Tag: trump tweet
Right-Wing Media Explain Barr’s Bogus Rebuke Of Trump

Right-Wing Media Explain Barr’s Bogus Rebuke Of Trump

Reprinted with permission from MediaMatters

Many mainstream media outlets fell right for the bait from Attorney General Bill Barr’s public complaint that President Donald Trump’s tweets on specific cases were making it “impossible for me to do my job.” Here, they thought, was some genuine daylight between the attorney general and the president — in the wake of Barr’s intervention to overrule the sentencing recommendations against former Trump campaign associate Roger Stone, and the resignations of four Department of Justice professionals.

But here’s the thing: Right-wing media weren’t actually fooled. (Well, maybe a laggard or two didn’t quite catch on.) Most of them understood perfectly what was going on. That’s why major right-wing activists and even far-right conspiracy theorists were so quick to leap to Barr’s defense.

Like a vaudeville or cartoon villain who can’t resist breaking the fourth wall and gloating right to the audience, these right-wing commentators tell us Barr is accomplishing two different things: Asking Trump to leave him alone so that he can actually carry out Trump’s desired objectives and psyching out the media into thinking he’s not just following Trump’s orders.

Just as the story was breaking, Fox News’ Sean Hannity immediately leapt to put Barr’s frustrations in context to listeners of his radio show, thus tamping down any instinct for his audience to be mad about the attorney general’s seeming dissension. After all, Hannity explained, Barr needs to do his job.

From the February 13, 2020, edition if iHeartRadio’s The Sean Hannity Show

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Now this just breaking on ABC, Bill Barr is mad at the president. And I guess I kind of understand his frustration, because he’s trying to do his job, he can’t be influenced by anybody. I respect that, totally and completely.

But he wants the president to stop tweeting, because that makes it — the tweets are making it impossible for him to do his job, because people are saying he’s taking orders from the president, and he’s not.

And that night, Fox News host Laura Ingraham put it succinctly: “The media sees this sexy story of Trump versus Barr, but they missed the fact that Barr was basically telling Trump, ‘Don’t worry, I got this.’”

And others noticed a second angle here: Barr is pulling a mind game with the media, to make everybody think he’s in a feud with Trump — thereby taking away a point of criticism of the attorney general.

On the Thursday evening after the story broke, Will Chamberlain of Human Events called it “some old school PR wizardry.”

“But think about it, there’s a 4-D chess play here,” Chamberlain explained. “What is the criticism of Barr — what is the criticism of him? It’s that he’s Trump’s toady, right? Like, that’s the Elizabeth Warren thing. They’re saying, ‘Oh, he’s just Trump’s hand dog.’ Well, now literally every mainstream media outlet is reporting that ‘Barr is criticizing Trump vociferously.’ Meaning that he’s just managed, by this one press conference, to create distance between himself and the president, which is sort of what is needed to defang every bit of the criticism that is going on of President Trump.”

“Everybody knows Barr is doing a lot of work, he’s doing a good job,” Chamberlain later added, mentioning that the White House had already expressed full and continued confidence in Barr. “I mean, the single most decisive intervention was Barr squashing the Mueller report. And there’s a lot that Barr has done that’s really good. He seems to be pulling back on the Flynn case, seems to, you know, pulling back on the Stone thing, you know, getting these terrible, lying Mueller prosecutors out of there.”

And on Fox News, former Secretary of Education and now Fox Nation host Bill Bennett even speculated Friday morning that seemingly “attacking” Trump would really serve to take the heat off Barr from Democrats.

From the February 14, 2020, edition of Fox News’ America’s Newsroom

BILL BENNETT (FOX NATION HOST): The president needs Bill Barr. But it turns out to be fine, and the White House supports him. You know, this is a strong guy and the president needs strong men around him — he’s a strong personality, he needs strong personalities.

But what are the Democrats going to do about Bill Barr? They were ready to impeach him, and then for a moment last night, you had to think they were saying, “Hey, wait a minute, he’s attacking Trump. Maybe we’re on his side.”

Co-anchor Sandra Smith even added that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnel (R-KY) “didn’t waste any time taking the back of Bill Barr on that one.”

Note: This supposed maneuver to make Democrats think Barr is somehow on their side really doesn’t work — especially when Bennett gets up in public and explains the attempt at a mind game.

There were also a handful of mainstream outlets that got it. Washington Post columnist Margaret Sullivan explained:

As we previously noted, CNN’s Chris Cuomo called the move a “ploy,” explaining the White House’s statement of continued confidence in Barr and noted of Trump: “You’ve never heard him say that about anybody who said anything close to what Barr just did. I wonder why.”

And on MSNBC’s Hardball, former CIA Director John Brennan and former federal prosecutor Paul Butler explained to Chris Matthews that Barr still has a lot of maneuvering room.

“He is just so self-centered — Donald Trump — that anybody who has the audacity to challenge him, or to criticize him, is going to be within the line of fire,” explained Brennan, a longtime Trump detractor. “And that’s why I do have questions about what happened today with William Barr, whether or not this was coordinated with the White House,” he said, adding that he thought Barr was trying to prevent “a full-scale revolt within the Department of Justice.”

Butler summed it up: “Trump needs Barr more than Barr needs Trump. So, I think Barr has some room. But again, the question is, how will he exercise his power? And from everything we know, he will continue to be the president’s Roy Cohn.”

Wrong: Trump Claims Unprecedented ‘Victory’ In Iowa’s GOP Caucus

Wrong: Trump Claims Unprecedented ‘Victory’ In Iowa’s GOP Caucus

Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that his successful performance in Monday’s Iowa caucus was somehow historic, but that isn’t true. President Barack Obama outperformed Trump when he ran for reelection in 2012.

