Tag: Kellyanne Conway

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

Just Shoot Me

CREDIT: REUTERS/Mary F. Calvert

Washington, D.C. — President Donald Trump has admitted to shooting Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross during a tumultuous cabinet meeting on Monday. Ross, 81, is in a Washington, D.C., hospital, where his condition is listed as critical. Trump tweeted Monday night that Ross “had it coming.” Trump went on to tweet that Ross had “fallen asleep” while the president was speaking about the border wall, and that he wanted to “send a message” to other cabinet members. He then tweeted “NO COLLUSION!” and “HAPPY EARTH DAY!”

Since the Justice Department has issued an opinion that a sitting president cannot be indicted, Trump appears to be in no danger of being prosecuted for the shooting.

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a briefing Tuesday morning that “the president has been very clear on what he will put up with from his cabinet members. While the president wishes the commerce secretary a speedy recovery, he reiterates that he was well within his rights to shoot Mr. Ross under Justice Department guidelines that a sitting president cannot be indicted. He hopes that Mr. Ross has ‘learned his lesson.'”

On Tuesday evening, presidential spokesperson Kellyanne Conway was interviewed by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer: “All right, Kellyanne Conway, what’s your take on this bizarre shooting in the White House yesterday?”

“Well, Wolf, the mainstream media is reporting that a bullet struck Secretary Ross in a cabinet meeting. The president takes full responsibility for being in that meeting, but beyond that, what do we really know? Did you hear the gunshot, Wolf? I don’t think so. Do you know for a fact that Mr. Ross didn’t assault the president? Maybe it was self-defense. For all we know, it could have been a drive-by shooting. We just don’t have all the facts at this point, Wolf, but I remain confident in this president and his policies, which are supported by the majority of the American people.”

“Kellyanne, the president has tweeted that he shot Wilbur Ross. That seems pretty definitive …”

“The president was possibly being sarcastic, Wolf. Or it may have been a retweet.”

“[sighs] All right, let’s go to our panel. …  Rudy Giuliani, what’s your response to this surprising bit of news?”

“It’s simple, Wolf. It’s not illegal for the president to shoot someone. In fact, it’s not illegal for him to do anything, if you think about it. If you can’t be indicted, then you can’t be proven guilty, and if you can’t be proven guilty, then you’re not guilty. Simple as that. I’m not saying he did it, but if he did, that’s well within his rights as president.”

Sean Hannity, speaking on his Fox News show later Tuesday night, also defended the president: “I commend the president for taking this bold stand against incompetence. He’s merely doing what he promised he’d do — draining the swamp! When the president speaks, cabinet members should be listening, not sleeping. Do you think President Obama would have had the courage to shoot a cabinet member? Or Crazy Bernie? Don’t make me laugh.”

On Wednesday morning, Attorney General William Barr issued a statement: “The president’s actions — if he took any actions — regarding the shooting of Commerce Secretary Ross were well within the jurisdiction of the president’s powers. We suspect some of the negative reports regarding this incident that have come out in the press are a result of illegal leaks from FBI spies. We also must bear in mind that the president has been very frustrated lately, which has caused him undue stress and may have contributed to this unfortunate but justifiable incident of a stray bullet striking Secretary Ross.”

House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi issued the following statement on Friday: “The House Judiciary, Oversight, Ways and Means, Budget, and Homeland Security Committees will begin hearings on the recent incident concerning President Trump and the late Wilbur Ross (RIP) on Thursday next week. While Mr. Trump’s actions have brought dishonor to the presidency — and are possibly murderous — our hands are tied by the Justice Department’s ruling that a sitting president cannot be indicted. Further, we do not feel at this time these actions warrant impeachment, which would only rile up Mr. Trump’s supporters and divide the country. We think it’s better to leave it to the American people to decide. The 2020 election is only 18 months away.”

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Letter From The Editor Opinion

War is Peace

CREDIT: Imagecollect | Dreamstime

There’s been much discussion over the past few days about “banned words” in the wake of reports by the Washington Post and other media outlets that multiple agencies in the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), have been told by Trump administration officials that they cannot use certain words and phrases in agency documents.

The words purportedly banned for used in official agency reports being prepared for the 2019 budget were: entitlement, diversity, vulnerable, transgender, fetus, evidence-based, and science-based. Several sources at HHS also told the Post that they’d been told to use “ObamaCare” as opposed to the “Affordable Care Act” and to refer to “marketplaces” where people purchase health insurance as “exchanges.”

“The assertion that HHS has ‘banned words’ is a complete mischaracterization of discussions regarding the budget formulation process,” said HHS spokesman Matt Lloyd to The Hill.

So, in conclusion, we have reports arising from multiple sources in several federal agencies to multiple media outlets saying they’d been given instruction as to what words they could and couldn’t use in government documents, followed by a denial from an official spokesperson that any of it ever happened.

Your call.

This semantic kerfluffle should serve to remind us that whoever controls language controls the message. George Orwell famously illustrated this in his novel 1984, set in a dystopian then-future world, wherein citizens of Oceania were constantly exposed by their government to such slogans as “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength.” Thirty-three years after Orwell’s future tome, there is little doubt that a battle is raging in this country to control the message.

