The latest White House shenanigans.
First Sanders claimed that reporter Acosta “put his hands on a young woman.” This lie was ridiculous enough because the press conference was filmed, but then she doubled down by issuing a fake video produced by Infowars to support her claim.
It doesn’t seem to me that Sanders would have either told the lie or presented the crudely edited video on her own authority. Not because she lacks the initiative, but because she’s not totally stupid.
Oh, I just realized that Sean Spicer claimed the 2017 inaugural crowd size was larger than the one in 2009, when evidence clearly demonstrated the contrary, and he’s not stupid either.
I can’t imagine who could have been behind these obvious and foolish lies. Only a complete idiot would have made the decision to do this.
Oh, never mind.
It’s disturbing that Trump apologists don’t care that obviously doctored video was released by the White House.
I like how this has become the Zepruder film of our time
When we sit here and play NFL review booth about the microphone, we miss the point. Acosta asked Trump questions he’d rather not answer. He got banned for that. It wasn’t “the tone”, it wasn’t the arm-touching (which obviously, from the replay was incidental contact; he clearly got both feet in-bounds).
He drew back on the mic arm and pushed her arm with his other arm. He did it. His left arm hit her left arm.
What happened is that his left hand touched her arm, but that was obviously unintentional. At no point did he intend that, and at no point did he PUT his hand on her. He was gesturing with the left hand, and she happened to stick her arm right there to grab the mike. That was obvious in the real video. The fake makes it look like he put his hand on her – because it was faked for just that purpose. That’s the purpose of lies – to make them seem like the truth.
Nobody tells a lie knowing that it will seem to everyone like an obvious lie.
Well, ALMOST nobody.
I can think of one exception. Somebody who never gives a thought to whether his lies are credible or not.
The way Trump speaks about the media is indefensible. But I believe reporters still have a responsibility to at least attempt to be impartial. Jim Acosta’s behavior was extremely inappropriate, and not because he may or may not have brushed up against the arm of the woman trying to take the microphone away from him. From what I saw Acosta asked at least 3 questions and then decided to argue with the president rather than allow other reporters to ask questions. That was rude and unprofessional. But worst of all it makes it easier for Trump to argue the media is against him and easier for him to defend his atrocious behavior. Of course getting into an argument likes that makes Acosta a hero to the Resistance. But he is supposed to be a straight reporter not an opinion personality. Reporters acting like Acosta acted make it more likely that Trump may be able to pull off a reelection victory by arguing that people just can’t trust the biased mainstream media. The media can’t fight that narrative by proving it’s accurate.
I am going to defend Sanders here.
Looking at both versions, it appears that Acosta briefly placed his hand on top of the intern’s hand just before she let go of the mic. The doctoring seems to focus on Acosta’s hand making contact with the intern’s bicep; but even in the doctored version, the supposed “chop” appears unintentional. Acosta may not have realized intern’s arm was where it was.
The intern (in turn) grabbed the mic, pulling it towards herself, then Acosta put his left hand on the mic to try and regain control of it. Acosta must have known the intern’s hand was on the mic because he felt her pulling on it. It’s unclear in the video if he made contact with the back of her hand, but the fact that she immediately let go suggests he did.
In both versions of the video, it appears that Acosta knowingly touched the intern’s hand while she was trying to take the mic from him. It may be disingenuous of Sanders to frame this brief incidental contact as “put[ing] his hands on a young woman,” but I wouldn’t call it a lie.
Of all the horrible things he has done and will do, just. That fucking face. Having to see it on the news.
Gotta admit, though – Cruz would have been worse.