Trump and the Press

[knapplc]

Quoted from yesterday's press "gaggle" from which several news organizations were banned:

Q Sean, on that -- but continuing with that though, are you then saying that you would encourage, not interfere with, and not in any way encourage the Attorney General to suppress the investigation? Because there is some suggestion of that. Putting this story aside, there is a suggestion that there is suppression.

MR. SPICER: I know, but the only suggestion, Margaret, with all due respect, is from you guys. There was -- we were not aware of --

Q Actually, it’s not. There --

MR. SPICER: No, no, no -- but who? So you have someone like Nancy Pelosi coming out and making a wildly inappropriate statement.

Q I'm speaking specifically to the Department of Justice, not Capitol Hill.

MR. SPICER: I understand that. But in other words, we’re not aware of an investigation, so how would we be able to -- well, I’m sorry, what was the word that you used?

Q Suppression.

MR. SPICER: But, but -- so if you’re going to make an accusation like that, where is the evidence that there has been anything that A, exists, or B, that we’ve suppressed anything?

Q But the question was, are you actually saying any investigation -- if there was any reason to investigate, the Department of Justice should go ahead, because there is a --

MR. SPICER: Sure.

Q -- suggestion at the Department of Justice, on the --

MR. SPICER: Sure, if there is evidence of anything --

Q -- that there is --

MR. SPICER: No, that’s their job. Look --

Q -- (inaudible) question.

MR. SPICER: Right. And I think we’ve made it clear that if there’s evidence of something, pursue it. And we’ve said that very clearly about the House and Senate. There is nothing to -- we have nothing to hide. The President has been crystal-clear consistently over and over again. And my point to you is that at some point you use words like "suppression" or "investigation" -- then show us. Where's this investigation? Where is the suppression that's occurring? Where's the so-called pushback or pressure?

I mean, respectfully, guys, I don’t -- I find a lot of this offensive. When you talk about us pushing back on something that doesn’t exist, at some point answer the opposite -- which is, what were we supposed to do when presented by information by them? Sit back and do nothing?

Q I'm not speaking about that point and case. I'm talking about at the Department of Justice, writ large, investigating ties to Russia. Is that an investigation that should continue to proceed?

MR. SPICER: If they have an investigation, then they should do what they want. They should follow the law.

Q And is that the message that the President has delivered to the Attorney General?

MR. SPICER: I mean, he literally swore him in. I think something like, I hope you execute the -- I mean, why would he have to -- again, respectfully, it's insulting that the President would have to tell the Attorney General to follow the law. Did you ask the same question about Obama with respect to Holder? I mean, with all of the stuff that went out there, did you --

Q There are reports and those are lines of questions that --

MR. SPICER: Did you ever ask that question?

Q I wasn’t covering that case, but there were reporters at my network who did.

MR. SPICER: They did? So they did. You can --

Q I believe it was CBS that broke the "Fast and Furious" story. But anyway, moving --

MR. SPICER: That's not what I asked. No, no, I didn’t ask that question. I'm saying, did you ever question the White House, or did CBS, on the record, question the Obama administration whether or not they asked the Attorney General to follow the law?

Q But there is -- Sean --

MR. SPICER: No, see what you just did? You told ---

Q I'm trying to answer you. There is a sort of boilerplate speaking point, talking point to say we don’t want to impede an ongoing investigation, we hope that all those thing --

MR. SPICER: Did you ever ask the Obama administration the same question?

Q About this? No.

MR. SPICER: No, about whether or not they asked Attorney General Holder to follow the law. These boilerplate language --

Q There were plenty of questions about interference --

MR. SPICER: No, no, look --

Q Yes, there were plenty of questions about interference.

MR. SPICER: So you can you tell me that CBS asked the White House that same question?

Q About whether the Justice Department was interfering in investigations?

MR. SPICER: Would follow the law, would use this "boilerplate language"?

Q Yes.

MR. SPICER: Okay.

Q But to the point, there are people that --

MR. SPICER: No, no, no, but you don’t get to pivot, Margaret.

Q I'm not. I'm actually asking to stay on the topic, which was the topic of the Russia investigation, not what you're talking about. So on the topic of the Russia investigation, what you have said is there is no knowledge at the White House of any investigation into ties with Russia?

MR. SPICER: I am not aware of an investigation. If there was one, then they should follow the law. But I don’t think -- I will definitely try to look for whether or not CBS asked the same question to the White House during the eight years of the Obama administration. Because at least I never saw that.

