Tag: intelligence briefings
Kayleigh McEnany

McEnany Depicts Trump As Disengaged, Ignorant, Bumbling

Reprinted with permission from Alternet

When White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany took to the lectern on Monday to address reporters, it was presumably her intention to defend President Donald Trump. That is, as she sees it, her job. But whatever her intentions, the defense she offered of the president was anything but.

She portrayed the president as uninformed, steadfastly resistant to new information, and recklessly bumbling his way through presidential duties.

Addressing the most recent international scandal plaguing the White House, McEnany said the president was never briefed on intelligence reports that Russia put bounties on the heads of American soldiers to incentivize Afghanistan fighters to kill them. She said the intelligence community did not have a "consensus" on the reports of the Russian bounties.

"This has not been briefed to the president, because it was not, in fact, verified," she said.

But CNN's Kaitlan Collins pointed out that "not everything in his daily briefings, or in the presidential daily brief, that's the written document, is airtight. They let the president know about what they're hearing."

McEnany responded by saying the intelligence agencies brief the president "as necessary," but didn't explain why it wouldn't have been necessary to brief the president on these findings. Asked if the president has a specific message for Moscow in light of the reports, McEnany said no, "because he has not been briefed on the matter." She said there were "dissenting opinions."

There's reason to doubt McEnany's denials — it's quite possible Trump was briefed on the findings about the Russian plot, and he simply dismissed them because of his fondness for President Vladimir Putin. Her remarks could indicate that Trump clung to qualifications and caveats of uncertainty in the reports, even if the overall conclusions of the intelligence community on the matter were solid.

But even if we accept McEnany's claims as true, they're a damning indictment of the president. They suggest he has no interest in hearing intelligence reports with any nuance in them, and that he insists on not being briefed about facts unless they're entirely certain. This is a disastrous position for a president to take because presidents must always act with some level of uncertainty. Not being briefed about uncertain matters is a childish and frankly negligent practice for a president to engage in.

One plausible interpretation of McEnany's defenses of the president is that, while the reports about the bouties were made available to the president in written form, no one ever verbally briefed him on the matter. This, too, would be another damning fact about the president, because it implies his lack of interest in reading prevented him from knowing vital information as he has been in repeated contact with Putin.

The idea that Trump is simply too lazy or incompetent to be fully informed about matters he should know came up in another McEnany defense of the president. Discussing the fact that the president shared a video on Twitter of his own supporter cheering the words "white power" at a counter-protester, McEnany said the president was unaware these words were in the video.

"Does the president retweet other people's tweets and video without knowing the full contents of what he's retweeting?" asked a reporter.

"He did not hear that particular phrase," she said.

"Did he listen to the video before he retweeted it?" the reporter asked again.

"He did, and he did not hear that particular phrase," said McEnany.

This is hard to believe because the chants of "white power" occurred after less than 10 seconds into the short video. Again, the most likely interpretation seems to be that Trump and McEnany are lying. But even if McEnany is telling the truth, it again suggests an ignorant, bumbling president who can watch a video of his own supporters and not even realize that they're spewing vile racist slogans. This may be better than a president who is intentionally spreading racist vitriol, but it's still deeply disturbing and disqualifying for the office.

But perhaps worst of all was the White House's response to the raging coronavirus pandemic in the United States.

Tamara Keith of NPR noted that "cases are on the rise, this is a very serious time," and asked: "What is the president's message to the American people, and why aren't we seeing him publicly talk to the public, encourage them to do things to stay safe?"

McEnany played down the dangers, noting (correctly) that the population of those infected appears to be younger than has previously been the case, meaning the risk of death is much lower. But she didn't acknowledge that these spikes in cases are likely to spread to more vulnerable members of society, and she referred to the intense flare-ups as mere "embers that need to be put out." She gave no indication that the president is going to take any personal steps to address the rising crisis, such as by personally embracing the use of masks to prevent the spread.

Once again, this message — put out by the White House press secretary — reflected a president who is disengaged, ignorant of the risks, and unwilling to put in the effort it would take to acknowledge and address a major crisis. Instead, he seems to be hoping everything will just work itself out without his having to make any sacrifices or work hard at all.


Now, to repeat, McEnany is a known liar. Trump lies constantly. So there's no reason to believe that the White House's excuse-making is anything more than the lastest round of intentional deceptions. McEnany's claims about Trump not being briefed, in particular, seem to contradict his own Sunday night tweet. But even if McEnany's assertions were true, they make the president look terrible. So what must they be hiding if they prefer telling such lies instead of admitting the truth?

Trump Punishes CNN For Challenging Him, Rewards Breitbart For Sucking Up

Trump Punishes CNN For Challenging Him, Rewards Breitbart For Sucking Up

Reprinted with permission from Media Matters for America.

During Donald Trump’s press conference, the president-elect criticized CNN for reporting on alleged contacts between his campaign and the Russian government, and then CNN reporter Jim Acosta tried to ask a question. Trump refused Acosta’s repeated requests. Soon after, Trump solicited a question from Matthew Boyle of the embarrassingly pro-Trump Breitbart News, who served up a softball.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that “classified documents presented last week to President Obama and President-elect Trump included allegations that Russian operatives claim to have compromising personal and financial information about Mr. Trump.” The documents also reportedly included “allegations that there was a continuing exchange of information during the campaign between Trump surrogates and intermediaries for the Russian government.” Buzzfeed followed CNN’s article by publishing pages of raw memos related to the allegations.

