See also: Tactic Number One Countering Nunes Memo: Denial

Faced with evidence of criminality in weaponizing the NSA spy apparatus for use against the Republican presidential nominee, a second tactic was rolled out yesterday by the many enemies of Trump in the media and political establishment. Let’s call it “inversion.” Instead of putting responsibility for corrupting the FBI and Department of Justice on those who corrupted them, the inversion strategy blames those who exposed the corruption.  

The best (actually, worst) example of this came from Senator John McCain, who at least has the excuse of being gravely ill. The HuffPost gleefully reported:

“The latest attacks against the FBI and Department of Justice serve no American interests ― no party’s, no President’s, only Putin’s,” McCain added. “The American people deserve to know all the facts surrounding Russia’s ongoing efforts to subvert our democracy, which is why Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation must proceed unimpeded. Our nation’s elected officials, including the president, must stop looking at this investigation through the lens of politics and manufacturing political sideshows. If we continue to undermine our own rule of law, we are doing Putin’s job for him.”

Wolf Blitzer, who has no excuse other than the imperatives of bosses and his personal limitations, applied the same inversion tactic:

Blitzer accused Stewart and the GOP of allowing Russian President Vladimir Putin to succeed given the member created doubt in U.S. government agencies.

“So, Putin has succeeded because that’s what’s happening right now,” he said. “The whole nature of the support for the intelligence community, the law enforcement community, the fighting that’s going on here in Washington, he’s sitting back and he’s smiling, saying, guys, good work. We succeeded.”

So, shut up, because complaining does the work of Putin. It’s the same old “Russia, Russia, Russia!” strategy we’ve seen for almost a year and half, with a new paint job. A simple thought experiment demonstrates the idiocy of this tactic. Apply this same reasoning to #BlackLivesMatter complaints about the police. Those who criticize the police are undermining our faith in the key institution of law enforcement and doing the work of the criminal class.