Donald Trump is not seeing things that do not exist, he is just ill-informed, confused and highly imaginative about what he sees on television.
Donald Trump admitted on Friday that a story he has been telling audiences at rallies on Wednesday and Thursday — that he had seen a video shot and distributed by the Iranian government showing the world a “top-secret” American shipment of cash arriving in Iran — is completely false.
The plane I saw on television was the hostage plane in Geneva, Switzerland, not the plane carrying $400 million in cash going to Iran!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 5, 2016
In other words, he mistakenly thought grainy video images shown over and over on Fox News this week — of three Americans of Iranian descent getting off a plane in Geneva in January, after being freed from jail in a prisoner swap with the United States — showed money the United States has owed to Iran since 1979 being delivered the same night.
State Dept spox says $400 million cash transfer to Iran was "not ransom" for US hostages. https://t.co/bu2XpogdY5 pic.twitter.com/GpTlXzwlg9
— Fox News (@FoxNews) August 3, 2016
Given the very large number of things that Trump has said that are not true but has refused to stop repeating on the campaign trail — like that he watched on September 11, 2001 as “thousands and thousands” of American Muslims in New Jersey celebrated the collapse of the World Trade Center — it was somewhat startling that he admitted that he was wrong about the video he had first described to supporters in Florida.
Speaking at a rally in Daytona, Florida on Wednesday, Trump made this dramatic assertion:
“I’ll never forget the scene this morning,” he said. “And remember this: Iran — I don’t think you’ve heard this anywhere but here — Iran provided all of that footage, the tape of taking that money off that airplane,” Trump said.
“Now, here’s the amazing thing: Over there, where that plane landed, top secret, they don’t have a lot of paparazzi. You know, the paparazzi doesn’t do so well over there, right?” he said. “And they have a perfect tape — done by, obviously, a government camera — and the tape is of the people taking the money off the plane. Right? That means that in order to embarrass us further, Iran sent us the tapes. Right? It’s a military tape; it’s a tape that was a perfect angle, nice and steady, nobody getting nervous because they’re gonna be shot because they’re shooting a picture of money pouring off a plane.”
By Thursday morning, the Washington Post had asked Trump’s staff to explain what he was talking about, and spokeswoman Hope Hicks responded that it was in fact “merely the b-roll footage included in every broadcast” on Fox News, showing the hostages, not the cash.
But that didn’t stop Trump repeating the story later in the day in Maine.
“I woke up yesterday and I saw $400 million, different currencies — they probably don’t want our currency — different currencies, $400 million being flown to Iran. I mean folks, what’s going on here? What’s going on? What is going on? You see it, you don’t believe. Four hundred million in cash being flown in an airplane to Iran,” he said.
And he continued: “And you know it was interesting because a tape was made. Right? You saw that, with the plane coming — nice plane. And, the airplane coming in and the money coming off I guess, right? That was given to us, has to be, by the Iranians. And you know why the tape was given to us? Because they want to embarrass our country, they want to embarrass our country.”
The transfer of $400 million to Iran by the Treasury Department has prompted outrage in the right-wing Twittersphere this week even though it was never secret. President Barack Obama announced it himself in January, calling the agreement to resolve a longstanding dispute over Iranian money held by Washington since the fall of the shah a side benefit of diplomatic ties renewed during talks over Iran’s nuclear energy program.
An Iranian general boasted at the time that the money was a form of ransom paid to release the jailed Iranian-Americans, and this week the Wall Street Journal reported a new detail about the payment: that it was made in cash flown to Tehran on the same night the prisoners were freed. That led to renewed criticism of the deal from Republicans who argued, as they first did in January, that President Obama had paid ransom money to a state that held the American citizens as “hostages.”
Trump’s acknowledgement that everything he had said about the video was essentially made up didn’t entirely assuage concerns about his grasp on reality.
As a general principle, anybody who gets up in public & repeatedly talks about imaginary videos in far away countries needs help, not votes.
— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) August 5, 2016
So devious of Iran to release video that only Trump can see
— Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) August 5, 2016
lol pic.twitter.com/0x63B3uIK1
— Rob Flaherty (@Rob_Flaherty) August 4, 2016
Fox News repeatedly used the video of the prisoners arriving in Geneva to illustrate its discussion of the growing outrage on the right over the cash payment to Iran. So it is not hard to see how someone casually watching the channel, particularly with the sound off, might have assumed the footage was, in fact, of the money arriving in Tehran. This allows the possibility that he was ignorant and reckless, rather than outright delusional.
Then again, the incident is reminiscent of Trump’s insistence last year that celebrations of the 9/11 attacks by crowds of Muslims in New Jersey were broadcast on television, when what was televised that day was a few seconds of footage of about a dozen Palestinians celebrating in East Jerusalem. And it raises another troubling question: Just how ready to lead the country is a man who gets a lot of his information about world events from television reports he seems to have trouble understanding?
Asked last year by NBC’s Chuck Todd who he turned to for military advice, Trump replied: “Well, I watch the shows. I mean, I really see a lot of great — you know, when you watch your show and all of the other shows and you have the generals and … you have certain people that you like.”
According to Philip Rucker of the Washington Post, during an interview this week, Trump interrupted the conversation at least five times to draw attention to what was playing on “a nearby television, which was tuned to Fox News.”
Tony Schwartz, who wrote “The Art of the Deal” in Trump’s voice, recently told The New Yorker that Trump’s short attention span has given him “a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.”
“That’s why he so prefers TV as his first news source — information comes in easily digestible sound bites,” he added.
Trump’s confused accounts of what he thought he saw on television this week led to a barrage of jokes on social networks comparing him to the simple-minded character played by Peter Sellers in “Being There.” In that film, however, the television addict Chauncey Gardener only advised the president of the United States; he never held the office.
Trump’s campaign is like “Being There” if Chauncey were a mentally impaired businessman who talked about himself instead of gardening.
— Alan Spencer (@MrAlanSpencer) August 2, 2016
Anyone else see the similarities between Trump and "Chauncy Gardner" https://t.co/QrBBgSOItB #DumpTrump
— Bill Silva-Breen (@Woofdah) August 3, 2016
Donald Trump's devotion to watching TV gives Chauncey Gardner a run for his money. Being There wasn't supposed to be a documentary!
— Alex Katz (@Alex__Katz) August 5, 2016
If this is a Trump hit piece, then Robert Makey shot himself in the foot:
“An Iranian general boasted at the time that the money was a form of ransom paid to release the jailed Iranian-Americans, and this week the Wall Street Journal reported a new detail about the payment: that it was made in cash flown to Tehran on the same night the prisoners were freed”
These reports give Trumps allegations plausibility, which destroys any credibility the author tried to build by painting him as a victim of confabulation through television programming.
On a side note, confabulation through television programming does exist in form of Mk-ULTRA, and imho a President should never watch too much of it.
Don’t be too tough on Trump.
After all, the poor, delusional racist and egomaniac has the acumen of a turnip without the self-awareness necessary to recognize and address it.
The psychopath and his followers are catching on to straws and they see Trump ship is sinking. Lies won’t put a sociopath in White House.
As the comments section at the TI won’t allow me to respond directly to other comments, I’ve resigned to leaving my reply here, at the top of the thread. I sincerely apologize to the good readers at TI for messing up the flow of comments, as Hasbara Jack is notoriously know for. “kan” wrote:
“You must be so jealous Fox is the most watched news network on tv. Guess you didn’t know that. Eat your heart out.”
My reply:
I’m as jealous of Fox by about the same degree that I’m jealous of the medical device company that manufactures labotomy equipment. It’s correct that I didn’t know that Fox was the most watched “news” on tv, mainly because I never cared to know such trivia in the first place. Kan, as I’m eating my heart out, have a blast eating Trump’s ass out.
To clear up the war propaganda written by Zionists and Foxtards below in the comments section. The $400 million cash delivery in question to Iran:
“The US was ordered by a Hague Tribunal to pay $1.7 billion to Iran over money that Iran had paid for military equipment before 1979, and which the US neither delivered nor refunded payment for.”
http://news.antiwar.com/2016/08/08/iran-confirms-us-cash-payment-unrelated-to-nuclear-deal/
Also Mackey does “social media journalism” regard finding out and presenting the truth in high regards? This article, purposefully or inadvertently, made Trump look like a babbling moron and supported Hillary’s pro-war posturing against Iran.
http://www.businessinsider.com/study-watching-fox-news-makes-you-less-informed-than-watching-no-news-at-all-2012-5
So he really is not different from the millions of others who watch Faux Noise. It isn’t surprising, is it, given his, er, junior high school vocabulary? (Sorry for the slur, junior high schoolers. . .)
Nice article. Fox News can make a mistake, and does on occasion. But there is way too much praise for the Washington Post. That rag is as bad the Huffington post or Vox, which I look at now and again for chuckles.
How did I know this was written by HRC shill Mackey before I even I opened the link? The Intercept is turning into yet another MSM propaganda site. Why don’t you do a little more digging into the actual story of our government sending a cash payment to Iran in an unmarked cargo plane on the day the hostages were released? Or talk about all the lies HRC makes up?
Has anyone thought that perhaps the money was delivered on the same night because either :
A) the US made it clear that the first payment would not arrive if the prisoners were not freed.
B) The Iranians wanted to wait until the cash arrived before releasing the prisoners.
The fact that these two events occurred on the same night makes complete sense when you consider that the US and Iran don’t trust each other.
The main issue here is about transparency. The Iranians knew about the plane and the money. We knew nothing. Our great man in the White House kept us in the dark about this transaction. Now that he got caught with his pants down, obviously he has to look silly and say the whole thing was above board, which in fact it may have been. But at that time he deprived us of that judgment.
But still I must say this chap is good. In the Hillary administration, the whole world would know everything thanks to her leaky devices, but we will know nothing, and then will be told lies after lies.
Yes all that secrecy…well except for the fact that Obama announced the deal in Jan. Being born ignorant isn’t your fault…choosing to remain so IS!
“Ladies and Gentlemen, my administration has decided to ship the Iranians $400 million in foreign currency on pallets in an unmarked plane…so, leave it alone until it gets there and don’t criticize me for doing it, OK”?
Wow! Just like Hillary dodging bullets while getting off an airplane in a war zone.
And then forgetting which story about her emails she told on the campaign trail and which story she told to the FBI.
We are so screwed.
Back in February of 2011, BillO of Fox News reported on the protests here in Madison, Wisconsin. Bill’s “live footage” was from some protest in California. What gave it away was the beautiful palm trees everywhere. I love palm trees but Wisconsin in February is very cold, snowy, and barren. Nice work, Fox news.
What is worse though, people believed what they saw.
“. . . gets a lot of his information about world events from television reports he seems to have trouble understanding . . . ”
That’s the average TV-addled American voter, no matter what party.
Readers that post links to Fox in an effort to rationalize The Don’s Trumpisms are too dense to realize that The Don says stupid shit because he watches Fox.
You must be so jealous. Fox is the most watched news network on tv. Guess you didn’t know that. Eat your heart out.
Aww the rich little elitist freaks want hilly. I pray this will never happen. Enough of you special interests lobbyists selfish people. We need someone who cares about our country For Once. Do away eith Evil get someone who is Good Go Trump, we all support you guy.
Thanks for spelling his name right. That is all that matters to the Trumptards. Getting his name mentioned. It’s a good name. Best name.
That wasn’t FOX NEWS that got him confused…..IT WAS BUGS BUNNY.
AH, AH, AH, AH, DIB THAT ALL FOLKS!!!!!!!!
Get him out here!
Take him where?
ACME Manufacturing would be a GREAT “Wall 2 Nowhere” General Contractor, especially with Willie C. Coyote as its CEO. Canine Empowerment Officer
FYI It is one company he has NOT yet bankrupt..
