, virtually anything dubious and suggestive, and much more besides, is suffixed. Which brings us to the issue of President Donald Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama. Finding himself in hot water (did he ever leave it?) Trump has been sowing the seeds of “Obamagate”, a fairly grotesque measure that serves to fill the shallow spaces of the social mediaverse.
Obamagate is a show without much of a script, supported by the faintest of threads. Supposedly, they revolve around the merrily murky former national security advisor Michael Flynn, a serial perjurer who was “unmasked” as an American talking to foreigners under the routinely engaged eyes of the intelligence community. The revelations emerged from the declassification by acting national intelligence director Richard Grenell of unmasking requests made by the Obama administration in 2016. The exercise raised eyebrows, at least among certain Trump critics who detected a heavy accent of politicisation.
On the surface, the move was distractingly galvanic. The declassified document listing officials keen to identify Trump associates and any relevant ties to Russia suggested that Trump was going to embark upon yet another one of his exercises in mass distraction. The president duly hopped on the Twitter train to drive a narrative of criminality, making his Mother’s Day a special one. 126 tweets and retweets featured, making it the second most prolific single day posting of the Trump presidency. Interspersed in the scatter were a few favourites: the QAnon conspiracy theory on Democrats being tied to a paedophilia cult; punchy counterattacks on those critical of his coronavirus non-policy. The retweets also featured monumental errors of judgment, including messages critical of the Trump administration. But something new had emerged in the smoke, all shinily suffixed.
Obama had, supposedly, committed “the biggest political crime in American history, by far,” one that made “Watergate look small-time.” When pressed for details by such individuals as Philip Rucker of the Washington Post, Trump was not particularly forthcoming, suggesting it was patently obvious. “It’s been going on from before I even got elected, and it’s a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what’s gone on, and if you look at now, all this information that is being released – and from what I understand, that’s only the beginning – some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again.”
Russia, yet again, features. But this is not Democratic demonization in the Hillary Clinton mould so much as a claim of Deep State antics gone awry. Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists sees it as a ploy to seize the Russia narrative by the throat. “It is putting the spotlight on the investigators rather than the investigated. It is saying what is irregular here is not the extraordinary contacts with the Russian government but the attempt to understand them.” Obamagate has taken the place of “Crooked Hillary” as a call to arms. As Fox News host Brian Kilmeade observed, reflecting on the November election, “it’s not gonna be Biden against Trump. It’s gonna be Obama against Trump.”
Terms such as Obamagate only exist because thinking of it makes it so. It is the conjuring trick of a few words, fed by supposition and even superstition. It is the howl and bark of the social media echo chamber. In a sense, such terms do not matter, though they do exercise such individuals as Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The “idea of Obamagate”, he writes despairingly, grew “in Trump’s diseased mind and springing like a virus to his compromised and unjust Justice Department, his propagandists on Fox News’ quasi-state-media, and millions of truth-decayed supporters.”
As with so many assessments of Trump’s time in office, these are only some aspects of a broader, decaying Republic for which Trump’s opponents also have to answer for. He is the excremental reminder of a state in ruins, of an imperium gasping on a respirator. Bunch gives Trump too much credit for killing “the very idea of objective truth,” suggesting a certain monopoly on criminality. He even reserves some criticism for Obama, who he accused of being “too timid in looking into Trump and Russia.” And there, the Russian bogeyman makes yet another appearance.
How catching will this noise prove to be? Attention has turned to prosecutor John H. Durham, who examined the initial leak of information to the Washington Post on phone calls that took place between Flynn and the Russian ambassador Sergey I. Kislyak to the United States in 2016. The Grenell list could, in turn, be leaked. A fittingly messy turn that would be.
A sense that this will go nowhere is already being floated by Trump’s most loyal of deputies, the Attorney General William Barr. “As to President Obama and Vice-President Biden, whatever their level of involvement, based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man.” There is still time, but Obamagate is already expiring.
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The maggotty mind of Trump, the orange orifice, seems to be decaying, crumbling, shrivelling, yet inside is still a volcanic flow of pustular pressure to be released, for his relief. The poor political pervert is eternally tormented with a drive to be loved, for submission, for conquest, for domineering, for sexual and social supremacy, even though he knows he is excrementally deficient. But a nation and a world await relief also, from the curse, plague, pox and threat of an incapable type of miniscule midget mind that cannot share its burden. What a fantastic Freudian fraud, flailing to find some finality. He may yet author his own departure from the scene and the drama…but he has got into the books, most yet to come, and there he might now imagine the relief of infamy, eternal.
Agree, could be simply the ‘garden gate’ but serves its purpose in taking up media space, deflecting and leaving a negative residue reinforced in many voters’ empty minds (through constant repetition aka Pavlov’s dog); could be very effective in muddying the waters if media continue to transmit the lie.
Further, not aware any media outlets highlighting one of Flynn’s consulting projects for the Erdogan Turkish government, in a paid role, mostly to help sustain the ‘Gulen conspiracy’* and a half hearted attempt to influence the White House (and by extension courts) into extraditing Gulen to face (‘trumped’ up) charges in Turkey.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/3/9/14868680/trump-adviser-michael-flynn-foreign-agent-turkey-lobby
It reflects the need to be very sceptical nowadays on any if not most government announcements which seem to be merely narratives more driven by political PR that any actual policy, evidence, facts or analysis; including Australia.
*The case against Gulen, who is no saint, was so compelling that by all accounts the Turkish government and the US courts have no compelling evidence to act on; if not Gulen there is always Soros to dog whistle (even by Netanyahu).
As they keep repeating on Twitter; “Obama is living rent-free in Trump’s head.”
Truer words were never spoken.
Since he claims he’s taking the miracle malaria cure he identified early on, I suppose it’s too much to hope he’s also injecting bleach…
Trump is one of the most audacious psychopath’s one could ever witness.The emotions of a tempestuous 6 year old and the cunning of a rat.
love it michael obama can certainly relax as there is plenty of room. He only has two neurons so one synapse at a time?
The survival of the man is amazing? He may get a barley boost???
What does albo do???
Point out the stupidity of sucking up t trump or attack the rabbott and the rebberrors in the FTA. wth china and the septics or sit back and wait till the electorate works things out??
Wam, plenty of room all right. Room for a family of five in there. 😀