3) This line, which should be in every single story where Trump accuses off the record sources as being imaginary friends.
“Well, you’ve cited anonymous sources before,” I said. “Were they made up?”
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) October 10, 2018
… to journalistic ninja Olivia Nuzzi, who is young & attractive & must’ve seemed unthreatening. Should’ve checked her previous work, dudes!
NYMag really deserves all the kudos it’s gonna get for “My Private Oval Office Press Conference With Donald Trump, Mike Pence, John Kelly, and Mike Pompeo”…
Around 12:20 p.m. on Tuesday, I was on my way out of the White House after a series of meetings in the West Wing. I was reporting on a question that has hung over this administration for months: How has Chief of Staff John Kelly managed to keep his job in spite of convincing and persistent rumors and reports that the president is unhappy with him, and he is unhappy in his job? I stopped to talk to another reporter, and then I began to walk toward the North Gate. As I walked, I noticed I had a missed call from a Washington number I didn’t recognize. It was Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She sounded very serious. She asked me if I had left yet. When I said no, she asked me to come back inside, and when she greeted me, she looked very serious. She implied she wanted me to go with her behind a door. I didn’t understand, maybe didn’t quite hear her. Then, she told me Trump wanted to speak to me.
I walked to the Oval Office. I guessed that the president wanted to disabuse me of any notion that Kelly was about to be fired, or had almost been fired many times before. I was right, but my imagination was too limited. What ensued amounted to a private press conference — featuring a series of special guest stars from the highest echelon of the Trump administration — to try to get me to change my mind.
“I just heard that you were doing a story on … this stuff,” the president said as he came into the Oval Office and sat down at the Resolute Desk. I sat in a chair across from him. Next to me were Sanders and communications director Bill Shine.
“General Kelly’s doing a very good job,” Trump told me. “We have a very good relationship. The White House is running very, very smoothly. We’ve had a big week. We just got a Supreme Court justice on the bench. We have the USMCA, meaning the NAFTA replacement, and many other things. We had a great meeting with North Korea. It was a great meeting. The secretary of State’s coming just in ten minutes.”
He went on, “But I want to tell you a couple of things: the chief is doing a very good job. I’m very happy with him, we have a very good relationship, number one. Number two, I didn’t offer anybody else the job. I didn’t talk to anybody about the job. And I’m not, I’m not looking. Now, look, with time, do people leave? As an example, Nikki Haley told me six months ago, even a year ago — but six months ago, that, you know, she’s been governor, she’s done this, she’s helped us with the campaign, a lot of good things, and you probably saw the conference. It was a very, very positive thing. We have a very positive story going on at the White House. We have a very positive story for the country. We’re doing a great job. We have the greatest economy in the history of our country. We have among the greatest job numbers. Among many groups, we have the greatest job numbers. We have things going on that are phenomenal on trade. China wants to make a deal — I said, you’re not ready yet. But they wanna make a deal, and at some point we might. Iran wants to make a deal. They all wanna make a deal. We have great things going. We have a very smooth-running organization even though it’s never reported that way. So the real story is that. It’s really the real story. When you walk in here, you don’t see chaos. There is no chaos. The media likes to portray chaos. There’s no chaos. I’m leaving for Iowa in a little while. We’re doing something that’s going to be very exciting tonight in Iowa. A big, a big announcement, actually. Doing four rallies this week. I think the rallies have, frankly, built up our poll numbers very greatly. What am I now in Rasmussen? 52?”
The question was directed at Sanders, who confirmed the number. [Note: The Rasmussen poll had Trump at 51 percent.]
“Plus there’s 10 percent, they think, where people don’t respond, unfortunately. I’m not sure if this is nice or not nice, but when they don’t respond, that means it’s an automatic Trump vote. But it’s a 52,” Trump said, “and we’re doing very well in the polls. You see what’s happening with respect to the election, I mean, you know, to the midterms, even though — I know — historically, the president, you don’t tend to do so well in the midterms, but we have, this is a different presidency and this is the greatest economy ever. So, we’ll have to test that. But even the polls are saying that we have really come a long way in the last three weeks. I think we’re gonna do well. And that’s all I have to say. I want to just tell you that I’m very happy with General Kelly and I get along very well with him. We have a very good relationship. And if we didn’t, I wouldn’t stand for it for a minute, and he wouldn’t want it any other way. So it’s just a different narrative than what you were saying. And with that, you’re gonna have to write what you have to write, but the truth is, we have a really smooth-running White House and nothing and nobody has done more in their first two years as president. We’re not even up to the second year.”…
To repeat myself: If your grandpa started rambling like this in public, you’d take away his car keys and checkbook.