Seems a little weird for an author to embed his own tweet in a story as evidence that something happened on Twitter. Well duh… If you tweeted something on Twitter, it isn’t exactly news if you then report what you yourself said on Twitter (especially if the tweet had zero consequences). That’s not reporting, and much less investigative or “adversarial journalism;” its meek self-promotion.
Funny scary, versus sad scary, versus scary scary ………. I could be renaming the smurfs! I keep thinking I will wake up and will be renaming the smurfs.
If there is a position open where the sole duty is thinking up names for smurfs (and it paid well, of course), I suggest you take it, Gargie. It’d be a lot more personally rewarding, I suspect.
donald trump is so clueless he doesn’t know he sounds stupid on tv. his advisors, apparently, don’t have the nerve to tell him; or don’t want to challenge his cringe-worthy technique because the approach rewarded trump with the g.o.p. nomination.
mr. trump suffers from overexposure. we’ve seen too much already. its like watching reruns of ‘plan 9 from outer space’ ad nauseum.
he seems to have several psychological disturbances. not the least of which may be termed a ‘midas complex’ – everything he touches turns to gold. just ask him.
the man is also a reactionary with little self control.
so here we are. in this corner we have donald trump; in that corner, the calculating, war mongering, serial liar, part-time criminal, thoroughly corrupt harpie called hillary clinton.
if bernie sanders hadn’t sold his soul to the devil – and proved he’s just another politician – he could have run as an independent or green party candidate with a realistic chance to win the presidency. at the very least, he would have legitimized a third party.
tragedy or farce: those are the choices.
is this a great country, or what?
This is not substantially different than the average American, who gets their “information” from the corporate propaganda machine, aka mainstream media. This also includes propaganda for the educated class, aka Public Television and National Public Radio. The only difference is that FOX News propaganda is more extreme than the rest of mainstream media, so people who get their “information” from that are even more ill informed.
Trump obviously wings it a lot. It’s the New Yorker in him. Obama is the epitome of probity. He’ll make a helluva judge (and executioner). Trump’s gaffes are junior varsity compared to Obama’s cold-blooded suavity. If he says the 400 million arrived on the same night by coincidence and that the funds had been cleared months before, (it’s not clear what one thing has to do with the other) take him at his word. Give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, he may makes jokes about droning your ass, but he’s a very credible guy, and the President of the United States of America. He never, ever makes shit up. Mackey should engage in real reporting and track down the chain of custody of the cash. That’s the real story, not playing gotcha with a guy who has yet the master the politics of deception, if not the facts.
But the BBC (unlike Bezos Bozos at the WP) did do their job and showed that there is indeed Iranian video coverage showing the 400M in cash which was paid at the same time – so really folks, if it looks like a rat and sqeaks like a rat, it’s a rat! … Here’s just one example (of many) of the video – from FOX news, no less! http://video.foxnews.com/v/5072786053001
What the naughty Iranians didn’t tell you is that they lifted that “money pallet” footage from a 1991 US video. The footage was lifted from a 1991 inside the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington documentary. If you watch the Iranian video you will see that something on top is blurred. They had to do this in order to hide the true origins of the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLrpg8Bya24
‘Published on 4 Jan 2013
Inside the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington D.C., 1991. The video features the assembly line of printing, cutting, and sorting machines, and the process of producing paper currency with a Koebau-Giori-De La Rue Intaglio Color 8 Printing Press. The machinery operated 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.’
Check out the above video link at 6:05 to see what the naughty Iranians blurred out on the 1991 original video footage. What is blurred out is ‘THIS SKID ONLY $ 2.560,000′
In intellect and temperament, Donald Trump is perfectly matched to his supporters.
If the US were a literate society, in which people read books and where journalists wrote in depth about the news
his support would dwindle.
But instead we are a society of sound bites on TV, superficial news organs, Twitter and Facebook.
So the phenomenon is self-reinforcing, a positive feedback loop if you will
Which will lead to Fahrenheit 451.
Hey Mack. If you don’t like Trump in the limelight, you can thank Obama … and while you’re at it, give a shout-out to Hillary Clinton, big $ Media and the whole DNC crew.
Trump is just an ugly reminder of what Obama & co. have tried to sweep under the rug under the guise of stability and ‘progress’, imo. Trouble is, you can’t appease a self-absorbed super-rich-brat carnival barker w/ a Wharton education … who could shoot most of BLM on 5th avenue and walk… with platitudes about ‘looking forward’.
*Bernie was the more friendly face of this anti-establishment zeal but, again, it’s hard to get by just upon a smile in todays’ political climate… sigh.
Does anyone, seriously, believe Trump would be running on a platform of ‘bringing back waterboarding and a whole lot worse’ if the Obama cabal had exercised it’s constitutional duty to uphold U.S. law (and hard-won international treaties) prohibiting torture? *i think not …
Turns out Trump was right on the essentials.
Iran did film it and broadcast domestically pretty much what Trump said. The news U.S. media simply didn’t report it. Mackey and friends apparently don’t speak Farsi.
Trump probably picked up the story from one of his own sources in the intel community then conflated it with the Fox News story. Stitching the pieces together.
One thing is for sure, the American media are doing a piss-poor job of keeping the American people informed. There is the Chuck Todd / Julian Assange interview and this one from CNN.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCMyHJJrdDw
Here is the tape from January.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/05/was-trump-right-iran-video-may-show-us-cash-payment.html
Are you guys really all so delusional?
No. I’m exceptional.
:)
Good article. It’s difficult to tell if Trump truely believes the stories that are manufactured by Fox or if he’s mirroring back an image to his political base? Either way it’s dumb and dangerous.
Hillary Clinton is clearly the CIA candidate here. The reason her email and her Clinton Foundation muck will never get prosecuted is because the CIA was probably tied up intimately in her and Bill’s murky dealings.
That might explain why ex-CIA director Michael Morell just publicly endorsed Hillary. How often does a CIA director weigh in on an election and endorse a candidate during the race?
I’m sorry, but I’m a compulsive liar.
