White House retreats on Putin's 'incredible offer' to Trump

Since President Donald Trump uses words so carelessly, maybe his listeners should turn to a dictionary.

Start with the word "incredible."

According to Merriam-Webster, the first definition is "too extraordinary and improbable to be believed." The second definition is "amazing" or "extraordinary."

Alongside Vladimir Putin in Finland the other day, Trump called it an "incredible offer" that his Russian counterpart proposed, to have investigators from his nation work with U.S. officials on the case against a dozen Russian intelligence officers indicted in the hacking of the Democratic National Committee.

"He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators, with respect to the 12 people. I think that’s an incredible offer," our president said.

Clearly Trump meant the second definition, as in "amazing" or "extraordinary."  After all, this is how they use it in late-night commercials: "Act NOW to take advantage of this INCREDIBLE offer!"

But by midweek, everyone with at least 20 minutes' knowledge in these matters seemed to hew to the first definition of incredible — as in too improbable to be believed. Other adjectives seemed even better suited: manipulative, ridiculous and unworkable, to name a few.

Putin said for all to hear that in exchange for his helping out, he wanted his own officials to get to question U.S.-born anti-Kremlin activist Bill Browder. Underlings later tossed in the name of former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul. 

Incredibly (as in amazingly), Trump's own State Department blew up the "incredible offer." “What I can tell you is that the overall assertions that have come out of the Russian Government are absolutely absurd,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.

Trump's FBI director, Christopher Wray, sounded just as incredulous — that is, disbelieving — that the proposal for joint interviews of defendants had any real-life appeal.

“I never want to say never about anything, but it’s certainly not high on our list of investigative techniques,” he told an audience at the Aspen Security Forum, prompting laughter and cheers in the room.

As for allowing Putin's subordinates to grill Americans, Wray said with a chuckle: "That’s probably even lower on our list of investigative techniques.”

So by Thursday, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders acknowledged reality on behalf of the president, settling on the position: "It is a proposal that was made in sincerity by President Putin, but President Trump disagrees with it." 

How you disagree with a proposal, rather than accept or reject it, is another question.