I spent most of this story terrified that Trump was going to wish @Olivianuzzi away into the cornfieldhttps://t.co/J4jAbK6b9w
— VeryHiddenGeniusHat (@Popehat) October 10, 2018
Cheryl Rofer
Good for her for recording it!
I still have an uneasy feeling that it’s a parody, although I have satisfied myself intellectually that it is real.
JPL
When I was in junior high, my mom found a romance magazine in my room. btw I’m old so it was pretty mild, and I’m sure that it was my sisters anyway. My mom made me read a few pages out loud to her, and let me tell you that was great literature than Trump’s word salad. In fact Sarah’s word salad is better than Trumps.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
This reminds me of that Twilight Zone reboot episode where there was sequel to It’s a Good Life. The ending had Billy and his daughter (horrifying in its implications) bring back the rest of the world and that was supposed to be a happy ending apparently. I don’t know what’s so happy or different about two ominoptent reality warpers terrorizing billions instead of a few dozen.
Anywho, yeah Trump isn’t mentally well and all of these MFs are enabling him.
Mike in NC
We had a conversation with our neighbors a short time ago about an elderly resident in our development who tried to move to the Los Angeles area last year, where she has a niece (only living relative). Apparently this niece was alarmed by the woman’s fragile mental condition and suggested she look into going into an assisted living community. In reaction, she departed in the middle of the night and somehow made her way back here. The other day she was found passed out in the parking lot of a local supermarket. Right now she seems to be under the daily care of her doctor and nurses. Just a very sad state of affairs.
Jeffro
Oh, who really cares about the latest instance that Trumpov is a liar, nuts, and stupid? We all know it; hell, half of his own supporters know it and don’t give a flying F.
Right now:
– the president* is an unindicted co-conspirator in campaign finance fraud
– the president* is part of a multi-generational tax avoidance scam
– the president* has his former campaign manager, business manager/adviser, national security adviser, and lawyer/fixer all talking with the Special Counsel
And best of all:
– the president* is about to get spanked on Nov 6th, and savvy rats like Nikki Haley have already abandoned ship to preserve their future viability. WHO. WILL. STAND. WITH TRUMPOV come Nov 7th? Ask THAT, national snooze media?!?
Ken Shabby
“To repeat myself: If your grandpa started rambling like this in public, you’d take away his car keys and checkbook.”
And, open a manhole cover on the walk back to the facility.
https://youtu.be/1cGAcqBb_tA
Ken Shabby
@Jeffro:
And, riding a majority in all three branches of gubmit.
Chris Johnson
Interesting that he can tell Kelly “I need you to leave” and Kelly just ignores it.
I mean, good in a sense. But definitely interesting.
Quietest junta ever! I wonder if they like elections. It’s gonna be up to them, not us.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Jeez, the guy is such a tragic loser. I’ve never seen anybody so desperate for praise. How can anybody live that way? It’s beyond belief.
SFAW
He seems nice.
Well, it’s not as if his bank account has a positive balance.
Jay
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KwXcZa3LfYY
The Insane Clown POSus footage of him boarding Air Farce 1 with toilet paper stuck to his shoe.
Schlemazel
Naturally the interview will get no attention because it displays hair furors decent into dementia. That and the girl was so rude as to ask him about quoting anonymous sources – THE NERVE!
Amir Khalid
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
I think one reason Trump goes around begging for praise is that he’s aware, however dimly, that he has no idea how to go about earning it.
debbie
@Amir Khalid:
He wasn’t raised to earn anything, only to take everything.
debbie
@Mike in NC:
That is very sad. And she’s all alone.
schrodingers_cat
I am tired of reading pieces that continue white washing Kelly, the child snatcher.
Starfish
@Jeffro: The issue is “How do you report on your interview with a known liar?” She gives us a good roadmap to that. A roadmap that other journalists have not followed up until this point.
Major Major Major Major
Yeeeeeeeeshh.
Amir Khalid
@debbie:
Also true.
SRW2
So Kelly is still in his job because his job is to fire people, which he uses to simply ignore any Trump order to fire Kelly?
Governing by catch 22?
Kay
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodingers_cat: Kelly should be court-maritaled as a disgrace to the Corps he was once part of. He’s utter scum.
