This bears repeating.
And then there are the useful idiots who repeat the lie.
- Chocolate rations are reduced to 20g/week but the government puts out an announcement that they are being increased to 20. Or something like that.
Yes, remember when we used to refer to “an Orwellian future” as a bad thing instead of as a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . reality? Perhaps the greatest strength of the Trump administration was their ability to announce things with a special, positive spin. Not a believable spin mind you, but one ideally suited to reflect well on them. "My fellow Americans, our administration has been so productive that we have reduced the number of work hours for most of you to . . . let’s see, zero hours of work. We will be announcing employment numbers next . . . . .oh my . . . . . .year.
It occurs to me that I should have said “something to the effect of…”
He also hurt his supporters who were federal workers during the government shutdown early on. Which brought us this quote from one of them:
Yeah, sometimes he hurts his own people but it’s ok since they know he’s trying his best to hurt the people they hate.
Not in response to anyone in particular, I find two things worth mentioning about some of the disputes.
First, the lunge with intent to steer. There has been some discussion about the logistical difficulty of driving in this manner. Fair enough. But that does not prevent the lunge itself. Anyone who has ever tried to catch something that fell unexpected has reached for something they were never going to touch. I have tried to grab the moon. Et cetera. The point being, you can make the motion despite zero chance of success. So did Trump jam his tiny hands up past the cupholders but nowhere near the actual wheel? That is definitely possible. And when it comes to the Secret Service, they are not going to allow a hostile actor (even the President himself) to perform an action on the assumption that it will fail. Now why did they tell him to take his hands off the wheel if he wasn’t actually touching it? Because they knew what he was trying to do and in the sheer WTF of the moment they misspoke. Otherwise it is also possibly that Hutchinson is relaying the story as it was told to her but as with any game of telephone, the exact phrase to tell Trump to get his tiny, filthy hands the fuck back got edited to “off the wheel” without anyone having malicious intent about how this would come out in an investigation later.
As for Oronato disputing the testimony, the Secret Service lies all the time to protect the President. It is not a bug, it is a feature. It’s literally part of the job and they talked about how one aspect of that works (announced versus unannounced movements). Was the President in a particular place at a particular time doing a particular thing? They are not going to give honest answers to these questions, now or ever. If you were to ask a Secret Service agent about Obama going out on the balcony to sneak a smoke they would lie to you even if you were talking to the agent who handed him the lighter and who hid the butt. Because on the one hand you could be asking just as gossip (which I am sure they take a dim view of in general) but on the other hand you could be asking about his location-based habits for nefarious reasons. Now would they lie under oath? Only time will tell but it would not surprise me.
If they talked to the dining room valet earlier, maybe they didn’t know about the tantrums. After four years of cleaning up after the big baby, maybe he’d be willing to corroborate CH’s testimony. trump’s denials would emphasize what a lying asshole he is, for those who haven’t been paying attention.
Someone not paying attention might think his denials are genuine. As soon as the rest of us heard from trump that she was an extremely low level staff member that he had never heard of, we knew she was probably telling the truth. When I heard that comment, my initial thought was that it seemed odd for such a low-level staff member to have such intimate knowledge of everything going on. She was clearly more than just a random intern that happened to be in the room during a discussion between some higher ups.
But then I thought it was odd that, at least to trump, her ‘level’ played some role in how truthful she is. As if someone lower on the staff totem pole is, almost by definition, not trustworthy. Like he can’t fathom that someone of no importance (to him) can still tell the truth.
OTOH, maybe that’s exactly what he thinks. Another thing I’ve found strange during his presidency is the amount times these types of stories have either been leaked to the press by, or corroborated by, people that you’d think a president wouldn’t do stupid shit in front of. Wouldn’t you think a president, while actively and knowingly fabricating an entirely BS story (for any reason) might want to clear any and all people out of the room that aren’t necessary to be in there?
I think he truly, genuinely doesn’t understand that other people have integrity. I think, throughout his life he’s become so committed to saying whatever he needs to say to get what he wants (and lets be honest, it seems to work out for him a lot more often than it should) and thinks that he’s this master gaslighter, that he doesn’t realize that most people don’t do the same thing. His, almost robotic, ability to throw people under the bus without a second through probably helps with this as well.
Yup. And it goes beyond believing his own lies. He doesn’t realize he’s lying. Doesn’t matter to him. Many people excuse themselves by saying “everyone does it, I might as well do it too” I don’t think Trump has that, or any introspection.
That very thing is why rulers in (I was going to say less informed times - let’s amend that to) ancient, barbaric times when women and armies were property like chattel, used exclusively eunuchs to watch over the harem and deaf mutes as stewards and attendants. Had he gained another term by any means- legitimate or not, he would have had only very devoted yes men and/or women and deaf stewards who can not relate ketchup tossing stories.
He does. He considers them suckers to take advantage of.
tanTrump must go to jail so we have a synonym for orwellian but with a happy ending. We need this word.
Bottomline, if she was making this all up, there should be no shortage of folk lining up to say just that under oath.
Oronato isn’t very credible, the Washington Post did a write up of him just this week that highlights a few weird things. For one, he wasn’t just a Secret Service agent, he held that job while also holding a political staff job on Trump’s staff, this was a very unusual arrangement, but given Trump’s administration frequently staffed the White House with unqualified or questionable people who ignored various Federal laws this should not be surprising. The Post also noted Oronato has a history of “debunking” claims made against Trump, even when there is pretty good evidence that he’s…lying his ass off.
The big thing about Hutchinson’s testimony for me is she’s pretty clearly mostly talking about things relayed to her as hearsay (which is fine, Congressional committees are not bound by the hearsay rule that courts are), so she isn’t necessarily asserting X crazy thing most of the time, she’s saying she was “told something to the effect of X by Y.” Now if she is clearly making up what people told her that would be problematic, but there is no solid evidence of that thus presented. FWIW to give Trump a bit of benefit of the doubt (of which he is totally undeserving), it is entirely possible that his otherwise loyal aides, in a bitch session, exaggerated or even fabricated claims about him. Akin to how anyone might bitch about a disliked boss (Trump was infamously unpleasant to work for, even by people who supported his politics and overall Presidency.) So it’s entirely possible Hutchinson was told things by aides who were with Trump, that themselves weren’t being truthful, and they would be loath to admit they were lying about their boss behind his back in a private conversation since all of these aides continue to have aspirations of careers in GOP politics.
It’s not just you. I’ve seen those stills and a video and it’s all a blur to me.
I think that she was very persuasive but in this instance she was relating what someone else told her so at best she could be telling the truth about what she was told.
Regarding her referring to “the beast”, she may have incorrectly assumed that he was in the limo.
I wonder if they call any official vehicle the President is in “the beast” just as Air Force One can be one of several planes.
A local conservative radio show was talking about Hutchinson’s testimony. A caller concluded that, since someone in the Secret Service denied that Trump tried to grab the wheel (or anything like it), Hutchison is a liar and nothing she said should be considered anything other than a lie. She is a disgruntled ex-employee and nothing more. Case closed. Naturally, the host agreed.
I don’t think that there is any way to combat that level of ignorance. The best you can hope for is to convince people to come out and vote in spite of obstacles thrown in front of them by Republicans. That and prosecutors at all levels who have the courage to charge.
Oh, sure, blame it all on the robots.
Well, yeah, but have you seen that robot’s arm?
Another way is other personnel reporting the same thing.