Facts and figures are second to innuendo and hollow announcements in the current political climate. Three years past the Clinton/Trump presidential race the press is still biting and snarling while circling the floor and chasing its’ tail. The former head of the FBI, James Comey, announced in the weeks prior to election day that former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was under investigation. Although she has then and now been completely and repeatedly exonerated, the smear stuck; along with Russian propaganda, and it directly cost Democrats the election. The narrow margin of a 70 to 80 thousand vote difference was all it took. Donald Trump won the Electoral College, and the rest is misery.
Former President Obama was the previous bullseye on the Trump announcement target. If you remember we are still awaiting the results of the announced Hawaiian investigation of Mr. Obama’s birthplace. Dismissed by logical voters as an innocuous bit of Trump nonsensical fluff, Mr. Trump’s announcement became the backbone of the steely lie that put into question Mr. Obama’s citizenship and launched Trump’s campaign. It still remains a question for a large number of Republicans; as many as 42 % of self-identified Republicans in 2017, hold steadfast to that point of view—merely from an announcement, not fact.
Senator Elizabeth Warren chewed on the announcement toy next. President Trump challenged her to prove her claims of native heritage with the announcement of a wager. In October of 2018, Mr. Trump made a pledge to donate $1 million to Ms. Warren’s charity of choice if she took a DNA test to prove her heritage. The press relished the idea and hounded Ms. Warren until she consented. The idea rightly offended Native American groups and allies alike and Ms. Warren eventually issued an apology for making the Native community the effective butt of a Trump joke. The damage was done and Senator Warren still feels the sting of being labeled “Pocahontas.”
With the impending trial process following Impeachment coming ever closer the press has a chance for redemption and so far they have passed. My fears are that the closer the trial, the more likely the media is to chase its’ tail for a sexier story, real or imagined. The temptation to follow the lead of Comey and other Republicans to gum up the works with an irrelevant story side-stepping Trump’s trial will be irresistible. For a moment let us concede that Hunter Biden got his job with Burisma because of his family’s name and made lots of money because of it; what consequence does that have on the President’s decision to threaten the lives of hundreds, if not thousands of Ukrainians, for an announcement?
As is with most things Trump, they escalate from lies, interference, fake investigations and in the case of Soleimani and others, death. Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA.) accused Democrats of being in “love with terrorist.” Collins made his declaration in front of the Fox News audience comprised mainly of conservative viewers to bolster Trump’s claims as to why he ordered the killing of Iranian General Soleimani. “We see that they mourn Soleimani more than they mourn our Gold Star families who suffered under Soleimani,”Collins said. Subsequently, Mr. Trump has contradicted his Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, who says he has no knowledge of Mr. Trump’s claims that “four embassies” were under threat of imminent attack. So be leery of Mr. Trump’s announcements; Democrats did not mourn the death of Soleimani, but we do mourn the deaths of 176 innocents as part of its’ consequence.
Vote in 2020 for Change.