What did Donald Trump do today?

He tried to put words in the public's mouth that the public didn't want there.

This afternoon, Trump was asked about the document requests made yesterday to 81 Trump-connected people and institutions by the House Judiciary Committee. He responded:

The witch hunt continues. The fact is that, I guess, we got 81 letters. There was no collusion. It was a hoax. There was no anything. And they want to do that instead of getting legislation passed. Eighty-one people or organizations got letters. It’s a disgrace. It’s a disgrace to our country.

I’m not surprised that it’s happening. Basically, they’ve started the campaign. So the campaign begins. But the campaign is actually — their campaign has been going on for the last two and a half years. So it’s a shame. 

And the people understand it. When they look at it, they just say, “Presidential harassment.” But that’s okay.

It's true that one American person said "presidential harassment" about Congressional oversight of the Trump administration—

—but "the people," according to a Quinnipiac poll taken this week, "understand" things very differently. It found that by a 64%-24% margin, Americans believe that Trump committed crimes before taking office. It also found that more Americans (45%) believe Trump has committed crimes since taking office than believe he has not (43%).

Why does this matter?

• Oversight isn't harassment.

• It's bad if almost two-thirds of the country think the president is a crook.