“I had the largest re-election vote in the history of that great state, by far, beating President Obama’s previous record by a lot,” Trump tweeted. “Also, 97 percent Plus of the vote! Thank you Iowa!”

The Iowa Republican Party’s official results show that Trump received 97.15 percent of the vote. Former Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh received 1.08 percent of the vote on Monday night, and William Weld, a former governor of Massachusetts, received 1.31 percent of the vote. Another 0.47 percent of the vote went to “other.”

Appearing at a caucus site in Ankeny on Monday, Walsh told voters that because of Trump, the Republican Party is losing support from women, people of color, and young voters.

“If we aren’t careful, we are going to become a party of old white guys,” Walsh said.

In 2012, President Obama ran unopposed and received 98.44 percent of the vote, a higher level of support than the number Trump is touting as “the largest re-election vote in the history” of Iowa. Of the 8,152 convention delegates awarded in the Iowa caucus that year, Obama received 8,065 of them for 99 percent support, with only 87 delegates (1 percent) backing the “uncommitted” position.

Obama went on to overwhelmingly win the general election against Mitt Romney, despite the endorsement Romney received from Trump.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

Trump Withdraws Ratcliffe Nomination Under Fire Over Falsehoods

Trump Withdraws Ratcliffe Nomination Under Fire Over Falsehoods

Trump has been forced to withdraw his support from yet another top nominee over scandals and a severe lack of qualifications — this time Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX), who was set to lead U.S. intelligence agencies.

On Friday, Trump announced via Twitter that Ratcliffe will no longer be his nominee for next director of national intelligence, blaming the media for his decision to nominate a wildly unqualified person for the position.

Ratcliffe “is being treated very unfairly by the LameStream Media,” Trump complained. He then claimed, without any evidence, that Ratcliffe would face “months of slander and libel” if the nomination went forward. Trump ended by vowing to “announc[e] my nomination for DNI shortly.” (In December 2018, Trump promised to name a new defense secretary “shortly,” and it took him 195 days to do so.)

Ratcliffe was nominated by Trump less than a week ago, on July 28, and immediately faced multiple scandals, including the discovery that he lied on his congressional campaign website, claiming to have convicted terror suspects, when those who actually worked on the case had no recollection of him being involved at all.

Ratcliffe also faced accusations of being woefully unprepared for the job. Ratcliffe was not known as a hard worker on the House Intelligence Committee and was unwilling to travel overseas on key trips to meet with CIA officers who were at the forefront of the intelligence community. Current and former intelligence officers described him as “the least qualified person ever nominated to oversee the country’s intelligence agencies.”

Trump’s humiliating backtracking less than a week after nominating Ratcliffe is nothing new for nominees in the Trump era. He has nominated a shocking number of unqualified nominees who eventually withdrew from consideration.

In 2016, Monica Crowley withdrew from consideration for a National Security Council job after reports of plagiarism surfaced. Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA) backed down from taking a position as “drug czar” after legislation he pushed actually hurt efforts to fight the opioid crisis.

Trump contemplated nominating David Clarke, a violent sheriff with a history of prisoner abuse, to lead the Department of Homeland Security.

Sam Clovis, a Trump nominee for an undersecretary role at the Agriculture Department, withdrew amidst allegations of ties to Russia.

Mark Green made disparaging comments about Islam and had to withdraw as Trump’s pick to be Army secretary.

Trump wanted Robert Weaver to be the head of Indian Health Services, but the nomination abruptly ended after an investigation uncovered Weaver had inflated his resume with outright fabrications.

Trump’s picks to lead the Department of Labor and Veterans Affairs also withdrew over various scandals.

And recently, Trump withdrew the nomination of businessman and former presidential contender Herman Cain for a position with the Federal Reserve after allegations of sexual misconduct surfaced.

Ratcliffe joins a long list of disgraceful and disqualified nominees put forth by Trump, only to be withdrawn days or weeks later.

Oliver Willis contributed to this report.

Published with permission of The American Independent.

Teetotaler Trump: Just Another Empty Boast?

Teetotaler Trump: Just Another Empty Boast?

Reprinted with permission fromAlternet.

“I never had a glass of alcohol,” President Donald Trump said at a press conference in 2018. It’s a claim that he’s made many times before that’s as much a part of his persona as are his golfing and incessant tweeting. In 2017 Trump made a toast at a UN dinner (photo), and drank “maroon liquid” from the glass. The White House would not respond to questions, according to reports.

Earlier this month Vice News reported on Trump’s claim he doesn’t drink and never has. In a lengthy exposé, the news media outlet interviewed people who say tea-totaling Trump is a myth.

“I served him. And he drank at the bar. He’d come in with John Casablancas. He’d go to the side of the bar [at Spy] by the waitress station, because he liked the waitresses. He would order light beer. It was usually Miller Lite or Bud Light,” the bartender, named Laraby, told Vice. “If they could get some large-breasted beautiful young European girl’s attention, they would get a nice bottle of wine, sometimes champagne, and move to a table. He drank his beer out of the bottle. He would nurse his beer. Even if they were there for hours, he would have three beers at the most.”

Laraby was one of nine people who described Trump’s drinking.

And now, many are questioning Trump’s claim he never drinks and never has.

In an angry tweet Trump attacked France for taxing U.S. companies. At the end of his screed he threatened President Emmanuel Macron, saying he will impose taxes on French wine.

“I’ve always said American wine is better than French wine!” Trump concludes.

White House reporter for the L.A. Times, Eli Stokols, was among the first to remind Americans that “Trump does not drink.”

He wasn’t the only one who picked up on Trump’s apparent slip.