Brooks: Trump ‘Lashing Out’ in ‘Extremely Disturbing’ Ways, Not ‘Projecting Mental Stability’

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks argued that there is no “serious” evidence of collusion between the Trump camp and Russia, but the president is reacting in a disturbing manner.

Brooks stated, “[I]t may be a witchhunt, but he’s acting like a witch. You know, to me, we’ve had this — the idea that there’s been collusion between the Russians and the Trump campaign has been investigated for a long time. And so far, we’ve had no really serious evidence that they did collude, and everything else seems to be leaking out. So, I begin to be a little suspicious–and maybe I’m wrong–we’ll see over the long term whether there was any actual act of collusion. There were certainly conversations maybe about some building and some investment, but so far, no evidence of an underlying crime.”

He continued, “But this, to me, is not a criminal story. It’s a psychological story. And it’s a story about a president who seems to feel under more pressure, under more threat, lashing out in ways that are painfully self-destructive, but also extremely disturbing to anybody around him. And so, whether it’s the North Korean Cabinet hearing that he held recently, where they all had to praise him, or the tweets as late as this morning, this is not a president who’s projecting mental stability. And the idea that he’ll fire somebody, whether it’s Mueller or anybody else, seems very plausible. And so, to me, if there’s something really damaging here, it’s something that has not yet happened caused by the psychological pressure that he apparently feels.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett