White House’s source balks at Trump’s dubious Russia assertions

Oops.Even for this White House’s creative approach to political rhetoric, “hoax” is clearly the wrong word. The president and members of his team claimed for months that no one on Team Trump spoke to Russia while Russia was illegally intervening in the U.S. election, and those claims have now been discredited. What’s under investigation now is whether — and to what extent — Team Trump may have cooperated with Moscow’s espionage operation intended to put Trump in the White House.The question is still very much under investigation, and the probes are likely to be ongoing for months. Trump, Spicer, and others may hope that evidence of collusion doesn’t end the president’s term, but the idea that the allegations themselves are a “hoax” is plainly ridiculous.But even looking past curious word choice, Spicer made it sound as if the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee told the president the whole idea of collusion would inevitably collapse. First, Grassley couldn’t draw such a conclusion — the investigations are just now intensifying — and second, Grassley couldn’t share such baseless speculation with the president who may be brought down by the results of the ongoing probes.No wonder the GOP senator’s office effectively said, “Um, no.”The follow-up for Spicer today should be obvious: since the White House’s source just sold the press secretary out, does Team Trump have any actual sources we can ask to verify these dubious assertions?