Last night on CNBC’s “Kudlow Report,” (video below) Ann Coulter delivered another of her patented wingnut flameouts. In a discussion about the trumped up Benghazi scandal, Coulter called the media a “threat to democracy” before wandering off into a realm of such utter delusion that even Fox Nation picked up the story despite it being the work of their arch-rival NBC.
“The things that they went crazy over when Bush was president — I mean, remember that video at the White House Correspondents dinner? We, of course, found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but were not the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. He had a little video — I don’t know, like the dog looking for the weapons of mass destruction under the White House furniture. It was a silly little video. You would think someone died. Well, here in this case under Obama, four people did die.”
Let’s start with the easy part – Coulter’s absurd claim that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. That has proven false more times than anyone can count. No credible source, even on the right, is making that assertion. The most they can say is that the intelligence was wrong, but the evidence points to them fabricating and/or distorting the intelligence and giving credence to disreputable figures like the covert informant “Curveball.”
Moving on to the “silly little video,” it was not a dog that was looking for weapons. It was Bush himself, making an astonishingly insensitive joke about not finding the weapons that he used as an excuse for an invasion that cost the lives of more than 4,000 Americans and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis.
Then for Coulter to snidely dismiss the righteous anger of those who criticized Bush’s silly little video by saying “You would think someone died,” she dishonored the thousands of Americans who did in fact die due to Bush’s deceit. And she compares those 4,000+ casualties to the four people who died in Benghazi at the hands of terrorists, not the incompetence of a corrupt administration.
Neither host Larry Kudlow, nor any of the other guests, bothered to correct Coulter’s gross misrepresentations of the facts. They all sat smugly as she lied and disgraced the memory of their fellow Americans. And this wasn’t even on Fox News. It was the Kudlow Report on CNBC, but it would fit in nicely as a lead in to Glenn Beck or Sean Hannity.
Ann Coulter’s comments about finding WMD in Iraq may be technically true, but irrelevant in the context of the WMD caches and continuing program cited by the Bush Administration as justification for the Iraq War. The chemical and biological agents found were remnants and did not provide evidence of a large scale continuing program.
Concerning Benghazi, the facts appear to indicate POTUS may have been advised, but had more important things on his mind and delegated handling to others. Apparently, he had to pack for his Vegas trip.
I realize it’s your mission to point out right wing inaccuracies while ignoring the real story, so well done!
Ann Coulter’s comments were not true technically, or any other way. There NO WMDs.
Concerning Benghazi, the facts appear to indicate POTUS was well aware and actively engaged in the matter. At least according to the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. And presidents always delegate. You don’t seriously think they handle everything personally, do you?
Finally, the inaccuracies (i.e. lies) in the media ARE the real story, in my opinion.
Based on what I’ve read, there were biological weapons found during the Iraq War, but they were old caches and not in any large amounts. But they were certainly not those WMD that the Bush administration was talking about to justify the invasion of Iraq.
If I were this POTUS and I had been “engaged” in a situation that involved an ambassador and others that were under attack, I would have been directly involved, you would have seen a photo of me and others in the Situation Room similar to the one when OBL was killed, I would have been much more forthcoming with information about what happened in the days after the event (as opposed to the general obfuscation that occurred), and I might have delayed my Vegas trip by a day or two. At a minimum, the optics were bad. Delegation does not mean that it becomes someone else’s responsibility and you don’t follow up.
Mark, you state that the lies in the media are the real story. You should qualify that; you mean that the lies by FOX or anybody with a conservative viewpoint is the real story. You dwell on the slightest indication of inaccuracy, you parse every word uttered on FOX; but you don’t utter a word about what wasn’t said by other media outlets nor that said (or not) by the principals who are central to the story. That is, so long as you agree with them.
Oh jeez, not again. How many times are you going to complain that I don’t write about inaccuracies in liberal media? I’ve told you numerous times that A) That isn’t what I do; B) There are plenty of conservatives sites that do that and you’re free to go there; and C) I’ve got my hands full monitoring the right-wing liars.
You’re just getting boring with your repetitious whining and apparent inability to grasp my previous responses.
You might want to consider renaming your blog. ‘News’ implies all news, not just that with which you disagree, i.e. anything with a conservative leaning. And your banner, “The Internet’s Chronicle of Media Decay”, implies all media. Besides, the decay to which you refer isn’t unique to the boogeyman conservative media.
Grant it, it was on CNBC and not Fox but this is Larry Kudlow we are talking about. If he ever leaves CNBC(I wish the hell he would) and does not retire, he most certainly would fit in well over at Fox not News. Even though an ethical journalist would be expected to raise objections to this, to expect Kudlow to criticize some crazy thing Ann Coulter says would be tantamount to expecting Sean insHannity to do the same. It ain’t gonna happen.
Yeah, I didn’t really expect Kudlow, a Reagan admin appointee to the OMB, to correct Coulter. But it would have been nice if one of the other guests had said something.