So those tweets clearly weren’t written by Trump himself, both because they contain words that are too long and complex for his vocabulary - “scheduled,” “pertaining,” “humanitarian” - and because the concept of “humanitarian” is outside Donnie’s worldview altogether. It would simply never occur to him to use it.
His staff have given up trying to deny things. Now they’re just going to say (over and over again) “Well, you know how he gets, that rascal.”
Oooh, I wanna play!
Jason Chaffetz, Aug 24, 2016
“If you’re going to run and try to become the president of the United States, you’re going to have to open up your kimono and show everything. You just have to, it’s too important. Both candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, should show their medical records and tax returns, absolutely. … I can promise you I don’t care who is in the White House. My job is not to be a cheerleader for the president, but to hold them accountable and have that oversight.”
Chaffetz since Trump was elected: crickets.
That’s unfair! He was just on the local news along with the rest of Utah’s representatives and assured us it’s all just fake news.
Hah, so Trump just undermined him, too!
… An idea, incidentally, the original article never advanced, and only McMaster has mentioned.
(McMaster’s non-denial denial was basically, “In regards to allegations Trump killed Mr. Body in the conservatory with the candlestick, we want to emphatically deny that Trump killed Mr. Body in the library with the rope.”)
I was about to say this as well, albeit with less style. You deserve a like-er, I mean a “You go, girl!”
I know that on-message sound bites are a GOP staple, but it’s still fascinating to watch as they unfold.
It’s so weird to see the news, White House staff, Trump, and the GOP have interactions that boil down to the equivalent of a forum argument. No matter the subject, the mud-slinging always devolves into an argument over semantics and which person is technically right. Even now, with the latest tweets from Trump, the White House and GOP are saying that Trump didn’t technically admit to sharing intel - only that he wanted to, and if he did, it would’ve been his right as President.
Yeah, it’s interesting in the same way I’d guess a CDC staffer would say it’s interesting to see the inception of a world-ending zombie virus come across his microscope.
And technically the tweets don’t undermine anything said by either side. He shared “facts”, which could be anything.
What? You think I killed Nicole Simpson? Well, if I did kill her, here’s how I would have done it. Also, I wanted her dead.
Now let’s focus on the real killers.
A man can dream.
Coming up: President Trump Gives Joint Statements with President Erdogan (livestream):
I guess the US will soon abandon the Kurds in Syria/Iraq (again) - to buddy up with Turkeys Dictator; seeing as Trump doesn’t have any hotel interests in the Kurdish areas.
“Thanks for helping defeat IS guys, now go back to your caves and let NATO (Democracy, friendship, yay!) bomb you…”
[…]
In less than a week, Trump will visit Israel for the first time and part of his 24-hour trip here will include a short stop at the Jewish holy site.
On Monday, however, Israel’s Channel Two News reported that members of a U.S. advance team preparing the presidential tour told Israeli representatives that the Western Wall is not part of Israeli territory, therefore Israel could not be involved in planning that part of Trump’s trip.
While it is customary for visiting dignitaries to go to the Western Wall — the outer wall of the raised esplanade that is called the Temple Mount by Jews and the Haram al-Sharif by Muslims — U.S. presidents usually defer the visit because that part of Jerusalem sits on territory that was under Jordanian control before 1967.
If Trump does go to the wall, he will be the first incumbent U.S. president to do so.
While out scouting the site with U.S. representatives, the Israeli team requested that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accompany Trump and his family to the wall. The Americans refused, saying it was to be a “private visit.”
Then, according to the Channel Two report, two members of the U.S. team told the Israeli team to leave, that they wanted to be there alone.
“This isn’t your territory. This is in the West Bank. It is a private visit by the president, and it’s not your business,” a U.S. representative reportedly told the Israelis.
Netanyahu’s office were shocked to hear the statement, said an official speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to discuss the matter.
“Israel is convinced that this statement contradicts President Trump’s policy, as was expressed by his recent opposition to a U.N. Security Council Resolution,” the official said.
[…]
Poor Onion. It’s hard to parody a parody.
In private, three administration officials conceded that they could not publicly articulate their most compelling — and honest — defense of the president: that Mr. Trump, a hasty and indifferent reader of printed briefing materials, simply did not possess the interest or knowledge of the granular details of intelligence gathering to leak specific sources and methods of intelligence gathering that would do harm to United States allies.
Being ignorant of law and duty is not an excuse. Try harder, President Cheetoh.
We can shorten this up considerably: “In private, three administration officials conceded that they could not publicly articulate their most compelling — and honest — defense of the president: that Mr. Trump is an idiot.”
JFC, this keeps getting more and more depressing.
That is a good breakdown of the bullshit.