At his press conference, responding to a question from CBS’ Major Garrett, Trump elaborated on a tweet he sent out on Wednesday morning in which he wrote, “Intelligence agencies should never have allowed this fake news to ‘leak’ into the public. One last shot at me. Are we living in Nazi Germany?”

Trump said BuzzFeed would “suffer the consequences” for publishing the memos and that CNN went “out of their way to build it up.”

CNN reporter Jim Acosta then attempted to ask Trump a question, noting, “Since you’re attacking us, can you give us a question?” Trump refused and waved him away. Acosta persisted, and Trump refused and said CNN is “terrible,” told Acosta to be quiet, and said, “You are fake news,” before moving on to another reporter.

A few minutes later, Trump turned to Matt Boyle of Breitbart.com, who proceeded to ask Trump about “all the problems that we’ve seen throughout the media over the course of the election” and “what reforms do you recommend for this industry here?”

It would hardly be possible to ask a more sycophantic and fawning question, but coming from Breitbart, it’s not surprising.

Breitbart has become the all-but-official voice of Trump over the past two years. The site has tied itself into absurd knots to defend him and attack his opponents in both the Republican and Democratic parties, while also mangling and inventing stories to serve his campaign’s narrative.

Stephen Bannon, Trump’s incoming chief White House strategist, has been the chairman of Breitbart and has overseen its transformation from a more traditional conservative outlet to what he described as a “platform” for the so-called “alt-right,” whose noxious brand of white nationalist nativist politics now dominates the conservative movement.

Breitbart’s dedication to Trump and its vilification of his perceived enemies were reflected in its writeup of the contentious exchange between Trump and Acosta, headlined “Trump to CNN: You Are Fake News.” Breitbart.com also posted the following headlines on its front page:

In turn, Trump has often used the millions of followers he has on social media to direct web traffic toward Breitbart stories promoting him and his conspiracy theories.

Later on CNN, Acosta reported that Republican National Committee communications director and incoming Trump press secretary Sean Spicer told him that if he were to persist in asking Trump questions in the same manner, he would be “thrown out of this press conference.”  (After his combative exchange with Acosta, Trump later fielded a question from CNN reporter Jeremy Diamond.)

The lesson from Trump is that he won’t accept the sort of adversarial journalism CNN has engaged in here, which is necessary and vital for a modern, functioning democracy. But if you suck up like Breitbart did (and has done), you will be perfectly fine.

IMAGE: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump argues with CNN’s Jim Acosta during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

On Daily Show, Obama Warns Trump Against ‘Flying Blind’ Without Briefings

On Daily Show, Obama Warns Trump Against ‘Flying Blind’ Without Briefings

On Monday night, The Daily Show devoted its full broadcast to a wide-ranging, three-part interview of President Barack Obama, granted to host Trevor Noah in the White House. Not surprisingly, their discussion began with the Central Intelligence Agency’s finding that Russia intervened in the U.S. presidential election on behalf of Obama’s nemesis Donald Trump.

Aside from his concern over the Russian hacking, the president criticized mainstream American media outlets for their focus on the Clinton emails and Wikileaks dumps rather than the foreign intelligence manipulation behind them — a decision that looks ironic in retrospect.

“These emails got a lot more attention than any policy,” Obama said of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta’s emails, which he described as “routine.” Meanwhile, the question of the Kremlin’s role had come up much earlier, when Trump publicly invited Russian intelligence to hack Clinton’s own emails during a June press conference.

“Going forward, I worry that we won’t spend enough time on self-reflection on how our democracy’s working,” Obama said.

When Noah asked the president about his successor’s assertion that he doesn’t need daily intelligence briefings, Obama avoided direct criticism. “I think the president-elect may say one thing and do another once he’s here,” he said. But he warned Trump, “It doesn’t matter how smart you are.” In the absence of regular intelligence updates, “you are flying blind.”

Prodded by Noah, the president considered what might become of the Affordable Care Act under Republican rule and how that might affect his public legacy. Obama urged Americans to continue to register for the coming year of coverage, highlighting the aspects of Obamacare that have become increasingly popular. Indeed, recent polls show that most Americans no longer want the program repealed entirely, but improved and extended. He acknowledged that universal health care remains a work in progress that he always assumed would need changes going forward.

Explaining why Trump and Congressional Republicans wouldn’t be able to erase all the progress his administration has enacted since 2009, Obama said, “The federal government is an aircraft carrier. It’s not a speedboat.” On global warming, another sharp area of disagreement, he said wryly, “They may change policy, but climate change is still climate change. The ocean is still going up.”

As for his own future, he said, “I think it is important for me to recharge. I think it’s important for me to reflect. It’s important for me to get back in my wife’s good graces.” He will give the incoming administration “some space,” he added, but “I don’t anticipate that I suddenly just vanish.” Should the Trump administration pursue the president-elect’s campaign threats against Muslims and immigrants — and violates the Constitution while making America “less safe” — then the country will hear from him.

The interview concluded with Noah — like Obama, a man of mixed racial heritage — talking about race and the assumptions and prejudices that a president or a comedian with that background must confront.

“If Chris Rock’s doing standup then there’s a benefit to him doing something that is different from the President of the United States doing something. For one thing, he doesn’t have to edit his language,” said Obama with a smile. “I try to comport myself in a way that my mother would approve of.”

The entire interview is well worth viewing: