Mark Meadows

Jen Psaki and Mark Meadows React to Trump Texts, While Fox News Stays Conspicuously Mum

Posted by on December 14, 2021 at 2:22 pm. 5 Comments :

It’s been twenty four hours since the disclosure of the chilling texts by Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade, to Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows. The texts were begging Trump to call off his shock troops who were storming Congress, threatening its members, and assaulting police officers.

Fox News, Jen Psaki

In the interim Fox News has not said a single word about the wholly unethical communications between an alleged “news” network and the top advisor to the former reality TV game show host. Nor have they acknowledged the brazen hypocrisy of the Fox talkers whose texts confirm that they knew exactly what was happening at the Capitol, but who have been lying about it relentlessly for months.

There has, however, been a response by Meadows, who scampered off to Newsmax for a softball interview. Meadows was never asked to address the substance of the texts that he himself provided to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection (before he ceased cooperating and triggered a contempt of Congress charge). Instead, he baselessly attacked the Committee saying that it…

“…tried to weaponize text messages, selectively leaked them, to put out a narrative, quite frankly, that the president didn’t act.”

Of course, the text messages show conclusively that Trump did, indeed, fail to act for three long, terrifying hours. Meadows didn’t even bother to suggest any other narrative, because there isn’t one that would make any sense. Especially not now, after everyone knows the content of the messages. As a reminder…

Hannity wrote: Can he make a statement, ask people to leave the Capitol?
Kilmeade wrote: Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished.
Ingraham wrote: Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy.
Even Donald Trump Jr wrote: He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough.

Trump ignored these warnings and allowed violence and chaos to ensue. He has since insisted that he has nothing to hide, while he’s suing to hide everything. In the meantime, the Fox News hosts and GOP members of Congress who pleaded for the StormTrumpers to stand down, spent the next several months dismissing the deadly riots as nothing more than peaceful protests, and/or blaming them on Antifa, which doesn’t actually exist. Trump himself denied that there was any violence and instead incredulously said that November 3rd, Election Day, was the “real” insurrection.

On Tuesday morning, Press Secretary Jen Psaki commented on the Meadows/Trump texts in response to a question during the daily White House press briefing (video below):

Reporter: Any response to the revelations that GOP lawmakers were texting Chief of Staff Meadows, along with prominent Fox News hosts how to be…what led to the January 6th riots?
Psaki: Well, it’s disappointing, and unfortunately not surprising, that some of the very same individuals who were willing to warn, condemn, and express horror over what happened on January 6 in private, were totally silent in public or, even worse, were spreading lies and conspiracy theories, and continue to since that time. Unfortunately we’ve seen a trend from some of the same individuals.”

Psaki’s assessment was concise and appropriately critical. Although the question might have been better directed at Fox’s White House correspondent, Peter Doocy, who was sitting a few feet away from the reporter who asked it. And a good follow up would have been to inquire as to whether any of the people involved had incriminated themselves or Trump. There’s still time.

UPDATE: On their Tuesday night programs Hannity and Ingraham finally responded to the disclosure of their frantic January 6th texts. Predictably, they attacked Liz Cheney and the media for reporting things that actually happened. And they were just as predictably defensive about their own hypocrisy and dishonesty. They never bothered to explain why they were so afraid of the rioting and its consequences while it was in progress, but spent the rest of the year pretending it didn’t happen, or it wasn’t violent, or it was the fault of either Antifa, or the “Deep State,” or even Nancy Pelosi. And it took them more than 24 hours to contrive that pathetic response.

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Fox News Hosts Begged Mark Meadows to Get Trump to Stop the Insurrection on January 6th

Posted by on December 13, 2021 at 6:34 pm. 7 Comments :

Every day there is more evidence of the complicity of Donald Trump and his Confederacy of Traitors who tried to undermine democracy and overturn an election with violence. The latest discoveries are in documents that Trump’s Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, turned over to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection.

Donald Trump Insurrection

Yes, that’s the same Mark Meadows who is now refusing to comply with a subpoena and will shortly be referred to the Justice Department on charges of contempt of Congress.

The documents that have just come to light are texts messages that were sent to Meadows while the StormTrumpers were assaulting the Capitol. Rep. Liz Cheney read some of those messages into the record during a hearing on the contempt charges against Meadows. And some of what was revealed is going to be awfully difficult for some Fox News hosts to explain away:

“According to the record multiple Fox News hosts knew the president needed to act immediately. They texted Mr. Meadows and he has turned over those texts. Quote, ‘Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy,’ Laura Ingraham wrote. “Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished,’ Brian Kilmeade texted. Quote, ‘Can he make a statement, ask people to leave the Capitol?’ Sean Hannity urged.

“As the violence continued, one of the president’s sons texted Mr. Meadows, quote, ‘He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP. The Capitol Police tweet is not enough.’ Donald Trump Jr texted. Meadows responded quote, ‘I’m pushing it hard. I agree.’

“Still, president Trump did not immediately act. Donald Trump Jr texted again, again, and again. urging action by the president. Quote, ‘We need an Oval Office address. He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand,’ end quote.

“But hours passed without necessary action by the president. These non-privileged texts are further proof of president Trump’s supreme dereliction of duty during those 187 minutes.”

Indeed, these texts unambiguously incriminate Trump for deliberately allowing the deadly insurrection to proceed, and for violating his oath of office to defend the Constitution. But they also incriminate Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham, and Brian Kilmeade. While they were obviously aware of what was happening at the Capitol, and the threat that it represented, their actions since then have been to dismiss and downplay what they knew were violent acts of sedition.

In the months that have followed, they have all used their television platforms to lie that the insurrection was nothing more than a protest by peaceful patriots. But it is now abundantly clear that they knew what they were saying were flagrant falsehoods. And they purposefully deceived their viewers in order to advance the coup attempt by Trump. It is no longer possible for them to pretend, as Hannity did last month during an interview with Trump, that the insurrectionists were all members of Antifa. They knew that the rioters were Trump supporters. Obviously Antifa (if it actually existed, which it doesn’t) wouldn’t obey any entreaties from Trump to withdraw. Which is why they were pleading with Trump to call them off.

What’s more, the Foxies exposed their utterly inappropriate relationship with Trump. What business do they have sending messages to the Trump White House with advice on how to respond to an unfolding crisis. And notice that their advice was focused solely on the harm that Trump’s inaction was doing – not to members of Congress and other innocent people – but to their political interests. They were not acting as journalists (which of course, they are not), but as Trump team members and accomplices.

It will be interesting see what sort of lies they tell to try to wash off the stain of their treasonous acts. Because they surely will attempt to dig themselves into even deeper holes. They simply don’t have the integrity or honor to tell the truth. But these text messages tell the truth for them. And it’s a pretty good bet that this is just the beginning.

UPDATE: Silence from Fox News, and Meadows Responds: On Monday evening none of the Fox News hosts above whose texts were revealed mentioned them on their programs. Hannity even interviewed Meadows and completely ignored this news. So, as usual, they are keeping their audience ignorant.

Also, Meadows told Newsmax that the Committee “tried to weaponize text messages, selectively leaked them, to put out a narrative, quite frankly, that the president didn’t act.” In other words, he just attacked the Committee. He had no response to the incriminating substance of the text messages that show conclusively that Trump did not act. What other narrative could there be? Meadows didn’t offer one.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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Available now at Amazon.

Trump Whines To Fox News that ‘I Have Nothing to Hide’ While He’s Suing to Hide Everything

Posted by on December 11, 2021 at 10:13 am. 7 Comments :

Poor Donald Trump is scared silly that he might pay a price for his treasonous, failed coup attempt. He’s lashing out incoherently at his political foes. His former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows, who already turned over damning records to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection, is now retreating to the shelter of the 5th Amendment to avoid incriminating himself – and Trump.

Donald Trump Circling the Drain

It may be too little to late for Meadows whose defiance of a congressional subpoena will likely result in a charge of criminal contempt. What’s more, among the records he provided is a PowerPoint presentation detailing Trump’s plans to undermine democracy and install himself as dictator. All of this malarkey is rooted in his “Big Lie” about the 2020 Presidential election that he is afraid to debate.

RELATED: Chickensh!t Trump Dodges the Debate He Proposed After His Phony Challenge Was Accepted

Adding to Trump’s woes is the D.C. Court of Appeals ruling rejecting his bid to suppress the release of his communications with the insurrection plotters. In a desperate play to spin this bad news in his favor, Trump fled to his personal media panic room, Fox News, to pump out some positive propaganda. He called into Laura Ingraham’s program where he knew he would be greeted with slobbering sympathy and unfettered freedom to lie.

Trump wasn’t disappointed. Ingraham allowed him to reframe the deadly riots in the Capitol on January 6th by violent StormTrumpers as merely a protest. Instead, Trump maligned the millions of Americans who honored democratic ideals by voting on Election Day as the “real” insurrection. Then Trump unleashed this morsel of mendacity (video below):

Ingraham: Do you think your nominees to the Court are going to uphold your claims of executive privilege in this case?
Trump: Well, I hope they do. I’ll tell you, the biggest loser would be Biden because if it ever changes, and I think it will, then he won’t be able to use it with respect to Hunter and all of the things that are going on that are so terrible. So I would think he’d want to see this upheld, frankly. I think it’s very important for him. Honestly, I have nothing to hide. I wasn’t involved in that. And if you look at my words and what I said in the speech, they were extremely calming, actually. But I would think that the Democrats would like to see it, and I think secretly they would like to see it upheld.