It seems quaint to think that until as recently as 1987, licensed broadcasters in the U.S. were required to observe something called the Fairness Doctrine, a policy of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) that required broadcast license holders to present controversial issues of public importance in a manner that was — in the FCC’s view — honest and equitable. It was imperfect in its execution, but its intention was to guarantee that U.S. citizens would be able to rely on their broadcast media to present a fair and balanced picture of the news of the day. (“Fair and balanced”? I’ve heard that somewhere.)

National news networks, and even local news and affairs programs, were constrained from the kind of partisan cheerleading that passes for news and analysis these days. Broadcasters were required by law to grant equal time to opposing views. Crazy, right?

Nowadays, if you want both sides of an issue, you have to watch and listen to several news outlets. MSNBC is reliably left of center; CNN is slightly left, but usually makes an attempt to present both sides; Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News has basically disintegrated into state media, wholly in service to the Trump/GOP agenda — even going so far as to suggest this week that the FBI was staging a “coup” by pursuing its investigation into the Trump campaign’s possible Russian connections.

What’s next? Alex Jones as Sean Hannity’s new sidekick? I’m still trying to figure out how being “conservative” has come to mean siding with our arch-enemy, Russia, against our own U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies. This is weird and dangerous turf.

The late, great comedian George Carlin had a blistering routine about the “seven words you can’t say on television.” I urge you to dial it up on your local YouTube and watch it. It’s hilarious and scary good. But again, “forbidden words.” How quaint. One night’s channel surfing will make it clear that there are no words that can’t be spoken on your television.

Oh, sure, Wolf Blitzer still can’t just pop off and rhetorically ask, “How the f**k can Kellyanne Conway say that with a straight face?” (Though that would be refreshing.) According to the FCC, there are still “forbidden words” for licensed broadcasters. But there are no forbidden ideas; no forbidden lies; no FCC policy to monitor fairness or equity or balance. It’s the wild west; every viewer for themselves.

Choose what’s fake. Choose what’s real. Choose your truth. Ignorance is not strength.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Where the Truth Goes to Die

CREDIT: Reuters | Joshua Roberts

Have we ever lived through an era when more lies were being foisted on the American public by their own government than now? Sure, we had Watergate, and the Vietnam years were filled with lies from several administrations. And, sure, governments have always covered up things they didn’t want the public to know. But I don’t believe there’s ever been a time in our history like what’s happening now, where we are told bold-faced, easily disprovable prevarications by our own president and his enablers on a daily basis.

Trump lies so brazenly and so frequently that The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, Politico, and several other media organizations have set up webpages to track them. Trump’s tweets are in a class by themselves, filled with falsehoods, exaggerations, bluster, and (increasingly) transparent fear, as Robert Mueller’s Russian investigation begins to out the collaborators in his administration.

But it goes beyond the president. Way beyond. Trump, in fact, has created a thriving growth industry of prevaricators who are paid to reiterate and/or explain his many falsehoods and misstatements.

It began in the first week of his presidency, when the president sent out press secretary Sean Spicer, who proclaimed that Trump’s Inaugural crowd was the “largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period.” It wasn’t, of course, not even close, but Spicer persisted, even berating reporters who dared point out the obvious evidence to the contrary. “Who you gonna believe,” Spicer seemed to be saying, “the facts or President Trump?” That moment set the tone for Trump’s entire presidency, thus far.

In the ensuing weeks, Spicer’s daily press briefings became a sideshow, as the beleagured spokesman attempted to spin his boss’ misinformed tweets and daily blather into some semblance of reality. He eventually became a running joke on Saturday Night Live.

But Spicer was only the first of many to sell his soul — or, at least, his integrity — for Donald Trump. Since then, the list has become a lengthy one, and is growing each week, as the Russian plotlines unfold.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who took over Spicer’s role as chief presidential explainer and apologist, is a much better liar. Not that she’s more believable; she’s just more comfortable at spewing bullshit with conviction and attitude. Spicer at least tried to be likeable.

The truth is, anyone in this administration who wants to keep their job has to be willing to lie for their boss. For example, at Trump’s direction, Vice President Mike Pence spent tax-payer money to fly across country to a football game just so he could walk out during the national anthem. Pence’s soul (such as it is) has long been sold.

And let’s not forget Kellyanne Conway, perhaps the most enthusiastic liar ever to appear on the national stage. Or Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who’s lied to Congress twice to protect his boss (and his own butt). And there’s Trump’s chief of staff, General John Kelly — once perceived as a beacon of truth and integrity in this administration — who’s now been outed as someone willing to make up lies for his boss, and defend them, even after they’ve been disproven.

It’s gotten to the point where it’s difficult to name someone in this adminstration who hasn’t been caught in a lie. Go ahead, see if you can think of someone. Tom Price? Betsy DeVos? Steve Mnuchin? Scott Pruitt? Ryan Zinke? Wilbur Ross? All cabinet members who’ve been outed as liars. Steve Bannon? Jared Kushner? Mike Flynn? The list is seemingly endless.

This is the biggest crowd of liars ever assembled in any single administration. And that’s not counting media sycophants like Sean Hannity — and Fox News, which has morphed into some sort of crazed branch of state media.

It’s been said that the truth will out. And I have enough faith in the American system to think that it will eventually, even with this bunch. But if I said I was confident it would happen soon, I’d be lying.