Shana
@Mike in NC: Truly a sad state of affairs. Sounds like my dad, who decided he would never leave his house, largely because I think touring retirement communities with me made it clear to him how diminished he was, and also to hide his alcoholism. Then about 6 months after that he passed out, fell backwards down the stairs and seriously cracked his skull on the slate stair. He never really recovered consciousness and died about 10 days later.
Unfortunately I don’t know that there was anything we could have done to convince him he needed to move.
Adam L Silverman
@SRW2: it’s a very efficient system.
debbie
@Kay:
Glad the governor’s race is moving in the right direction
Major Major Major Major
@Kay: ah, lovely.
Kay
@debbie:
40 is really bad for him. He’s an incumbent.
I honestly do not know why he’s doing this. Have you watched the debates? He looks sad and defeated, like he can barely summon the energy to speak. He looks depressed.
There was a time in Mike DeWine’s career where he supported federal voting rights legislation. That’s how far he’s fallen. Now he’s reduced to telling humiliating lies claiming he didn’t sue on Obamacare. A lawsuit! Reams of paper that exist! He has to deny that. I’d be depressed too if I were him.
lahke
@Shana: My mother insisted that she was saving her pills to commit suicide rather than leave the house. My brother practically had to carry her to the assisted living place. And now her blood sugar is stable and she’s out of pain and people are making sure she’s eating right. She still mourns for the house, but we couldn’t let her go on like that.
wvng
@Cheryl Rofer: really, it seemed like it had to be satire. In any previous reality it would have been.
lamh36
Evening BJ.
Been thinking bout what I want to do for my birthday this year. I usually travel, but thanks to the 2 big international trips I took this year I have no time off, and to be quite honest, no money to travel in the style I have become accustomed to…i.e….I’m not broke, but I ain’t got the funds for a decent hotel anyway…LOL.
I know I’m planning to NOT be at work, but other than that…not much going on.
I do know that I’ll probably see the new Queen biopic, “Bohemian Rhapsody” since it comes out the weekend before my birthday…I’m really quite excited about it.
Hearing so far, mixed reviews, although reviews are embargoed until Oct 23 critics have already come out and said at the very least Remi Malek shines as Freddie Mercury…and good have an Oscar nom in his future becaus of it? Also too…I kinda want to hear the music and see the concert footage in IMAX…just have a feeling it would be EPIC…
Anyhoo…as the pole dance begins for the film (i.e. PR ratchets up), FOX has released a featurette called “Becoming Freddy Mercury” with Malek and producers talking about his transformation.
You can check that out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP0VHJYFOAU
And of course you can check out the trailer, if you’ve been living under a rock and somehow missed it til now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP0VHJYFOAU
feebog
Chris Hayes interviewing Nuzzi right now. Holy crap, it’s even worse than we ever imagined.
bluehill
Given the composition of the SC, it’ll be interesting to see if there are even more blatant attempts to suppress votes as well mislead voters in Nov. The penalties already seem to be pretty light if you are even caught and I imagine now that campaigns will worry even less about being caught.
The Lodger
If a reporter picks a phrase or sentence out of a conversation, then by implication that quote has been filtered because it’s true, because it proves a point, or maybe just because it’s interesting. Bias or no bias, that’s simply how reporting works. Just running the recorder, as Nuzzi did, gives the reader more permission to apply their own filters and make their own judgements about what a person is saying. If the reader judges that person is lying or not making sense, the reader has discovered it on their own instead of having to trust the reporter.
It gives a lot of people the opportunity to learn that unfiltered Trump can be hazardous to their health.
PJ
@Mike in NC: @lahke: @Shana: Giving up independence, even if they are practically dependent, is for some seniors the most terrifying thing, because not only does it mean that they have to give up their house and many possessions, and a large part of their daily routine will be out of their control, but they have to acknowledge their own mental or physical frailness.
waspuppet
And if your kid started talking like this, you’d tell them to get their @$$ back upstairs and do their homework.
debbie
@Kay:
I watched the highlights on the evening news. Almost more than I could take. DeWine used to be a “good” Republican. Most around here used to be. Sigh. Now, DeWine’s just an elf on the shelf, ready to be placed alongside little Jeff Sessions.
I wanted to ask you about Issue 1. What do you think about there not being any special provision in the wording regarding fentanyl? As the issue stands, someone could have enough fentanyl to kill hundreds of people and not need to worry about prison (unless someone’s died). The opponents are using this to blast the entire Issue.
JPL
@Kay: Good.
Kay
It is, and it’s just such a relief that people no longer pretend. If there’s a law that stops people from voting they will pass it, defend it, and their judges will uphold it. People have to use elaborate machinations to get AROUND them. They have to gather tens of thousands of signatures, draft their own voting laws and put them to referendum, hire private lawyers, file lawsuits – it’s incredible. Native americans in North Dakota have to go thru this whole pain in the ass process where they have to get a letter from the 911 address service because Republicans don’t want them to vote.
We allow these agents of the state- all incumbents- to work as hard as they can to STOP us from voting.
Chetan Murthy
@debbie: Reading the description on ballotpedia it does seem like this doesn’t go far enough to be useful. To follow along your path of reasoning, it doesn’t remove the incentive to traffic in fentanyl and derivatives. It seems like what needs to happen, is (as I’ve read it described) “medicalization” of drug addiction: provision of injection rooms and prescription of heroin and other drugs, along with provision of rehab and other programs to help people quit. Then no addict will want street opiates (b/c they can get them prescribed, and heck, the cost would drop thru the floor).
I guess what I’m saying is, as long as there are opiate addicts, there’ll be demand for opiates. If the supply is illicit (which this initative doesn’t address — distribution is still a felony) then distributors will still have incentives to (for instance) use fentanyl or carfentanil.
Ugh. A long time ago I was edging toward pro-decriminalization. At this point, it seems clear that we need to go much further. Fentanyl and its derivatives have had a big part to play in that, but really, it was already true before.
Dan B
@Cheryl Rofer: Haven’t received an email from you yet. ??
Gelfling 545
@PJ: I think it’s mainly that you have to acknowledge that death is coming, probably rather soon. That future no longer applies to you in any meaningful sense. That you are now just marking time and no longer have any meaningful rôle to play. It’s distressing and while I hope I’ll go quietly when the need presents itself to make it easier on my children, the probability is that I’ll be resistant.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: They are fucking horrible even the sainted John Roberts. The Supreme Court has been in the R corner since it installed W as the President.
trollhattan
My CA ballot arrived today–am now weaponized.
Time to plow through the initiatives, luckily not so many this go. And how about that school board? (Must sniff out charteristas, I guess.)
Ferd ofthe Nort
Trump has a list and it goes to 11 !!!
(… is his middle name Nigel?)
Kay
@debbie:
I think that’s wrong. There’s possession and then there’s possession with intent to distribute – it’s complicated but intent to distribute is inferred from the amount. There is not a chance in hell that will happen, that “tons” of a controlled substance will be charged as “possession”. If that were true they would be doing it now. They have a whole arsenal of charges. They don’t lack for drug charges. Cordray doesn’t argue the point (although he could, and better than I can) because he thinks it’s politically fraught so he (wisely) leaves it alone because he doesn’t want to get bogged down arguing the statutory definition of “possession” with Mike DeWine. No one would listen anyway.
They will probably succeed in scaring people with that, but I don’t care that much if “Issue One” (in it’s current form) passes- something is going to pass and that something is going to reduce penalties for lower level drug offenses because the time has just come for that. They have too many people in prison and they are in for too long. It’s a disaster and it’s expensive. They want to fix it.
B.B.A.
Just checked my sample ballot. I didn’t realize that my incumbent D state senator has the now-unfortunate name of Brian Kavanagh. If a very blue district of lower Manhattan and a few bits of Brooklyn ends up putting a GrOPer in the NYS senate, that’s why.
Mike in NC
@Kay: A few years ago we had a local wingnut columnist (!) who complained that Obama didn’t understand the “tenants of capitalism”. So I wrote to the goddamn newspaper and asked if she was actually referring to the “tenets of capitalism”. They tried to excuse away her pathetic ignorance, which seems to be pretty common here in the south, with so many people being poorly educated.
AliceBlue
@lahke: Five years ago at age 92, my mom had to move into an assisted living community. I knew that giving up her house was going to be difficult, but I was unprepared for the near emotional breakdown she had. She eventually adjusted somewhat, but she mourned that house like it was a dead child until she died this past July.
Eljai
I’m not loving the Olivia Nuzzi piece. I’m not sure how to articulate my frustration though. On the one hand, it’s better to record Trump’s insane rants verbatim than the whitewashing, normalization that permeates so much castle intrigue reporting. But this is not new. His unfitness was on open display during the 2016 campaign. He rambles and he lies. We know this. Will this change anything? Maybe I just wish we had a modern day Edward R. Murrow who would turn toward the camera and say, “Wake the fuck up, America. You put a lying sociopath in the White House. This doesn’t end well.” In the meantime, I’ll just keep up my volunteer efforts to take back Congress. Getting a check on this asshole’s power is our best chance to turn things around.
