The Schiffs, Swalwells, and Lieus of the world will tell you that the “Russia thing” quote stands alone. It doesn’t, unless your conviction that Trump is complicit in collusion or obstruction is such that any evidence to the contrary must be discounted or ignored.

A couple nights ago, while discussing another Trump recitation of his familiar “There is no collusion” mantra, a CNN panel guest argued that “Trump has no idea what Mueller knows” about Trump’s alleged collusion, “and that’s probably the reason he’s trying to get ahead of it.”

If you believe Trump is guilty, this would be a completely natural conclusion to draw. But if you allow yourself to accept the possibility that he may be innocent, it would likely occur to you that an innocent man would have an idea what Mueller knows, and behave accordingly. And maybe that explains everything.