Of course Trump hopes that the Justices he placed on the Court obey his divine will. That’s why he put them there. But legal experts are predicting that they might show some measure of independence and allow the D.C. Appeals Court ruling to stand.

More to the point, Trump inexplicably declares that “I have nothing to hide.” Which is a peculiar stance for someone who is suing Congress to keep his White House records hidden. An innocent person would be anxious to release documents that he thought would exonerate him. But Trump wants people to believe that he is appealing the Court decision to the Supreme Court because he has nothing to hide.

And if that weren’t preposterous enough, Trump is claiming that the sermon he delivered to his cult disciples prior to the Capitol riots was “extremely calming.” Which part of that speech do you suppose he was referring to? Here are some excerpts that he might regard as calmative:

  • “All of us here today do not want to see our election victory stolen by emboldened radical-left Democrats, which is what they’re doing. And stolen by the fake news media.”
  • “We will never give up, we will never concede.”
  • “Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore.”
  • “We will not let them silence your voices.”
  • “We’re going to have to fight much harder.”
  • “You’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength.”
  • “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Indeed, those words could be seen as – let’s say tranquilizing. They would have the effect of putting his devotees into a stupor sufficient to persuade them to attack Congress, threaten its members and staff, break through windows and doors, vandalize historic property, and assault police officers.

Finally, Trump bizarrely pretends that he’s actually pursuing his legal path to help President Biden. But instead, he’s He making the oddly argued case that Biden doesn’t face any legal jeopardy. He suggests that Biden should favor a ruling that suppressed such disclosures because he would benefit from it. Therefore, since Biden is supportive of the Appeals Court ruling, he clearly isn’t afraid of some future records being released that might incriminate him. Unlike Trump, who is shaking in his elevator boots. Because he has nothing to hide. Right?

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
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Newsmax Trump-Fluffer Actually Believes the Loser of Mar-a-Lago Can Invoke Executive Privilege

Posted by on October 7, 2021 at 1:26 pm. 2 Comments :

The House Select Committee on the January 6th Insurrection recently issued subpoenas to several former staffers and associates of the former reality TV game show host, Donald Trump. Shortly thereafter, Trump did what all innocent parties to congressional investigations do. He demanded that the recipients of the subpoenas refuse to comply, making them liable for charges of contempt of Congress.

Donald Trump

Trump’s demands would not only put his criminal accomplices in legal jeopardy, but they expose him to charges as well. He could face prosecution for obstruction of justice and for suborning unlawful acts by others.

Trump justifies the orders to his minions by claiming “executive privilege.” The only problem with that is that he isn’t an “executive.” Only the President of the United States can invoke executive privilege. And Trump, despite his continuing refusal to acknowledge reality, is still not the President. What’s more, even the President can’t invoke executive privilege to cover up the commission of crime.

Trump’s stubborn insistence that he has powers that exist only in his befuddled brain is also evident on the fringe, wingnut media outlets that have sworn their blind allegiance to the cult of Trump. Prominent among them is Newsmax, a network so devoted to ultra-partisan bullpucky that they contrived the infamous “Dandelion-Gate“ conspiracy theory. And now Newsmax’s Grant Stinchfield returns with a harangue about Trump’s non-existent executive privilege authority:

“The January 6th Commission is going after anybody who worked around president Trump. Well, we are now learning that if they try to subpoena these people that are associated with president Trump, president Trump is going to be fighting back, He is going to invoke executive privilege. And that means that people like chief of staff Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, a top advisor, and Kash Patel, another top advisor, will not be able to comply with these subpoenas coming from the January 6th Commission.

“This is what you get with president Trump. You get a man who fights back. You understand me? The president fights back. That’s what we love about president Trump. And he’s sticking it to these people trying to go after him.”

Stinchfield is shocked(!) that the Committee impaneled to investigate the incident incited by Trump is “going after” the people that aided and abetted the deadly riots in Washington, D.C.. And he admires Trump’s fierce objections to efforts by Congress to uncover the truth.

Unfortunately, Stinchfield is caught up in Trump’s ignorant belief that he can invoke the powers of the presidency that he lost nearly a year ago. And that means that people like Mark Meadows, Dan Scavino, and Kash Patel, will have to comply with these subpoenas or face the legal consequences. Scavino, it should be noted, has “innocently” disappeared and was not able to be served his subpoena. Also, Stinchfield left out Trump’s former campaign chairman, Steve Bannon, who was not a White House staffer and, therefore, wouldn’t be covered by executive privilege even if Trump could wield it.

Stinchfield closed his tirade with an especially cringeworthy and drooling adoration of Trump. He explained that “what we[?] love about” him is the fact that he is either an idiot, a liar, or delusional. Although Stinchfield was correct in asserting that “This is what you get with” Trump. Indeed, he is a man who fights back – against windmills that cause cancer, and other flagrant figments of his diseased imagination. And the only people that Trump is “sticking it” to are slobbering sycophants like Stinchfield and his dimwitted cult followers.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.

WTF? Trump Flunkies on Fox News Blame Pelosi for Plot to Assassinate Herself

Posted by on February 7, 2021 at 1:29 pm. 3 Comments :

The second Senate impeachment trial for Donald Trump will commence next Tuesday. And the approaching spectacle is driving up the anxiety levels of Trump’s apologists in Congress and the right-wing press. Consequently, their arguments in defense of the “former social media influencer” (h/t Colin Jost of SNL) are becoming ever more bizarre and downright hysterical.

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Fox News, Nancy Pelosi

Trump knows that he has no plausible defense. That’s why he is too afraid to accept the Senate’s invitation to make the case for his own innocence. He knows that there is too much evidence against him in the form of videos and the testimony of his cult disciples. And much of the evidence that Democrats will present at the trial is Trump’s own words. So at his lawyers’ direction, he is remaining sequestered in his Mar-a-Lago bunker imagining what he would be tweeting if he were still able to.

Meanwhile, Trump sycophants marched off to defend the dishonor of the Insurrectionist-in-Absentia. Two of them bravely faced the barrage of softballs pitched by Fox News’ Senior Trump-Fluffer, Maria Bartiromo. Although her network colleague Lou Dobbs was unceremoniously dismissed for disseminating flagrantly defamatory lies, Bartiromo, for the moment, still has a job. And on Sunday she exploited her platform to feature a pair of shameless mouthpieces for Trump.

There appears to have been some message coordination between the Trump spokes-weasels. Or else both of them just independently decided to launch the same ridiculous attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The gist of the synchronized assaults was that Pelosi secretly plotted the Capitol riots that place the lives of her congressional colleagues at risk. And even worse, they allege that she was complicit with the conspiracy to assassinate herself.

For instance, Bartiromo interviewed Wisconsin Senator and alleged Russian agent, Ron Johnson. in the seemingly scripted segment, Johnson addressed Trump’s impeachment and the charges that Trump incited the violence that took place in his name:

“We now know that forty-five Republican senators believe that it’s unconstitutional. Is this another diversionary operation? Is this meant to deflect away from potentially what the Speaker knew and when she knew it? I don’t know, but I’m suspicious.”

First of all, there is no constitutional prohibition to the impeachment of Trump (which occurred while he was still in office), or the Senate trial, which the Constitution actually mandates. The fact that forty-five cowardly and biased Republicans voted to exonerate their Dear Leader is legally irrelevant.

Secondly, Johnson’s insinuation of some sort of “diversionary operation” is nonsense on steroids. He doesn’t bother to say what it’s diverting from. Nor does he explain what Pelosi could have known that would make her seek a diversion from the criminal attack on Congress by Trump cultists who were screaming their intention to kill the Pelosi, as well as Mike Pence.

If that weren’t bad enough, Johnson was followed by Trump’s former Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows. Bartiromo pressed Meadows to address the inadequate law enforcement response to Trump’s Seditionist Brigades. And in doing so, he attempted to shift the blame to Pelosi saying that the problem rested on some bad decisions:

“Some of those decisions weren’t made appropriately in my opinion. And those decisions did not come from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. They came from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.”

The record shows that Pelosi and her staff had tried repeatedly to support the Capitol Police and provide back up with National Guard troops. Those efforts were stymied by Trump. And, once again, it wouldn’t make any sense to suggest that Pelosi wanted to cripple the law enforcement personnel who were there to protect her. However, Meadows and Johnson” remarks perfectly fit the character (or lack thereof) of the Republican hypocrites who are now maligning the police who were among the victims.

One of things we’ve learned since the emergence of the Trump cult is that making sense is very low on their priority scale. And the result is appearances like these on Fox News, a network that long ago abandoned any pretense of offering objectivity or even the barest hint of truth. And while the regular viewers of Fox won’t – or more accurately, can’t – critically assess what they see and hear on Fox, the rest of the nation cringes in disgust at the fatuous fabrications that emanate from these craptacular cretins. But that’s the good news. Most Americans see right through the bull. and with some luck, enough senators will alos and Trump will finally be held accountable.

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How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.