They trotted out Giuliani again

Chris Cuomo's face...

The Washington Post has a look at the shuffling:

[T]he Trump team has moved the goal posts on this question no fewer than 10 times after initially denying any contact at all with “foreign entities.” Trump has said dozens of times that there was “no collusion,” full stop. This appears to be the first time anyone has acknowledged the possibility that someone colluded without Trump’s knowledge.

  WaPo

I'll stop you right there. It's inconceivable that all these many Trump campaign people who colluded with Russia did so without Trump's knowledge.

The most likely explanation for [Giuliani's claim] is the unfolding case against Paul Manafort. We learned recently that he shared polling data with an associate, Konstantin Kilimnik, who special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team has said had ties to Russian intelligence during the 2016 campaign. They also discussed a pro-Russia Ukraine peace plan, which is conspicuous because the Republican National Committee’s platform was amended on that issue.

[...]

Let’s walk through the de-evolution of the Trump team’s collusion denials [...]

1. November 2016: No communications, period

Hope Hicks: “It never happened. There was no communication between the campaign and any foreign entity during the campaign.”

2. February 2017: There were no communications, “to the best of our knowledge”

Sarah Sanders: “This is a non-story because, to the best of our knowledge, no contacts took place.”

3. March 2017: There were communications, but no planned meetings with Russians

Donald Trump Jr.: “Did I meet with people that were Russian? I’m sure, I’m sure I did. . . . But none that were set up. None that I can think of at the moment. And certainly none that I was representing the campaign in any way, shape or form.”

4. July 8, 2017: There was a planned meeting at Trump Tower, but it was “primarily” about adoption and not the campaign

Trump Jr.: “We primarily discussed a program about the adoption of Russian children that was active and popular with American families years ago and was since ended by the Russian government, but it was not a campaign issue at that time and there was no follow-up.”

5. July 9, 2017: The meeting was planned to discuss the campaign, but the information exchanged wasn't “meaningful”

Trump Jr.: “No details or supporting information was provided or even offered. It quickly became clear that she had no meaningful information.”

6. December 2017: Collusion isn't even a crime

President Trump: “There is no collusion, and even if there was, it’s not a crime.”

[...]

7. May 16, 2018: Even if meaningful information were obtained, it wasn't used

Giuliani: “And even if it comes from a Russian, or a German, or an American, it doesn’t matter. And they never used it, is the main thing. They never used it. They rejected it. If there was collusion with the Russians, they would have used it.”

[One thing, Rudy Giuliani: The Trump campaign *did* use it.]

8. May 19, 2018: There was a *second* planned meeting about foreign help in the election, but nothing came of it either

The New York Times reported Sunday on yet another meeting about getting foreign help with the 2016 election. This one came three months before the election and featured Donald Trump Jr. and an emissary, George Nader, who said the princes who lead Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates wanted to assist Trump.

Alan Futerfas, Trump Jr.'s attorney: "They pitched Mr. Trump Jr. on a social media platform or marketing strategy. He was not interested, and that was the end of it.”

9. July 16, 2018: Trump couldn't collude, because Trump didn't even know Putin

Trump: "There was no collusion. I didn't know the president. There was nobody to collude with."

10. July 30, 2018: Collusion isn't a crime, and Trump wasn't physically at the Trump Tower meeting

With Michael Cohen alleging that Trump knew about the Trump Tower meeting in real time — despite many previous denials — Giuliani told both CNN and Fox News that Trump wasn't physically at the meeting.

"I’m happy to tell Mueller that Trump wasn’t at the Trump Tower meeting,” Giuliani told CNN, adding that "Don Jr. says he wasn’t there.”

[...]

Giuliani also argued that collusion isn't even a crime.

[...]

“I don’t even know if that’s a crime — colluding with Russians,” Giuliani said on CNN. “Hacking is the crime. The president didn’t hack. He didn’t pay for the hacking.”

And on Fox: “I have been sitting here looking in the federal code trying to find collusion as a crime. Collusion is not a crime.”

11. January 16, 2019: Trump didn’t collude, but no guarantees on others in the campaign

Not to mention the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of times Trump has tweeted "no collusion!" I remember thinking at one point that he was careful not to ever specify that he was talking about anyone on his team, so that he could eventually say he was only talking about himself. I do believe that in the very early stages he said nobody on his team had any contact with any Russians. (* See Update below. *)  However, I'm not going to spend any time looking that up, because, what's the point? The only thing to say about him eventually claiming he was only talking about himself is that it's proof he has never had any intention of providing cover for anyone else.

Also...



Getting out in front of what's coming.



...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:



*  UPDATE:

Aaron Rupar has it: