You have to give Donald Trump credit for blind persistence. No matter how ludicrous his behavior, or how damaging to what’s left of his tattered reputation, he continues to remind everyone of just how ignorant and criminally culpable he is, even when he’s trying to chastise his enemies.
On Thursday morning Trump released another one line statement via his spokes-shill, Liz Harrington (whose proxy Trump tweeting is violating Twitter’s rules against circumventing a ban). On this occasion he was jumping on a wingnut bandwagon circling the conservative media drain. He said simply that…
“Biden pressed Afghan president to change ‘perception’ that Taliban was winning, ‘whether true or not’
What Trump was regurgitating was flotsam from the right-wing echo chamber about a phone call President Biden had with President Ghani of Afghanistan. Biden was conveying the importance of projecting strength in the battle against the Taliban prior to its take over of the nation. He wanted to encourage Ghani to carry on the fight, which showed the promise of success at the time. The full context of Biden’s remarks bear that out:
“You clearly have the best military. You have 300,000 well-armed forces versus 70-80,000 and they’re clearly capable of fighting well. […] We are going to continue to fight hard, diplomatically, politically, economically, to make sure your government not only survives, but is sustained and grows.” […]
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban. And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”
That was an entirely appropriate effort to motivate the Afghans to recommit to victory against their foes. But Republicans and their conservative media lackeys saw it differently. Fox News lashed out at Press Secretary Jen Psaki for declining to respond to reports about the Biden/Ghani phone call because it was unlawfully leaked to the press by an anonymous source. She told reporters that “I’m not going to get into private, diplomatic conversations or leaked transcripts of phone calls.”
Psaki’s response was immediately taken up by partisan politicians and pundits including Fox News, Newsmax, the Daily Caller, Kellyanne Conway, and GOP reps Elise Stefanik, Jody Hice, and Lauren Boebert. They all frantically tried to compare Biden’s phone call to the infamous one that Trump had with President Zelensky of Ukraine. That was the allegedly “perfect” phone call (quid pro quo) wherein Trump illegally threatened to withhold U.S. funds unless Zelensky agreed to dig up dirt on Biden.
The right-wingers pointed to a two year old tweet by Psaki that said “It is not just the call transcript. The whistleblower complaint would likely have more details. We need both. And not just the call.” They said that this request for a transcript of Trump’s phone call with Zelensky was a contradiction of her refusal to give more details about Biden’s phone call with Ghani.
There are, however, enormous and obvious differences. First of all, the information Psaki sought about Trump’s call was contained in a properly executed whistleblower complaint that went through all the appropriate channels. But the information in Biden’s phone call was illegally leaked and the sources were unknown and unvetted.
Furthermore, what Psaki was asking for was evidence of criminal activity to be considered in the impeachment of Trump. But there was nothing remotely illegal, or even improper, about Biden’s phone call. So this dust up over dueling phone calls is just a charade by Trump and his minions designed to sow confusion and lies.
For Trump to participate in this utterly dishonest media hype of a pseudo-scandal is further proof of his disreputable and deceitful intentions. But even worse, from his perspective, he is reminding people of his own crimes that got him impeached in the first place. It really does appear that Trump is committed to making a fool of himself. And at least in that pursuit, he is surprisingly adept.
NOTE: Twitter suspended the News Corpse account after 11 years without giving a reason. So if anyone wants to tweet articles from my website, please feel free to do so often and repeatedly. Also, Be sure to visit and follow News Corpse on Instagram. Thanks for your support.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.
I wish Trump would just shut up. I am sick of hearing from him. Fours years was more than enough. We seem to hear more from him now than when he was in office. He is such a baby.
And he simply can’t stand not being the center of attention. That’s why he keeps shoveling his BS every day.
It just gets me that the Seditionists will misinterpret President Biden’s call to President Ghani to paint Biden in the worst possible light, but, of course, Their Beloved God could use the exact same language (which he can’t because he’s not anywhere near as eloquent), and every single Seditionist will praise him for doing everything to ensure peace in the “middle east.”
The Seditionists are terrorists, pure and simple, who will do ANYTHING to undermine our government and destroy everything this country stands for. And they should be treated as such. They should be treated as the TRUE enemies of the people they always HAVE been.
And under normal circumstances, Their Beloved God should be pushed to the fringes of society just like any other nutjob on Channel 805 predicting the invasion of Martians and trying to plug snake oil….
To portray an image to an enemy is common and garden practise in warfare, like cats will fluff up twice their size: Obejctive – try and scare the enemy off. President Biden’s done nothing wrong. If the Cultists try and make that stick, man, then will all of Trump’s lies get wheeled out big time!
OMG! I so totally agree with all you said! And, proof us coming, in form of yet another “rally” with ‘proud boys’ & friends ~ this time to demand release & stopping prosecution of Jan.6th violent mob members, whom they claim are “political prisoners”. (Really?!) Ain’t it grand that no matter what rt-wingers do, they think it’s perfectly fine, even mob violence ending in death & serious injuries!
If this were any other Country, what they tried to do would result in executions, or lifetime lock-ups in hellhole prisons – death either way.
There’s a reason for that. You see, can’t have insurrectionists running around free, still angry & violent & regrouping to try it again! Too bad the USA doesn’t understand that & had not even done anything to members of our gov’t who were part of that attempt! 8 mos. later & they’re all still at it, no end in sight. But you can bet it will get bloody at some point – THEY THINK they’re “patriots” & the lies haven’t slowed, let alone stopped!
Not all coups are military ones. We are right now in the middle of a coup by the Rethugs Party! Go ask other countries, like Turkey, who have experienced these things B4!!
By the time (if ever) Dem leadership catches on, it will be OVER! (& they’ll say they had no idea.)
Won’t matter. It will be too late to stop the takeover by minority party & end of U. S. Democracy as we’ve known it!
We are in the middle of a sneaky, covert coup that was many years in the making. This is where it all comes together.