Category: Opportunist

Trump Says Pittsburgh Shooter and Mail Bomber Stopped His ‘Incredible’ Midterm Momentum

On Thursday, President Donald Trump said the Pittsburgh synagogue shooter and the mail bomber who sent packages to CNN and Democratic targets stopped his “incredible” midterm momentum.

“Now, we did have two maniacs stop a momentum that was incredible. Because for 7 days, nobody talked about the elections. It stopped a tremendous momentum.” Trump said, before adding, “More importantly, we have to take care of our people, and we don’t care about momentum when it comes to a disgrace like just happened to the country, but it did nevertheless stop a certain momentum.”

He then said the momentum is once again picking up.

During the same rally, Trump also declared the election the “election of Kavanaugh” and “caravans.”

[Mediaite]

Trump Goes After the Media for Coverage of His Pittsburgh Visit: Trying to Spread ‘Anger and Division’

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump held a rally in Florida where talk quickly turned to pointing fingers at the media for sowing “anger and division” in wake of the tragedy in Pittsburgh.

Trump started out by addressing the horrific slaughter of 11 at a Pittsburgh area synagogue on Saturday.

He then talked about his visit to the city, a visit that was met by protesters.

Earlier today, Trump said that there was only a “small protest” in Pittsburgh, something the Washington Post and other outlets noted was not quite accurate.

Yet speaking of the visit at the rally, Trump doubled down.

“Yesterday’s visit to Pittsburgh was about coming together as a nation to comfort and to heal,” Trump began.

Then, venting against the media, the President of the United States said this: “After this day of unity and togetherness, I came home and sadly turned on the news and watched as the far left media once again used tragedy to sow anger and division.”

The crowd booed at the mention of the media.

“Sadly, they took a small group of protesters, far away from where we were because we could not have been treated better,” Trump continued on. “The first lady and myself, but we’re representing the presidency, and they did everything in their power to try to play it up and push people apart. That’s what’s happening.”

The crowd booed again.

“It was fake, and it was make-believe what they said. I came home, looked forward to seeing it, and it was sad,” Trump further opined. “When we talk about division, this is a big part of the division, right there. The far left media has spread terrible lies and stories about the Trump Administration and the tens of millions of people who make up our great movement, the greatest political movement in the history of our country.”

[Mediaite]

Trump Uses ‘Enemy of the People’ Line Attacking ‘Fake News’ to Cheers at FL Rally

Once again President Donald Trump used the line “enemy of the people” to attack the “fake news” at his Florida rally tonight.

Trump opened by talking about his visit to Pittsburgh and bashing the media for critical coverage of the visit.

He moved on and talked about the great “movement” of his supporters, but as he listed successes of his administration, he went back to attacking the press:

“We have forcefully condemned hatred, bigotry, racism, and prejudice in all of its ugly forms, but the media doesn’t want you to hear your story. It’s not my story, it’s your story. And that’s why 33 percent of the people in this country believe the fake news is, in fact––and I hate to say this––in fact, the enemy of the people.”

The crowd cheered.

Trump went on to say that the media should stop stoking resentment.

[Mediaite]

Trump Blasts Paul Ryan for Contradicting Him on Birthright Citizenship: ‘Something He Knows Nothing About’

President Donald Trump ripped into Paul Ryan on Wednesday over his comments on birthright citizenship, in a stunning rebuke of his own party’s House Speaker just a week before the midterm elections.

“Paul Ryan should be focusing on holding the Majority rather than giving his opinions on Birthright Citizenship, something he knows nothing about!” Trump tweeted. “Our new Republican Majority will work on this, Closing the Immigration Loopholes and Securing our Border!”

The Wisconsin Republican broke with Trump on Tuesday when he rejected the president’s expressed desire to end birthright citizenship through executive order.

Ryan said in a radio interview that Trump “cannot end birthright citizenship with an executive order.”

[Mediaite]

Trump on toning down his rhetoric: ‘You should go about your life’

President Trump on Monday said “you should go about your life” when asked whether he would tone down his rhetoric in the wake of a violent week that included pipe bombs mailed to Democrats and a mass shooting at a synagogue.

Trump sat down with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Monday and said he didn’t want to make the suspects behind the violence “too important” by cancelling events.

The president was criticized for going to a scheduled campaign rally in Illinois hours after 11 people were killed when a gunman opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue.

“Once you start doing that, once you cancel — so you’re doing a rally and rallies are meant to be fun,” Trump told Ingraham on Monday. “Rallies are meant to be everything and I said, ‘Tone it down,’ and then you saw the group saying, ‘No, don’t tone it down, don’t tone it down.’”

Trump at the rally in Illinois told the crowd: “If you don’t mind, I’m going to tone it down, just a little bit. Is that okay?”

After the crowd responded with a ‘No,” he said, “I had a feeling you might say that.”

“So we had a great rally in Illinois, for some great people and frankly, I think that’s probably the way it should be,” Trump told Ingraham.

The president has rejected calls to temper his political rhetoric in the aftermath of the nationwide bomb scare involving many prominent Democrats. The figures targeted with mailed bombs were all critics of Trump who has has criticized in return.

“I think I’ve been toned down, if you want to know the truth,” Trump told reporters on Friday.

“I could really tone it up because, as you know, the media’s been extremely unfair to me and to the Republican Party,” Trump said.

His comments came after the arrest of Cesar Sayoc Jr., a reported Trump fan who was charged with five federal crimes for allegedly mailing explosive devices to more than a dozen Democrats, celebrities and news organizations.

[The Hill]

Trump: ‘Dishonest’ to say I called all media ‘enemy of the people’

President Trump on Monday evening tweeted that it is “dishonest” to say he called all media “the enemy of the people,” pointing out that he frequently differentiates between the “fake news” and “media” in general.

He called out CNN specifically in the tweet, days after one of his supporters mailed a crude pipe bomb to CNN’s offices in New York City.

“CNN and others in the Fake News Business keep purposely and inaccurately reporting that I said the ‘Media is the Enemy of the People,'” Trump tweeted. “Wrong! I said that the ‘Fake News (Media) is the Enemy of the People,’ a very big difference. When you give out false information – not good!”

“Check out tweets from last two days,” he added. “I refer to Fake News Media when mentioning Enemy of the People – but dishonest reporters use only the word ‘Media.’ The people of our Great Country are angry and disillusioned at receiving so much Fake News. They get it, and fully understand!”

Trump has faced widespread criticism for a Monday tweet in which he referred to “Fake News Media” as “the true Enemy of the People” in the wake of a violent week that saw a spate of over a dozen bombs mailed, including one to CNN, and a shooting that killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

The suspected mail-bomber was an ardent Trump supporter who has been pictured holding a “CNN sucks” sign and had anti-CNN, anti-Democrat stickers on his van. He targeted high-profile Democrats who Trump has frequently mocked or scorned publicly.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders during a Monday afternoon press briefing declined to say which outlets the president considers “fake news.”

The president during a Monday night interview with Fox News’s Laura Ingraham continued to deride specific media outlets, calling out NBC’s “Meet the Press” and The Washington Post.

“I watched Meet the Press this weekend — everything was so falsely put, putting words in people’s mouths,” Trump said, and later pointed out that a specific Washington Post headline linked him to the bombing suspect.

[The Hill]

Trump Weirdly Tweets ‘Revealing’ ‘Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ Clip

Big alert from the president: SICKO HOLLYWOOD LIBS have BANNED his Stephen Colbert interview because of something something something!!!

On Monday, Donald Trump’s account quote tweeted a video from an account using the display name “Blacks for Trump” (@BlacksForTrump5) alleging that CBS had taken down a Sept. 22, 2015 episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert featuring the president. The video is bizarrely edited and only barely comprehensible, but claims, “You are not supposed to see this video” and that “CBS DELETED this entire episode from their official website. You will not find these segments on YouTube either.”

While Colbert could be reasonably accused of lobbing softballs during the interview, the video also selectively edits the episode in question to cut off jokes and make it appear as though the host is a Trump supporter. (He is not, though it’s unclear whether the editing was intended as some kind of snark or was made in wild-eyed earnestness.)

Gizmodo has reached out to CBS for comment, and we’ll update this post if we hear back. But the CBS All Access website did not show any episodes of The Late Show prior to the month of October 2018. Clips of the Sept. 22, 2015 episode of the show in question, however, were available via that site, and more than one was on The Late Show’s official YouTube. It is hardly unusual for networks to pull older episodes of shows from streaming services due to licensing restrictions, something that the Verge noted was a particular problem with CBS All Access in a 2018 review.

In other words, it’s super-obvious this is yet more vapid bullshit the president and/or the various underlings that tweet from his account—it’s not always clear which—either lack the capacity to think critically about or are just throwing out as some kind of distraction.

Trump has previously spread outright lies alleging blacklisting on Google, discrimination against conservatives by social media companies, and that the media deliberately cooks up “Fake News” about his presidency. Even by those low, low standards, this is a particularly lazy hit job, less an Orwellian missive from the Ministry of Truth than a cringeworthy FWD: FWD: from a confused relative who just figured out how to use email.

This video has apparently been circulating among the most credulous #MAGA types on Twitter and Facebook since at least April 2018, after which point the trail dithers off into an underbelly of social media spam. It appears to be the first tweet on the @BlacksForTrump5 account, which is not widely followed, raising the question of how the president or his staff even found it. Its only newsworthiness is that Trump retweeted it, which would be profoundly embarrassing were Trump not well past the point of feeling shame about anything and everyone else well aware the emperor has a distinct shortage of things other than clothes.

Beyond that, it’s just another middle finger to anyone who actually cares about the consequences of his presidency—as well as a reminder that even after the horrific events of the past few weeks, which have included a mail bomb campaign and a mass murder at a synagogue, Trump is not slowing down with the conspiracy stuff.

Update: 10/30/2018, 11:20 a.m. ET: In response to a request for comment, CBS directed us to this tweet from Colbert:

[Gizmodo]

Kellyanne Conway cites ‘anti-religiosity’ in Pittsburgh shooting

Kellyanne Conway cited “anti-religiosity” on Monday in discussing the mass shooting at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

Conway’s remarks during a discussion on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” came less than 72 hours after the deadliest attack on Jews in American history. The alleged shooter, Robert Bowers, targeted Jews online and made anti-Semitic comments during the shooting, law enforcement officials said.

“The anti-religiosity in this country that is somehow in vogue and funny, to make fun of anybody of faith. To constantly be making fun of people who expresses religion,” said Conway, who serves as counselor to President Donald Trump.

“The late night comedians. The un-funny people on TV shows. It’s always anti-religious. And remember, these people were gunned down in their place of worship’,” Conway continued. “As were the people in South Carolina several years ago. And they were there because they’re people of faith and it’s that faith that needs to bring us together.”

As the weather gets colder and furry intruders start looking for shelter, the only animals people want in their houses are their family pets.

“This is no time to be driving God out of the public square. No time to be making fun of people.”

Conway’s comments, which went unchallenged on the program, were made just before she told reporters that she was “very happy” that Trump condemned anti-Semitism following the massacre, which left 11 dead. The President’s combative rhetoric has been scrutinized in the wake of the Pittsburgh shooting as well as last week’s potential explosive devices that were sent to several of Trump’s political opponents.

“I was very happy he came out with very strong words over the weekend though, condemning anti-Semitism and asking the country to rise above hate and evil and unify,” she said outside the White House on Monday.

Conway was referring to comments Trump made on Saturday in Illinois as he responded to news of the shooting. “It looks definitely like it’s an anti-Semitic crime, and that is something you wouldn’t believe could still be going on,” he said at the time.

Asked if Trump would denounce white nationalists, Conway said, “Please don’t lose the lesson of today which is anti-Semitism in all forms. It is evil and it still is being perpetrated around this world. Please remember the 11 who were murdered because of their faith.”

Conway’s husband, George Conway, a frequent public critic of the President despite his wife’s position, also weighed in on Monday morning. Instead of directly commenting on the matter, Conway tweeted a quote from a Washington Post op-ed published on Sunday by Patti Davis, the daughter of former President Ronald Reagan.

“This president will never offer comfort, compassion or empathy to a grieving nation. It’s not in him. When questioned after a tragedy, he will always be glib and inappropriate. So I have a wild suggestion: Let’s stop asking him. His words are only salt in our wounds,” the tweet read, citing Davis’ op-ed.

[CNN]

Trump Rails Against ‘Fake News’ for Blaming Him for the ‘Division and Hatred’ in the Country

On Sunday night, President Donald Trump lashed out at the media for blaming him for the “division and hatred” in the country.

“The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!”

Trump’s tweet comes on the same week as Cesar Sayoc, who attended a Trump rally and had Trumpian slogans and photos plastered on his van was arrested for sending explosive devices to CNN, the Obamas, the Clintons and others.

The tweet also comes just one day after suspected shooter Robert Bowers opened fire in a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11.

Bowers was also reportedly sparked to action, in part, over rhetoric about the migrant caravan.

[Mediaite]

Trump falsely says NYSE opened day after Sept. 11 attacks to justify holding rally after Pittsburgh shooting

President Donald Trump falsely claimed Saturday that the New York Stock Exchange re-opened the day after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in an effort to justify holding a rally on the same day that a mass shooting occurred at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Speaking at a planned campaign rally in Illinois, Trump said he had weighed whether to cancel his rally as well as a speech at an agricultural convention earlier in the day in Indianapolis, Indiana, but ultimately decided against it, saying such a move would amount to giving the killer an edge. He compared his decision to continue with the rally to reopening the NYSE after the September 11 attacks, something that did not happen.

“And with what happened early today — that horrible, horrible attack in Pittsburgh — I was saying maybe I should cancel both this and that,” Trump said, referring to the rally and his earlier appearance at the agricultural convention. “And then I said to myself, I remember Dick Grasso, a friend of mine, great guy. He headed up the New York Stock Exchange on September 11. And the New York Stock Exchange was open the following day. He said — and what they had to do to open it you wouldn’t believe. We won’t even talk to you about it. But he got that exchange open.”

“We can’t make these sick, demented, evil people important. And when we start changing around our lives and changing around our schedules … we can’t allow people like this to become important,” Trump said. “And when we change all of our lives in order to accommodate them, it’s not acceptable.”

In fact, as CNN reported at the time, the NYSE closed after the attacks and did not reopen until September 17 because many of the workers were lost or injured in the attack on the World Trade Center, which was just blocks from the NYSE in Manhattan’s financial district, and much of the communications and utilities needed to trade stocks were damaged or destroyed.

It was the longest shutdown for the NYSE since the Great Depression.

Bloomberg first reported Trump’s error.

Trump also used his rally to condemn the shooting that took place earlier Saturday at the Tree of Life synagogue, leaving 11 dead.

“This evil anti-Semitic attack is an assault on all of us. It’s an assault on humanity. It will require all of us working together to extract the hateful poison of anti-Semitism from the world,” he said.

“The scourge of anti-Semitism cannot be ignored, cannot be tolerated and cannot be allowed to continue.”

[CNN]

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