The Washington Post has been relentless in their treatment of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump over the past few days, and with good reason. I wonder, though, if Trump even reads what’s written about him, or if his name in print is good enough for a retweet.
‘Greatest Trick He’s Ever Pulled’
The Washington Post wrote about Trump’s event on Friday, September 16, in which he made the outrageous statement that Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton was actually the one who started the birther movement. Birtherism – the racist vendetta against President Barack Obama, claiming he was not born in the United States – was most decidedly NOT started by Clinton.
The Washington Post stated, unequivocally:
“Trump’s assertions about Clinton’s role in the birther movement are wrong. His simple statement that Obama was born in the United States directly contradicts myriad statements he has made questioning the president’s birthplace over the past five years.”
That’s not why Trump retweeted the article, though.
The Post also called the event Trump’s “crowning achievement.” They called it “peak Trump.” Trump needed nothing more than that.
The fact that they also called him out on his lies, called it a “nothing-burger filled with falsehoods,” and said it was a “low moment in politics and political coverage?” None of that matters to the Republican nominee. It certainly doesn’t matter to his supporters, who follow him blindly.
"Donald Trump’s birther event is the greatest trick he’s ever pulled"https://t.co/zvVQnxeiQ9
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 17, 2016
Twitter user @SiddharthShiva sums it up perfectly:
He didn't even try to read it…or he's proud of himself anyway. Can't say what's worse.
— Siddharth Shiva (@SiddharthShiva) September 17, 2016
Trump said, at the event,
“Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy. I finished it. President Obama was born in the United States. Period.”
That is, literally, all he said. Yet the event itself tied up the media for well over an hour.
Oh, and lest we forget this now deleted tweet:
The Coverage Is Part Of The Problem
If there’s one thing Trump knows, it’s how to garner media attention. I admit my own hand in some of it – I’ve written around 70 articles for Liberal America in the past six weeks, and I would guess that 85 percent of them are about or at least mention Trump. We’re all guilty. I, however, don’t have the platform of a major news outlet.
The Post said:
“The most amazing thing was that it took the Republican nominee 29 minutes to deliver those three sentences. The event was slated to start at 10 a.m. Eastern time. It wasn’t until 11 a.m. that it actually began — with Trump touting his new hotel and proclaiming that it is likely to be one of the best in the world. He then ceded the stage to a parade of decorated military veterans who testified to his toughness, his judgment and his temperament.
Cable networks seemed to not know what to do. All three of them — MSNBC, Fox News and CNN — stayed with the generals’ testimonials for the better part of 20 minutes. That’s a remarkable amount of free cable time to dedicate to a series of surrogates testifying how great one of the two party nominees is.”
And that is the problem. Trump does not deserve all the free press that he gets. But he is a pro at hyping events and drawing the press in.
When was the last time CNN covered a full Clinton event with multiple surrogate speakers? This is unreal.
— Guy Cecil (@guycecil) September 16, 2016
The Post said the event was “peak Trump.” That was not a compliment. Of course, we all know that facts do not matter to Trump. The man who loves the “poorly educated” knows that if he just retweets the article, his followers won’t actually read it. They’ll read the headline, and nothing more.
Watch Trump lie here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_CC2c-9IKw
Featured Image via screen capture from Washington Post video