I cannot help but wonder
how it is
that Donald Trump AND Bernie Sanders
are both trying to make Hillary Clinton the next president.
Okay.
I lied.
I’m not really wondering.
After all, vomit is likely to result from too much intoxication.
Hilary “short circuits” and flat out lies all the time.
Yeah, well name some. And please, go beyond the email crap.
I dunno, but it feels like this article was solely an excuse for the author to showcase his own clumsily worded, snide tweet. It’s often the case that the Intercept tends toward extremes: In one scenario, they nail the powers that be to the wall with hard-hitting reporting, backed up by exhaustive research and exclusive sources. In the other case, however, we have brain-dead fluff.
If I were going Government job, and used the excuse” Sometimes I see things that aren’t their or I embellish the truth of TV coverage’ hence lying becomes the damage from it” and ” I have then to retract my statements”
What branch of government from Post Office to NSA Analyst would I then be dismissed on being mentally unfit to Command or lead a political position, No less privy to security briefings and sensitive state information.
Don’t even attempt to tie in a comparison to Hillary Clinton of deflect the issue at hand, concerning Trump. We are talking about the man has admitted about himself a specific flaw.
I think personally as a Conservative Voter Trump never thought this reality game would this far as it has, The constant self destruction acts ARE NOT the attributes of a quick on his feet Business man capable of dealing a deal.
Therefore His behavior is one of someone who will do anything to get off this ride, but nothing is working because He has crafted himself to the media as a anomaly, even insulting his own base,
Donald Himself in 1998 in a interview was asked would run for President, FACT He replied ” I probably run as a Republican because of FOX news and their support, The Republican Voter Base is so uneducated and gullible they swallow anything you told them and FOX would play right into it ” 1985 People Magazine….now I ask you are you being played?
Since Trump just endorsed Ryan and McCain, he is certainly acting confused.
Not sure which side he is on anymore.
He stumbled badly and had to make a deal to pull his chestnuts out of the fire. He has brought in Stephen Moore from the Heritage Foundation. This could be the breaking point for me. I have extreme loathing for Moore. He is one of Ayn Rand’s worst bowel movements.
another scintillating mix of dumb but harmless trump gaffes stretched out over 60,000 words (or it just feels that way) with the useless twitter opinions of useless twat people. hooray.
all this shows is that trump is just like most americans: he watches cable news and is ignorant/fucking stupid (depending on how charitable we’re being) about every single thing ever. if he watched CNN he’d be sure putin invaded ukraine and iran are a terror threat (which he already says moronic things about thanks to adelson money and his bigoted zionist son-in-law). he’d think the insane opinions of Super Serious ex-CIA spooks were worth listening to (hillary sure does). he’d find it logical for democrats to cheer for reagan and the other republicans they hated a month ago just because they prefer fellow sociopath neocon clinton to goofball dork trump.
if he watched MSDNC he’d think clinton loved blacks and muslims and kept her word and had done a single real debate or press conference in the past 250ish days. he might even be convinced she’s human. powerful persuasion!
and just imagine if trump or any of those other americans read the guardian. holy SHIT. talk about retardageddon.
…Putin did invade Ukraine, though.
Please do not let Mr. Trump listen to a recording of Orson Welles’ “The War of the Worlds”.
Looks like Mr. Trump is learning. A few months ago he would have just kept repeating a comment like this over and over for weeks.
To those of you who are truly interested in why Donald Trump why Donald Trump is a dangerous candidate then follow this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Az1JyDJ_iKU
This is by far the best synopsis of the Trump phenomena that I have heard to date – and its source just might surprise you!
I’m not a fan of Sam Harris in general but he is absolutely DEAD ON in the podcast you posted, AND WELL WORTH listening to for many people who frequent this site. Thanks!
Thanks for posting. I listed to about 50% of it. My favorite line this guys says with respects to Trumps ideas vs Clinton’s problem (even including her husband’s problems)
“But these are not the source of things that can push the career of our species into the ditch”
That’s how he views Trumps ideas……lol. Classic.
harris is just mad that trump only talks shit about muslims instead of killing them.
With all of the meaningful lies out there about Clinton, why does Mackey carry her water every single f*cking day by attacking Trump for pidding little b*llshit – as if he is a member of the MSM – whose pile-on of Trump is non-stop.
Corrected:
With all of the meaningful lies out there FROM Clinton, why does Mackey carry her water every single f*cking day by attacking Trump for pidding little b*llshit – as if he is a member of the MSM – whose pile-on of Trump is non-stop.
Wake up before you swallow more of the Republican lies. MR. COMEY, a Republican, MADE A STATEMENT that implicated Hillary, AND THEN CONTRADICTED HIS STATEMENT UNDER SWORN TESTIMONY.. Mr. Comey said that she sent 110 emails that were classified AT THE TIME they were sent in his statement but under sworn testimony Mr. Comey admitted that ONLY THREE OF THOSE HAD CLASSIFIED MARKINGS AND NONE, THAT IS ZERO, WERE MARKED CLASSIFIED OR HAD CLASSIFIED IN THE SUBJECT LINE OF THE EMAIL OR THE HEADER, get it? Write that down. Write down: None of the 110 emails were marked classified at the time and then once you do that, stare at it, scratch your head and try to figure out what that means. What does that mean, Victoria,. THAT MEANS THEY WERE RETROACTIVELY MARKED CLASSIFIED.Do you have such hatred for this woman because you’ve followed and believed the repulsive Repug talking points that you can’t seem to put two and two together? Once again, just for clarity: COMEY CONTRADICTED HIMSELF when he was FORCED TO TELL THE TRUTH by Rep. Cartwright most likely, though we don’t know Comey’s motive for changing the thrust of his original statement, because he did not want to perjure himself.
Another, more likely scenario is that Clinton was so grossly negligent that she did not even attempt the demeanor of having any regard for the law. She didn’t even bother to mark the stuff. Hillary for prison 2016! (I oppose the death penalty.)
“Meaningful Lies”
You mean politicians tell lies that aren’t meaningful too? Who gets to decide what’s what? Every untruth a politician speaks only makes them more like The Boy Who Cried Wolf. At some point, they are all lose credibility due to their lies.
So, why cry over Trump or Clinton? Do you think Trump’s lies are less meaningful?
Trump supporters attack Clinton; Clinton supporters attack Trump, and that’s because neither group has anything positive to say about their candidate that won’t be greeted with raucous laughter. You come across as a Trump supporter, with four pages of attacks on Clinton; but that doesn’t make Trump look any better; at the end of the day, he’s still a racist thug, even if Clinton is a greedy lying warmonger.
Hillary’s wars, Donald’s walls – neither are acceptable. But one-sided journalism promoting Hillary’s wars over Donald’s walls, or vice versa, is not acceptable either – nor is persistent silence on candidates with far better approaches, i.e. Jill Stein of the Green Party.
And there you are again, as you promised. Whining because Donald Trump has been shown again to be an ignorant moron. (The idea that his bullshit about Iran and Iran is “piddling” is…unhinged. He’s running for fucking PRESIDENT.)
I’m not voting for Hillary Clinton, not even to vote against Trump. But it’s absurd to continue to insist that a candidate for President of the United States who says the things Donald Trump does should not be covered. It’s simply preposterous.
“Hillary Clinton: “I May Have Short-Circuited” on “Truthful” Server Answer”
Posted By Ian Schwartz
On Date August 5, 2016
Hillary Clinton confronted at a National Association of Black Journalists event about remark she made that FBI Director James Comey called the testimony she provided in the probe into her private server “truthful.” She made the comment in an interview with Chris Wallace on last week’s broadcast of FOX News Sunday. Clinton said that she “short-circuited.”
Clinton, however, this time rephrased what she told the FBI was confirmed as “truthful” by Comey, which “is consistent” with what she has said publicly.
“I was pointing out in both of those instances that the director [of the FBI] Comey had said that my answers in my FBI interview were truthful,” Clinton told journalist Kirsten Welker of NBC News. “That’s really the bottom line here. And I have said during the interview and in many other occasions over the past months that what I told the FBI, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what I have said publicly.”
“So I may have short-circuited it and for that I will try to clarify because I think [FOX News Sunday moderator] Chris Wallace and I were talking past each other because of course he could only talk to what I had told the FBI and I appreciated that,” Clinton also said.
“Now, I have acknowledged repeatedly that using two e-mail accounts was a mistake,” Clinton admitted.
“Having him say that my answers to the FBI were truthful and that I should quickly add what I said was consistent with what I had said publicly, and that’s really in my view trying to tie both ends together,” she added.
“And so, what we have here is pretty much what I have been saying throughout this whole year and that is that I never sent or received anything that was marked classified,” Clinton once again claimed.
Transcript:
WELKER: Madam Secretary, your poll numbers went way up this week, and yet, the e-mail controversy was still in the headlines. So I want to give you the opportunity to respond. This week, you told two separate news organizations that FBI director James Comey said, quote, my answers were truthful and that what I said is consistent with what I have told the American people.
That assertion, as you know, has been debunked by multiple news organizations which point out that Director Comey did say there’s no indication that you lied but to the FBI, but he didn’t weigh in on whether or not you were truthful to the American people. So my question for you is, are you mischaracterizing Director Comey’s testimony, and is this not undercutting your efforts to rebuild trust with the American people?
CLINTON: Look, Kristen, I appreciate you’re asking that because I was pointing out in both of those instances, that the Director Comey had said that my answers in my FBI interview were truthful. That’s really the bottom line, here. And I have said, during the interview, and in many other occasions over the past months, that what I told the FBI, which he said was truthful, is consistent with what I have said publicly. So I may have short circuited it, and for that, I, you know, will try to clarify, because I think Chris Wallace and I were probably talking past each other because of course, he could only talk to what I had told the FBI and I appreciated that.
Now, I have acknowledged repeatedly that using two e-mail accounts was a mistake and I take responsibility for that. But I do think, you know, having him say that my answers to the FBI were truthful and then I should quickly add, what I said was consistent with what I had said publicly. And that’s really sort of in my view trying to tie both ends together.
WELKER: Is the one inconsistency, though, that you said you never sent or received classified material? And he did say there were three e-mails that were marked classified at the time. Is that an inconsistency?
CLINTON: Here are the facts behind that as well. You know that I preside — I sent over 30,000 e-mails to the State Department that were work-related e-mails. Director Comey said that only three out of 30,000 had anything resembling classified markers. What does that mean? Well, usually, if any of you have ever served in the government, a classified document has a big heading on the top which makes very clear what the classification is.
And in questioning, Director Comey made the point that the three e-mails out of the 30,000 did not have the appropriate markings. And it was therefore reasonable to conclude that anyone, including myself, would have not suspected that they were classified. And in fact, I think that has been discussed by others who have said two out of those three were later explained by the State Department not to have been in any way confidential at the time that they were delivered.
So, that leaves the 100 out of 30,000 e-mails that Director Comey testified contained classified information, but again, he acknowledged there were no markings on those 100 e-mails. And so, what we have here is pretty much what I have been saying throughout this whole year and that is that I never sent or received anything that was marked classified.
Now, if in retrospect, which is what is behind the 100 number — if in retrospect, some different agency said, but it should have been, although it wasn’t, it should have been, that’s what the debate is about. But, Director Comey said there was absolutely no intention on my part to either ignore or in any way dismiss the importance of those documents because they weren’t marked classified. So that would have been hard to do. And I will go back to where I started. I regret using one account. I’ve taken responsibility for that. But I’m pleased to be able to clarify and explain what I think the bottom line is on this.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/08/05/hillary_clinton_i_may_have_short-circuited_on_truthful_server_answer.html
Ben Shapiro: Hillary Clinton Lies… A Lot
Hillary Clinton is the most transparent woman she knows. She said so in 2008:
“I think I’m probably the most transparent person in public life…I feel you know a lot more about me than you know about anyone else. Much of it untrue, but nevertheless, it’s all out there.”
“Unfortunately, Hillary is a liar. When news emerged this week that Hillary had set up a private email server the day before her nomination as Secretary of State, and had used her private email address for her entire tenure as Secretary of State so that there were no government records of those emails, and that her aides also used private email addresses, and that her server had the capacity to fully delete emails, and that hackers could have hacked her emails…no one should have been surprised. Of course she did.
Let’s take a trip in the wayback machine.
When Hillary Clinton was 27, back in 1974, she worked for the House Judiciary Committee, which was investigating Richard Nixon. According to her boss, Democrat Jerry Zeifman, Hillary met with Teddy Kennedy’s chief political strategist – a violation of House rules. She then manipulated the system to avoid investigating Nixon, hoping he’d stick around long enough to sink Republican election chances in 1976, letting her boy Teddy into the White House.
According to the guy who shared office space with Hillary, John Labovitz, Hillary gave “erroneous legal opinions” and tried to “deny Nixon representation by counsel.” Zeifman said that Hillary wrote a “fraudulent legal brief” and “confiscated public documents.” Zeifman fired her and wouldn’t give her a letter of recommendation. Zeifman later wrote a book stating that “Hillary Clinton is ethically unfit to be either a senator or president.”
Fast forward twenty years. Hillary’s now in the White House, and there’s a big search going on for a memorandum written by a former presidential aide regarding the firing of members of the White House travel office. They go missing for two years. At the same time, documents regarding Hillary Clinton’s work at the Rose Law firm in Arkansas – specifically, regarding a savings and loan company run by the Clintons’ business partner in the Whitewater land venture – go missing for two years.
Then, in January 1996, they miraculously appear. The Rose Law firm documents magically show up. A White House aide finds them. In the White House. In a storage area in the third-floor of the White House – the private residence of the President and First Lady. And the long-lost memo shows up just a couple of days later. How miraculous. Hillary’s lawyers said that she had no idea the documents were there. Except that the FBI found Hillary’s fingerprints on the documents. Oopsies. Hillary is still the only First Lady in American history to be fingerprinted by the FBI.
All that was before the rise of email. But the Clintons loved email, because it was so much easier to hide emails than to track down every copy of every document for destruction. And hide those emails they did. According to Judicial Watch, Cheryl Mills, Hillary’s hatchet woman helped prevent the Clintons from turning over 1.8 million emails to Judicial Watch, Congress, and federal investigators. 1.8 million emails. When a White House computer contractor tried to reveal this, White House officials allegedly told her to “keep her mouth shut.” Cheryl Mills. You may remember her. She ended up being in charge of document production for Hillary’s State Department in the Benghazi investigation.
When she was Secretary of State, over and over again, document requests to the State Department were rejected, because they didn’t have the documents – Hillary did, on her private server. The Associated Press hit a stonewall. So did Judicial Watch. So did Gawker.
All a big coincidence, of course. It was all a big mixup when Clinton hit man Sandy Berger stole documents from the National Archives and stuffed them down his pants, too. And now Hillary has assured us via Twitter that she wants the State Department to release all her hidden emails.
We should believe her. After all, she’s the most transparent woman in American history. At least, the most transparently corrupt.”
http://www.truthrevolt.org/videos/ben-shapiro-hillary-clinton-lies-lot
Tell me whose lies are more self-serving and consequential.
1. Hillary Clinton lied as a staff member of the House Judiciary Committee
Dan Calabrese reveals in his column that former general counsel and chief of staff of the House Judiciary Committee, Jerry Zeifman, indicated that he fired the 27 year old Hillary Rodham from the House Judiciary Committee staff and refused to give her a letter of recommendation due to her lying and unethical conduct. Zeifman said that during the Watergate investigation Hillary lied in a legal brief, them removed evidence from public access that would document her conduct. (Source)
2. Hillary Clinton lied about flying into Bosina under sniper fire
“I remember landing under sniper fire,” she said in Washington on Monday. “There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”
News footage of the event however showed her claims to have been wide of the mark, and reporters who accompanied her stated that there was no sniper fire. Her account was ridiculed by ABC News as “like a scene from Saving Private Ryan”. (Source)
3. Hillary Clinton Misrepresented her Record opposing the Iraq War
In Eugene, Ore., Saturday, April 5, 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., attempted to change the measure by which anyone might assess who criticized the Iraq war first, her or Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., by saying those keeping records should start in January 2005, when Obama joined the Senate. (A measure that conveniently avoids her October 2002 vote to authorize use of force against Iraq at a time that Obama was speaking out against the war.) She claimed that using that measure, she criticized the war in Iraq before Obama did.
But Clinton’s claim was false. (Source)
4. Hillary Clinton Misrepresented her Role in the Irish Peace Accord
The historian Tim Pat Coogan told The Chicago Tribune: “It was a nice thing to see her there, with the women’s groups. It helped, I suppose. But it was ancillary to the main thing. It was part of the stage effects, the optics.” Former SDLP man Brian Feeney said pithily: “The road to peace was carefully documented, and she wasn’t on it.” (Source)
5. Hillary Clinton Misrepresented the extent to which her daughter was in danger on 9/11
Clinton said Chelsea had gone on “what she thought was going to be a great jog. She was going to go down to Battery Park, she was going to go around the towers. She went to get a cup of coffee and, and, that’s when the plane hit.”
Responding to a question about whether her daughter heard the “rumble,” Clinton said, “She did hear it.”
Weeks later, Chelsea Clinton told a magazine that she was in an apartment 12 blocks away when the first plane hit. A UPI article said she was outdoors closer to the site when “she heard the rumble of the second tower collapsing.” (Source)
6. Hillary Clinton Claimed she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary
During a stop in Nepal while on a south Asian goodwill tour in April 1995, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton engaged in a brief (and reportedly coincidental) meeting with Sir Edmund Hillary (who, along with Tenzing Norgay, became the first person to reach the summit of the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Everest, in 1953) and told reporters she had been named after the famed mountain climber. The notion that Ms. Clinton’s given name was inspired by the man who conquered Everest was almost certainly a bit of fiction invented for political expediency (as many critics have noted, Edmund Hillary didn’t become world-famous until six years after Hillary Rodham was born). (Source)
7. Hillary Clinton Lied about supporting NAFTA
On November 1, 1996, United Press International reported that on a trip to Brownsville, Texas, Clinton “touted the president’s support for the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying it would reap widespread benefits in the region.”
The Associated Press followed up the next day noting that Hillary Clinton touted the fact that “the president would continue to support economic growth in South Texas through initiatives such as the North American Free Trade Agreement.”
In her memoir, Clinton wrote, “Senator Dole was genuinely interested in health care reform but wanted to run for president in 1996. He couldn’t hand incumbent Bill Clinton any more legislative victories, particularly after Bill’s successes on the budget, the Brady bill and NAFTA.”
Yes, we are all expected to just forget that, so that Hillary Clinton’s campaign can manufacture supposed “outrage” that anyone would say she supported NAFTA – all at a time her chief strategist, Mark Penn, simultaneously heads a firm that is right now pushing to expand NAFTA into South America.
Penn was recently fired by both Columbia and the Clinton campaign. (Source)
8. Hillary Clinton Lied about her role in the passage of the Family and Medical Leave Act
Her campaign Web site boasts that her record includes “helping to pass the Family and Medical Leave Act.”
But the bill was pushed in Congress for years and passed twice, only to be vetoed by former President George H.W. Bush. Congress passed it a third time as Bill Clinton took office. He signed it into law on Feb. 5, 1993, barely two weeks after he became president.
Hillary Clinton’s own White House schedules, recently released, make no mention of any meetings on the bill. (Source)
9. Hillary Clinton Lied about her trip to Africa
Speaking in Pennsylvania two weeks ago, Clinton introduced former U.S. Ambassador Joe Wilson. “He and I did travel together to Africa and, sort of, paved the way for the president’s trip the following year, which was historic,” Clinton said.
But Wilson didn’t accompany Clinton on her March 1997 trip to Africa. Wilson did accompany both Clintons on the president’s 1998 Africa visit.
“She made a mistake on that,” Wilson said. “She misspoke on that. I worked closely with her and her staff on the president’s trip, which she went on.”
The Clinton administration official who accompanied Clinton on her 1997 trip was Susan Rice, who’s now a senior foreign policy adviser to the Obama campaign. (Source)
10. Hillary Clinton Lied about the “uninsured” woman who died after childbirth
Over the last five weeks, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York has featured in her campaign stump speeches the story of a health care horror: an uninsured pregnant woman who lost her baby and died herself after being denied care by an Ohio hospital because she could not come up with a $100 fee.
The woman, Trina Bachtel, did die last August, two weeks after her baby boy was stillborn at O’Bleness Memorial Hospital in Athens, Ohio. But hospital administrators said Friday that Ms. Bachtel was under the care of an obstetrics practice affiliated with the hospital, that she was never refused treatment and that she was, in fact, insured…
Linda M. Weiss, a spokeswoman for the not-for-profit hospital, said the Clinton campaign had never contacted the hospital to check the accuracy of the story, which Mrs. Clinton had first heard from a Meigs County, Ohio, sheriff’s deputy in late February 2008.
A Clinton spokesman, Mo Elleithee, said candidates would frequently retell stories relayed to them, vetting them when possible. “In this case, we did try but were not able to fully vet it,” Mr. Elleithee said. “If the hospital claims it did not happen that way, we respect that. (Source)
April 7, 2008, Clinton partly vindicated.
Clinton erred in telling audiences that the Ohio woman lacked insurance when seeking help for her troubled pregnancy. But according to Casto’s account, Bachtel’s medical tragedy began with circumstances very close to the essence of Clinton’s now-abandoned account: the lack of insurance created a $100 barrier to needed medical attention close to home. (Source)
Tomorrow is another day with a good chance of another lie.”
https://byteboy.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/list-of-ten-hillary-clinton-lies/
I agree Hillary is a mess, but Trump can’t count on that he is going to have to get his ego under control and show some discipline.
She handed him a perfect setup with the DNC scandal and he couldn’t convert into a slam dunk.
Trumpzilla is tripping over his own feet.
Hmm, you listed what, 10? Trump has been sued almost 2000 times for not paying people what he agreed to pay them. His 2000 lies that served his own greed, out weigh lies by someone accused of an endless scandals since she was, what, 25? Republicans have been calling her a liar forever. She is a human, so she is and does at times lie. We all do. It’s in human nature. This election comes down to who you feel safer having their finger on nuclear button. For me its Hillary.
Here’s 153 Treasons why Trump is not fit to be President……
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/07/donald_trump_is_unfit_to_be_president_here_are_141_reasons_why.html
This is why candidates are supposed to get briefings. Trump could simply ask questions when being briefed.
He should probably get some questions and some advisors ready.
i’d say his advisors are the problem. that and spreading himself too thin by trying to do his type A business dealings while also campaigning.
Hard to know just where to start, but try this for an appetizer:
“Clinton says she ‘misspoke’ about sniper fire”
‘Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for rival Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign, said the Bosnia claim was part of “a growing list of instances in which Sen. Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic policymaking.”
“I say a lot of things — millions of words a day — so if I misspoke, that was just a misstatement,” she said.
“I have been in the public eye for many, many years, and this is something that I think happens to anybody,”
“I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”
But news video footage of her arrival at Tuzla shows Clinton, then the first lady, calmly walking from the rear ramp of a U.S. Air Force plane with her daughter, Chelsea, then 16, at her side. Both Clintons held their heads up and did not appear rushed.
The video shows Clinton spending several minutes talking with the group, including an 8-year-old Bosnian girl who presented her with a poem, and later greeting U.S. troops.
Clinton has mentioned the sniper fire at least twice earlier in the campaign, including in December in Dubuque, Iowa, before the caucuses in that state.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/25/campaign.wrap/index.html
Your logical fallacy is: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/tu-quoque
“Hillary Clinton tried to answer questions about her emails. It didn’t go well.”
“Hillary Clinton has been dealing with questions about her decision to exclusively use a private email server while serving as secretary of state for much of the past 17 months. You would think that, in all of that time, she would have found a handful of workable answers to the inevitable questions that decision raises. She hasn’t.
The latest example came Friday in Washington when Clinton spoke and took questions at a gathering of the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists. When asked by NBC’s Kristen Welker to explain why she keeps saying that FBI Director James B. Comey said all of her statements had been “truthful” even though that isn’t what he said…”
“The Washington Post’s Fact Checker looked into Clinton’s claim and Comey’s words. Here’s what they found:
FBI Director James B. Comey did tell Congress: “We have no basis to conclude she lied to the FBI.” But lying to the FBI is a criminal act; it’s a rather low bar for truthfulness.
Clinton continues to twist this statement by Comey into a line that suggests the FBI declared that her public remarks on the email issues were truthful. But Comey repeatedly refused to confirm that when pressed by lawmakers: “That’s a question I’m not qualified to answer. I can speak about what she said to the FBI.”
The Fact Checker awarded Clinton Four Pinocchios for that line of logic.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/08/05/hillary-clinton-still-has-nothing-but-terrible-answers-on-her-email-problems/
Vicky Blvd:
Do you have some other hobbies? If not, perhaps you should consider water coloring, pottery, fishing, quilting, etc. There are hundreds of things you could get involved in.
Whoever Vicky is, I believe he/she thinks they will but and paste their way to intelligence someday.
She may have mistakenly picked up the airplane glue, which could explain why anyone would choose HRC over Trump, or, Trump over HRC.
Now that Iran has released video of ‘the cash’ do you wish to retract your slander against Trump? You journalists are nothing more than mouthpieces for the global banker cartel, intellectual prostitutes. I respect sewage cleaners more because they provide something of value to society while you degregate it.
Rethink your stuff, dude.
@Robert Mackey-“Just how ready to lead the country is a man who gets a lot of his information about world events from television reports he seems to have trouble understanding?”
Really? How many countries/cultures, “world event” locations does Trump conduct business and for how long? We, this includes me, put a person in the Oval Office that spent half his life on a small island in the middle of the freaking Pacific Ocean.
It sounds like your attacking the press for doing what the press is supposed to be doing, keeping us informed of “world events”?
Small potatoes, but when it comes to knowing Classified and Secret communications for SecofState for four years NationalSecurity and not using clintonemail.com for convenience, he is good. Where was the Pres? Doublecrossed too!
— Trump’s short attention span has given him “a stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.” —
If it was just Trump and a few of his fellows, ..
The sad reality is that a significant fraction of our voting populous has a “stunning level of superficial knowledge and plain ignorance.”
Just before the 2003 invasion, I found myself arguing with a Patriot tasked with the technically difficult job of keeping computer power and ethernet cables secured at nearby Navy facility, and sleeping rough in a US tax payer funded London apartment costing several thousand dollars a month.
To paraphrase part of my argument, I said W was as idiotic as the plan to destroy Iraq in revenge for a crime comitted by Saudis and Pakistanis. The pampered Patriot retorted “Bush is dumb” statements are immature. He went on to say, verbatim: “He knows something.”
Trump reminds me of W.
Patriots of 2016 remind me of Patriots of 2003.
One-sided coverage promoting Hillary Clinton and neoliberal elite propaganda lines is all we can expect from Mr. Mackey. For a more balanced perspective, he could take turns covering Clinton’s social media drivel as well as Trump’s social media drivel; that would be called journalism. For example:
http://heatst.com/politics/hillary-clinton-whiffs-on-digital-strategy-against-trump/
Furthermore, Hillary Clinton’s response to the Iranian nuclear deal was neocon Republican all the way, not much different from Trump’s:
In reality, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been the biggest state sponsors of terrorist groups, namely ISIS and the Al Nusra Front in Syria, which have also been supported by the CIA, Israel and Turkey as anti-Assad proxy forces from late 2011 onwards, as the highly dishonest Hillary Clinton surely knows.
Recall the Bush neocon agenda? First Iraq, then Syria, then Iran, i.e. the “Project for a New American Century?” Hillary Thatcher Clinton, aka Madam War Pig, is all set to pick that agenda up again, as her alliance with neocon Republicans clearly indicates.
Is that grainy b-roll video the one he kept saying was a “perfect” video and the one “obviously shot with government cameras”?
unfortunately Mackey is a bit as guilty here citing footage ofpalestinians that was broadcast on 9/11 but was shot in 1991 (http://www.snopes.com/rumors/cnn.asp) and which was discredited as having been provided by Israel to link Palestinians to the attack
What difference does it make? It was still ransom. The story is the ransom not who hacked the emails of you get my point. More playing stupid with the real story. Is that why you hired Greenwald? Cover to also be a center of WMD propaganda?
So when does the name change become official? The change from The Intercept to The Trump Gazette? Today’s issue has 4 Trump stories in the top 6 positions and more down below. Seriously, Glenn, what kind of rag are you trying to degenerate into here? I come to The Trump Gazette, er, The Intercept to be informed, not to be propagandized about Donald Trump. Get a grip. Get a life. Get back to meaningful stories and leave the yellow journalism to the NY Times and Washington Post.
This, good grief. Why hire a one-story reporter like Mackey to dish out articles on Donald Fucking Trump every week?
Leave it to the fake reporters. The Intercept deserves better.
He meets Ody’s standards.
“Seriously, Glenn, what kind of rag are you trying to degenerate into here? ”
It is the editor, Betsy Reed, who has turned TI into a tabloid.
From stories that attempt to parse Trump-isms to the correct usage of the word “rape”, The Intercept belongs in the super market.
I wish Glenn success with Intercept Brasil.