Louise Mensch's take on what Rachel is up to:

[triron]

Link to tweet

[MFM008]

1. Interesting

And possible.
I think she's much smarter than maggot and Bannon all his kids and wives combined. Add his entire cabinet AND
ALL of his voters.......

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. Hmm. Could be.

I do think all the blathering about how Rachel got "played" is nonsense; she's far too smart for that. This could be a possible explanation.

[womanofthehills]

17. If you listened to the show, there is no was she was played

She gave tons of into on the Trump/Russian connection. She was excellent.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

24. She's always excellent, and I agree that she wasn't played.

People who are claiming she was aren't seeing what she was trying to do.

[OnDoutside]

35. 100% agree. When I first heard about this, I thought this is a Donnie special but the way Rachel

presented it was excellent.

[JI7]

3. i'm watching it and i don't get those who are crying about it being nothing

she is doing a really good job of making the case for why we need more info.

anyone who thinks she was played are those who themselves get played regularly .

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. They're just disappointed because we aren't getting all the answers RIGHT NOW.

But we won't. The various crimes, schemes and entanglements of Trump and his businesses will take a long time and a lot of investigating to unravel, and it won't get all neatly wrapped up before the evening news like an episode of CSI. Too many short attention spans.

[still_one]

6. They are complaining because it was hyped up so much

[pnwmom]

16. Also, many viewers who turned in for the tax returns may have been hearing

her summary of DT's tangled web for the first time. She connected so many dots tonight, in a way that doesn't happen often on TV.

[uponit7771]

34. +1

[uponit7771]

33. +1

[C_U_L8R]

4. Reverse Catfish

Learned a new term.

[Achilleaze]

38. me, too

[oasis]

7. Rachel's a Rhodes Scholar. Nobody's fool. nt

[triron]

9. Sharp cookie

[oasis]

10. Damn right. nt

[triron]

11. Interesting to note that even here

people are talking about Trump's taxes. hmm.

[oasis]

12. Good point. The tax issue should not fade. nt

[vlyons]

13. She has a PhD

n/t

[oasis]

15. IMO, Rachel and her staff are the best in the business. nt

[cilla4progress]

8. Maybe in an

echo chamber, though?

[grantcart]

14. I suspect that she didn't think that at first blush but agree that she will use it to create

an appetite for more.

Unfortunately too many hot issues are getting side lined. I think she would have gotten more out of it by putting it in perspective and going back to the other issues that have been put on the back burner, like Sessions Perjury which has been almost forgotten since the allegations about Obama wiretapping pushed it off the front page.

[triron]

18. agree session's perjury needs to get more attention.

I think Rachel may be after bigger fish though.

[bettyellen]

19. What weird is people saying she took the convo away from Russia and she spent half the show on it!?!

She reminded everyone that Russia is the reason we need to see his full taxes- sources of income and all his debts.
And I think that's incredibly important because it ties him directly to a bunch of circumstantial things they definitely have on his team. We need to see the money connection desperately and she used this info as an opportunity to hammer that home.
People are complaining about hype? Oh please. She got a lot of viewers and that's awesome.

[iluvtennis]

20. Screenshot of Trump's taxes has "client copy" stamped on it. means someone in dt world leaked it

Link to tweet

[bettyellen]

21. Lots of people can have the client copy. Not sure if you have a point? Someone was going to report

On them- and knowing that she framed the narrative to be all about Russia and why we need recent and FULL returns. Apparently a lot of people think this took the story away from the Russia thing and that's not the case at all.

[iluvtennis]

23. Some of us think it gave Rachel the platform to tie more of the Russia stuff togehter...

..by asking questions about the missing parts of the tax return.

[bettyellen]

25. Yeah. She was certainly aware he could have leaked it. I'm surprised anyone

Is thinking that she got played or that ignoring it was smarter. Someone less thoughtful would have reported and likely left out the Russia connection entirely. In fact they are.

[iluvtennis]

26. Downfall of Trump will be brought on by the kind of woman he fears most...

Link to tweet

[world wide wally]

22. She'll follow up with something tomorrow

She's too smart not to address it.

[brettdale]

27. Nope

She had this story, she thought it would make trump look bad, had the opposite effect.

People are talking wow Trump actually paid 38 million in tax.

[Loki Liesmith]

29. Nope

She just had a story and showed it because if she didn't someone else would get the scoop.

She's a journalist. The scoop is the goal. That's it.

[we can do it]

39. Yep

[Marcuse]

30. Cherry Pick

That's why *45 leaked that particular year for which he paid $38M.

[rockfordfile]

31. People are asking where are all of Trump's Tax returns.

[uponit7771]

32. ... and how he was to take away AMT that would directly benefit HIM

[Skittles]

37. TWELVE YEARS AGO

WHERE ARE HIS RECENT RETURNS

[Thekaspervote]

28. Thank you!

I couldn't have possibly bought into her being duped

[LovingA2andMI]

36. Ummm....She Got Played....

That's it and all. Fact check more, next time Rachel.

[we can do it]

40. What did she report that was not a fact?

[sarcasmo]

41. The my taxes are under audit talking point is Over.