it s commencement season, the time of year when speakers of all stripes try to inspire graduates about their role in the world that they re heading into. and this year, most speakers have gone out of their way to avoid criticizing president trump at least by name. the phenomenon was noted by former president obama speech writer david litt, who we ve had on the program. he wrote a piece called why won t a commencement speaker just say the word trump ? he said, as we enter the final few weekend of graduation season, i hope somebody tries it. while citizenship demands civility, there are times when patriotism requires us to be impolite. this is one of those times, and that s something i think the class of 2018 would be well served to hear.
well, i had the chance but didn t go there. for many other, trump has been the voeldldemort of education. hillary clinton made a joke about russian hack but never uttered his name. no, i m not over it. [ laughter ] i still think about the 2016 election. i still regret the mistakes i made. i still think, though, that understanding what happened in such a weird and wild election in american history will help us defend our democracy in the future. jimmy carter, age 93, told those at liberty university that he heard his crowd was bigger than the previous graduations. that was an obvious dig at you know who. michael bloomberg spoke about the importance of an honor code at rice university. oprah urged usc trojans to strike down deceit and be the
president obama used this spy to destroy the trump campaign from the inside. and it was that work that spurred the mueller probe now being used to frame president trump. that s why the president has labeled the mueller probe a witch hunt or spygate. watching the ensuing partisan debate unfold, i find it to be big on sound bites but thin in evidentiary analysis. the facts are a bit complicated, only makes them more easily conflated. but i think i can distill it in about three minutes time. start your timer. philip bump of the washington post has published the best tick tock to date. he ll be here in a moment. if this was a book i d call it the tale two of professors. on march 14, 2016, joseph masoud, the director of the london academy of diplomacy met george papadopoulos in italy.
overcompensated. just as he had done months prior with the public dressing down of someone who was not being indicted. then on november 6th, two days before the election, comey informed the congress that the fbi had seen the new e-mails and the bureau had not changed its conclusion that clinton should not face charges. two days later, donald trump was elected. so americans had voted knowing that hillary clinton had been the focus of a federal probe but not realizing that the trump campaign was also being investigated in connection with the russian meddling. that conflicting scenario was brought about by james comey taking politics into consideration. and i say that robert mueller should not make the same mistake. instead, finish the tax expeditiously and release its report whenever his work is concluded, whether it s now or come september, october, november. besides, donald trump s name won t be on the ballot.