Q Sean, can you say why Mr. Priebus wanted -- when he talked to McCabe -- why did he then want the FBI to go do, on their own, bat this story down? Was there something about it being more credible if the FBI were to speak up about than if it was just coming from --

MR. SPICER: Okay, so just stop for a second. Let's walk through this logically. I come to you and say, hey, there's evidence that whatever you've been accused of is not true. What's your response? No, no, answer the question.

Q You said to me that there's evidence of --

MR. SPICER: So you've been accused of some wrongdoing, and I come to you and say, hey, guess what -- the accusations that you've been accused of I know they aren’t true.

 

[Moiraine]

So frustrating. All of the reporters should get medals for having to deal with this administration.

 

Spicer's reply, to summarize, is: "But Obama"

[Danny Bateman]

Good lord, what a mess. That's hard to follow. It looks like a nonsensical argument that a teenager who was determined to win would make.

 

And then there's this bit:

 

MR. SPICER: Right. And I think we’ve made it clear that if there’s evidence of something, pursue it. And we’ve said that very clearly about the House and Senate. There is nothing to -- we have nothing to hide. The President has been crystal-clear consistently over and over again. And my point to you is that at some point you use words like "suppression" or "investigation" -- then show us. Where's this investigation? Where is the suppression that's occurring? Where's the so-called pushback or pressure?

 

It takes an awful lot of cojones to say that to the media when you're in the direct employ of the guy who claims who lost the popular vote due to 3-5M illegal votes and can't back it up with anything.

[NM11046]

Aw. Mr. ThinSkin made a good call here I think, though I was looking forward to another evening like the Al Smith Charity Dinner.

 

[zoogs]

He skurred.

[Making Chimichangas]

 

What a chicken. Total coward. Sad.

[commando]

maybe Alec Baldwin can take his place?

[RedDenver]

I hope there's an empty chair with Trump's name on it. Might be even funnier to roast him about not even being there.

[funhusker]

I hope there's an empty chair with Trump's name on it. Might be even funnier to roast him about not even being there.

Any comedian with a good Clint Eastwood impersonation? That has potential to be comedy gold!!

[RedDenver]

 

I hope there's an empty chair with Trump's name on it. Might be even funnier to roast him about not even being there.

Any comedian with a good Clint Eastwood impersonation? That has potential to be comedy gold!!

 

Holy crap! I had forgotten about that.

[Danny Bateman]

In case you couldn't tell...

 

[mrandyk]

 

What a chicken. Total coward. Sad.

Last time a president skipped was Reagan in 1981 when he was recovering from his assassination attempt.

 

I didn't realize that this dinner was a benefit for journalism scholarships until now. It should be no surprise that Trump wants nothing to do with that.

[mrandyk]

Currently a couple months away from getting my Master's at USD, we have a couple of very famous journalism alums in Tom Brokaw and Al Neuharth, and everyday on my ways to class I get to walk by this:

 

 

Every single time I have passed by the Neuharth Center (a 89 year old building that was originally a gym, hosting our basketball teams until construction of the DakotaDome in the late 70s, and then modified to host SDPB and the Media & Journalism program) in the past year or so I can't help but wonder how we got to where we are now. How has this nation adopted a leader that is so squarely against this principle of free speech that our nation was founded upon? The first amendment is under fire. It is surreal that we are living in a reality where our president is at war with those seeking to inform the population.

[Lil' Red]

[Danny Bateman]

Conservatives have been barking up this tree for a really long time. Not entirely unreasonably - our MSM does have a liberal bias with the way in which it approaches some stories, IMO. On the other hand, the Fairness Doctrine is gone, Fox News is far and away the most viewed cable news network and there is no liberal analogue to conservative radio. Unless perhaps if you consider political comedy shows?

 

In any case, they've been dancing around this issue and probing it forever. But they've never had a leader as wiling to speak out and attack it as directly as Trump is now. He's running at it head-on throwing bombs at what he perceives as a barrier to his success.

 

Unfortunately, far too many spineless cowards in the GOP are merrily tagging along for their own gain or just the sheer enjoyment of lashing out at the media. The respectable few who are willing to denounce him and support the free press seem like a minority to me. I've got to say, it's sickening and just plain pathetic to see so many sell out for the home team and defend him on this.