Perspectives

Abstract Painter in Academe

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Actually, Painter is his name. Richard Painter is a Republican-turned-Democrat and a George W. Bush appointee-turned-law professor at the University of Minnesota.

Both metamorphoses occurred around the same time. If the exact time of his transformation is vague, his utterances offer even less clarity.

“I want to know why the FBI didn’t uncover what the Trump campaign was doing in 2016, including the Trump Tower meeting, and blow the cover on that, so we would have known about that before the election,” Painter said in an appearance with Tucker Carlson to promote the former Bush appointee’s Senate campaign. ““We should have known about that, and the FBI did not disclose what they knew about the Russians and the Trump campaign colluding.”
“We should have been told and that’s just wrong,”

Carlson said, ““I don’t even understand what you’re saying. I haven’t understood a single exchange of this entire conversation. Unfortunately we’re out of time. Good luck with your Senate race–I hope voters can understand what you’re saying, because I can’t.”

That’s an interesting point. One of his good ratings on ratemyprofessor.com, from the time that he was a law professor at the University of Illinois, read, “Yawn. Yaawwwwnnnn. Hard to focus.”

Professor Painter’s Twitter account doesn’t offer much more, if any clarity. “[Harvard Professor Alan] Dershowitz calls Rep. Maxine Waters an ‘ignoramus’ and accuses her of being motivated by race?” Professor Painter tweeted on June 7, 2018. “Can’t we wait at least until the one-year anniversary of Charlottesville for Team Trump’s summer round of race baiting to begin?”

Where to begin…Suffice it to say that Dershowitz was a Clinton voter and never on “Team Trump.” Nevertheless, Painter does pose an intriguing question about the former U. S. Senate Republican Majority leader: “Remember Sen. Bill Frist’s massive health care holdings that he refused to sell while in office?”

I do remember, and always wondered why the so-called Mainstream Media, which has never been friendly to any Republican anywhere right of center, never expressed any curiosity about it.

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Malcolm A. Kline
Malcolm A. Kline is the Executive Director of Accuracy in Academia. If you would like to comment on this article, e-mail contact@academia.org.

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