Here are my observations and opinions on some items in the news.
THE ANTI-TRUMP MEDIA – NBC was so anxious to broadcast news of a supposed wire-tapping of the president’s attorney Michael Cohen that they failed to thoroughly check it out; deciding instead to go with two untrustworthy sources. They had to walk it back. ABC allowed themselves to be taken-in by the “fake news.” Fox News Channel reported the NBC report, but clearly stated the wire-tapping was unsubstantiated.
MEANWHILE IN VIRGINIA, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III grilled the special counsel’s team for nearly an hour, questioning their “unfettered power” to prosecute and their desire to “tighten the screws” on former Trump Campaign Manager Paul Manafort.
“You don’t really care about Mr. Manafort,” Ellis told the Mueller team, “you really care about what information Mr. Manafort can give you to lead you to Mr. Trump and an impeachment or whatever.”
He demanded to see an unredacted scope of the investigation before proceeding.
THE LEFT is claiming that Cohen’s $130,000 payment to Stephanie Clifford may have been a violation of campaign finance law. “The question of whether the payment was meant to aid Trump’s candidacy is central to campaign finance considerations – it’s hard to argue that his payment wasn’t related to the campaign,” said the left-leaning Washington Post.
A REMINDER – If the concern over the $130,000 payment is a campaign finance issue, let’s recall that President Obama paid one of the largest fees ever levied against a presidential campaign – $375,000 – when 1,300 contributions totaling more than $1.8 million were at issue. The Obama campaign was also late in returning some contributions that exceeded the legal limit.
THE LEFT-LEANING USA TODAY showed their bias against President Trump again when they published a story regarding the possible release of three U.S. prisoners by North Korea.
Rather than credit the president’s effort to encourage their release, USA Today’s headline read, “Trump would not be first to get prisoners released.”
YOU CAN TAKE THIS TO THE BANK – If President Trump doesn’t negotiate the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula when he meets with Kim Jung Un, you can expect the media to label it “an absolute failure by our reality TV president.”
I can write their headline” “Trump Fails in Korea Talks, So Much for the Art of the Deal.”
Don’t think for a moment that they are hoping for his success.
HE DOESN’T GET IT – former ambassador and Governor of New Mexico Bill Richardson, who was used to negotiate prisoner releases in North Korea for the Clinton administration, doesn’t like the President Trump’s daily tweets about his up-coming meeting with Kim Jung Un.
Richardson said he would like to see a return to “traditional diplomacy.” Like that approach was so successful over the past 50 years.
He also thought it was necessary to caution the president about North Korean trickery. Announcing their willingness to meet on the denuclearization of the peninsula, crossing the DMZ to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, hinting the release of prisoners, all too good to imagine.
Did Richardson actually believe he needed to offer this advice to the president? Yes, he’s new to this, but “traditional diplomacy” has gotten us nowhere. And he will have at least two experienced men at this side – Mike Pompeo and John Bolton.
STEPHEN HAYES of the Weekly Standard and others were livid when the president referred to Kim Jung Un as “honorable.” President Trump said this in regard to Kim’s being open to a meeting and following through with the plans.
“(Kim Jung Un) has been very open and I think very honorable on what we have being seeing.”
Yes, words mean things, but surely Hayes understands that a little praise on an historic occasion as this cannot hurt. I hope Hayes doesn’t think the president is so naïve that he isn’t aware of the North Korean’s known cruelty.
