“We waited.” That is the message from the staff at As The Donald Turns. We waited for sanity; for reason; for people to own up to what is before them. Mostly we waited for awards from Donald’s “Fake News” awards extravaganza, (speeches were ready….tuxedos were good to go), but we have run out of waiting.
As The Donald Turns; We Waited
- Thursday the New York Times is not going to run an editorial section. Instead the newspaper that has run much of the investigative journalism into the Trump administration is going to run letters from Trump supporters.
The media’s ongoing confusion with balance versus the truth continues a year after Donald’s poorly attended inauguration. Some of us learned back in journalism school that balance is a figment of one’s perception. Reporting the stories, the news, with truth is all that matters. These letters will back up some of Donald’s wildly erroneous claims. Printing them to show you are “balanced” is a waste of space.
- Wednesday the White House press briefing was consumed with explaining all the misstatements from the Oval Office about immigration policies and plans. After a year of explaining what Donald meant instead of what he said, they should all be used to that. It has become so bad that General John Kelly, the president’s chief of staff, had to clarify that Donald’s position on building a wall and boarder security was “uninformed.” Kelly told some Democrat lawmakers Wednesday that Mexico is not going to be paying for the wall.
Most of us knew this already. Most of us knew during the campaign. We were not concerned with “balanced” coverage. We looked for the truth. By doing some homework we found it. Unfortunately, there are those that will have their letters printed in the NYT Thursday that have believed this nonsensical commitment from Donald all along. We wait now, for Donald to admit that while he ran on lowering the debt and the deficit, he needs at least $18 billion from Congress to get the wall that he promised that will be the answer to all our immigration issues.
- Of course, most of what Donald says leaves us waiting for the truth. Tuesday, former king maker Steve Bannon testified before the House Intelligence Committee about all things Donald and Russia. Except for the parts where he didn’t. If you are a fan of Donald you are probably surprised at the testimony. Donald has told you repeatedly that the investigation is a hoax and that it is essentially over. We wait for you to come to the truth. It is not even close to over. It will likely go well into the Fall and the midterm elections.
Anyway, as to Bannon’s testimony, he answered some questions, and then invoked executive privilege. How did he do that? He no longer works in the white house. If the questions were about the campaign, well, Donald was not a government executive, so privilege does not apply there either. Yet there his lawyer was, admittedly taking instructions, via text, from the white house, over his phone, as to which questions Bannon could and could not answer.
The committee members were stunned. They immediately issued a subpoena which compels him to testify in full. He likely will not. On the other hand, he has now been subpoenaed by Robert Mueller. Initially, he was going to have to appear before a grand jury. That means Mueller had enough to hand Steve Bannon, the man who made Donald, a federal indictment. Wednesday, Bannon’s attorney reached a deal with Mueller to provide the investigators with testimony in exchange for not having to testify before the grand jury.
- So, the White House was giving instructions to a material witness in a case investigating the white house. Sound a little like obstruction? Not at all. Sara Sanders used all her constitutional gravitas to tell us this is the normal course during such investigations. HUH? What such investigations? Was H.R. Haldeman texting G. Gordon Liddy on what to answer? Well, we take it to the extreme since there were no cell phones/texting back then, but you get the point. The White House has intervened into the investigation by tampering with a witness, and Sanders says it is the way these “all” happen. Oh, and then Chief of Staff Kelly on Wednesday denied any of it ever happened. We wait for someone who can speak to this like they are not a five-year-old making up stories for their parents.
- There is a lot of discussion about the president’s health and whether the briefing by the administration’s doctor was truthful. We are going to take him for his word because we are not medical experts……except when it comes to professing that Donald is 6-3/239 pounds. Nonsense. He eats burgers and fried chick and fried fish all the time with no exercise. You will see our commentary below. Tim Tebow is currently 6-3/245. Mike Trout is 6-2/235. And then there is Donald. Enough said.
The truth has long been a moving target in politics. In this administration, it is treated like a nuisance to be strived for only when nothing ekse works. Fox is no place to find the truth, beyond Shepherd Smith’s one hour per day. MSNBC colors its truth to it’s narrative. CNN tries for truth depending upon the show/host, but they spent the entire campaign trying to be balanced instead of honest. They forever run “specials” going back to talk to the Trump voters to reinforce why these people still support Donald despite clearly being duped by promises that were never reality. The New York Times will take the same path Thursday.
Thank goodness our staff here remains steadfast while we await our awards from Donald.
