President Donald J. Trump talks with reporters along the driveway of the South Lawn of the White House Tuesday, June 18, 2019, prior to beginning his trip to Orlando, Fla. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)

It took nailing Rep. Adam Schiff as a liar in the whistleblower fracas for people to finally begin to talk very frankly about the role the intelligence community has played in all nonsense accusations levied against the Trump administration throughout its entire first term.

When it became clear there was strange business associated with the Russia collusion investigation into the Trump campaign, there were of course IC connections mentioned and wondered about. The prominence of former FBI Director Jim Comey in questions regarding fraudulently obtained FISA warrants, and the extreme partisanship of FBI Agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, as well as Christopher Steele’s former relationship as an FBI source, all pointed a finger at the IC.

The latest salvo, according to a now-infamous New York Times report, involving a highly suspicious “whistleblower” who was apparently affiliated with the CIA and may have worked directly with Schiff on crafting his quid pro quo accusations, points that finger even harder.

And, as a result, Trump supporters and the man himself are feeling more comfortable than even calling these efforts what they believe them to be: a frame job by the intelligence community.

Let that sink in. The President of the United States — and for increasingly valid reasons — is saying that the intelligence community under his predecessor framed him as a treasonous colluder.

The great Scam is being revealed! https://t.co/Ny429UTVUn

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 6, 2019

All of this would indicate that the investigation into the origins of Russia collusion is nearing an end and it’s not looking great for Democrats and the legacy employees of those same agencies that make up the broader IC.

So they’ve gone back to their old playbook of feeding information to gullible members of the media to trot out rambling explanations of weird conspiracy theories, crafted from actual pieces of the story (like Crowdstrike) but that no one has ever even heard of or has alleged happened. Check out this guy on Morning Joe:

MSNBC’s Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) says reporting about the dubious origins of the Russia probe is a “conspiracy theory,” “completely bonkers,” and “debunked at every step” pic.twitter.com/tfXTJjTr5E

— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) October 7, 2019

“[The] goal of it is to say — just bear with me here — that the DNC hacked itself, so just in case, in 2019, if Donald Trump got elected in 2019, they could impeach him. That’s the premise of this conspiracy theory.”

Is it? I gotta be honest…and this guy does mention Redstate and I might end up with egg on my face here…has anyone been suggesting the DNC hacked itself as an insurance policy (to coin a phrase) in case Donald Trump was elected?

That’s the first I’ve heard of it. And if this guy is introducing some crazy narrative into the news cycle that no one’s ever even heard of before, then that’s all hands on deck, cover your behind, meltdown.

Also known as business as usual for the media.

Whatever the case may be, Trump’s willingness to lob an accusation as crystal clear as the IC framed him has the Democrat playbook looking a little weak. Their defense has always been better than the Republican offense. But that seems to have changed in the age of Trump.