The goalposts moved again on September 29, when radio host Mark Levin appeared on Fox News to debate Ed Henry. The encounter was notable because, as Twitter user @jpsal123 noted, “I like Ed Henry but his question implied that the transcript specifically said ‘dig up dirt.’ That’s the trigger word, ‘dirt.’ It was never said. It’s misleading. You should read the transcript.”
@jpsal123 has only 830 followers, but the president of the United States managed to pluck his post from the ether and retweet him. So the standard was now whether or not the Trump had used the word “dirt.”
Over the course of a couple hours, Trump tweeted about the Levin interview 19 times. And he insisted that evening that “NOTHING that has turned up that is Impeachable.” [sic]
The next day brought another shift. On September 30, Trump claimed that the whistleblower report was illegitimate because some nefarious person had changed the whistleblower rules.
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
WHO CHANGED THE LONG STANDING WHISTLEBLOWER RULES JUST BEFORE SUBMITTAL OF THE FAKE WHISTLEBLOWER REPORT? DRAIN THE SWAMP!
118K
8:43 AM - Sep 30, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
62.4K people are talking about this
This claim was also untrue.
Later in the day, Trump pivoted to argue that, in fact, nobody really cared about the story. As evidence, he supplied a Breitbart online “poll” claiming that 97.83 percent of respondents “stand with President Trump.”
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
THANK YOU!
View image on Twitter
139K
7:52 PM - Sep 30, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
80.2K people are talking about this
And on the very next day, October 1, Trump proclaimed that the impeachment inquiry was nothing less than a “coup.”
If you’re exhausted by now, well, that’s the point. On October 4 and 5, Trump moved on to a process argument about why the whistleblower report should not be considered:
Donald J. Trump
✔
@realDonaldTrump
WOW, this is big stuff!
https://twitter.com/RepRatcliffe/sta...99673245683713 …
John Ratcliffe
✔
@RepRatcliffe
Since the ICIG has no evidence whatsoever about the relationship and contacts between the whistleblower and Schiff’s staff, the investigation has to get that information from other fact witnesses. Who also happen to be running the investigation.
54K
3:46 PM - Oct 4, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
24.7K people are talking about this
Then he retweeted Gateway Pundit’s Jim Hoft accusing a second potential whistleblower as being a pawn of the “deep state.”
Then he claimed that Hunter Biden had made $1.5 billion by “China.” (Also not true.)
And then he approvingly quoted Peter Schweizer claiming that Trump would have been “negligent” if he hadn’t asked Ukraine to investigate Biden.
Sit with that for a moment.