Gozer
I read that and now my brain hurts. And now I need a drink.
Kay
@Eljai:
I’m not a huge fan. I’m just not suited to what I see as ultra-savvy, jokey coverage of the President. I actually prefer earnest reporters- people who treat it like a trade.
It feels exclusive to me- excluding the public rather than including them. There was A LOT of it covering Clinton which is when I turned on it. I got so tired of the snark and how sharp-edged and clever it all was.
Eljai
@Kay: Yes! I prefer earnest reporters myself. I think that is why the article made me feel uneasy.
artem1s
@Kay:
thank jeebus, I’ve been terrified to look at the polling in Ohio. It would really suck to lose Brown, but DeWine is every bit as horrid as Pence or any of the other deplorables. He is personally responsible for same sex marriage becoming the law of the land. Not because he supports it but because he was toad who refused to let a loving husband have his name included as the surviving spouse on his husband’s death certificate. He is a vile, smug pig.
debbie
@Kay:
Thanks. You’re right. Something needs to pass.
PJ
@Kay: Style and tone are important to any kind of writing, but in journalism they should not override relevant facts. Olivia Nuzzi’s audience is not the public, which needs factual information in order to be able to make political or personal decisions, but other reporters and the twitterati.
laura
@trollhattan: Leticia Garcia! She gets all the school board votes in this house. Our ballots arrived too.
Lamh36, birthday wishes. Go see the Freddie Pic, it’s got to be good.
Shana
@lahke: Good for your sibling. I had a difficult relationship with my father and lived halfway across the country so it was hard.
Shana
@AliceBlue: So sorry. I know how hard that can be.
Kay
@artem1s:
I’m a big fan of Cordray. I once wrote him a nice letter. Hand written! I never write personal letters. It was sort of stiff, really- past “good job” I had nothing else to say but I felt the effort was important.
It’s nice to see Sherrod so far ahead. It really doesn;t get any better than him in the senator category.
The governor’s race will be close so don;t get too optimistic. The jerks who are claiming they’re independents are always Republicans, so they’ll be DeWine.
Steeplejack
@Eljai:
Some aspects of it bugged me, too. It’s snarky access journalism, but it’s still access journalism, which is the bane of the age.
Amir Khalid
@lamh36:
Queen still tour. I wonder if Dr May is thinking about inviting Rami Malek to join the band..
Bill Arnold
This might be worth a look:
Richard Pinedo becomes third person sentenced in Mueller probe – A cooperating witness in the Mueller probe, Pinedo schemed to sell fake online identities used by the 13 Russians indicted for 2016 election interferenc
Cheryl Rofer
@Dan B: I just sent one. Try your trash folder.
GregB
I hope the Saudi Arabian treatment of Kashoggi is finally shaking the scales from the medias’ eyes.
This is what amoral authoritarians do.
The children in cages, the forgotten citizens of Puerto Rico. Now Jared’s little dictator buddy is having reporters vivisected.
These ugly monsters are marching all over the world and they always demand human sacrifices.
Ruckus
@Eljai:
Not everyone is a tuned in as most of us here are. Some only get their news from TV and/or the local newspaper. We are political junkies, not everyone is. And even among political junkies, if you listened only to the propaganda side, you are going to get a much different viewpoint. The fact that so many are tuned in to how bad the shitgibbon is actually amazes me. But actual reporting, using his own words, is part of the job of informing everyone, is very necessary. Three million more of us knew he was shit on that disaster of an November day. Now even more know that not only is he shit but it’s becoming obvious to all but the utter assholes that he is not only that but senile as well.
Every little bit helps. Even if it’s self serving to have gotten the interview. She still got it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Mike in NC:
You are being a pendant.
Ken
I thought for a minute this was going to be like the Michael Wolff story. “I wandered into the Oval Office. Three of the four men seated there all glanced at me, then at Trump, but when he didn’t react they continued discussing classified information in front of me.”
Eljai
@Ruckus: If it helps to reach reasonable people who are not normally news junkies, then it could serve a purpose. Still not a fan of this kind of reporting, but you raise a good point.
J R in WV
I’m having a really hard time commenting on the political news… Rand Paul worrying that someone WILL BE killed??? give me a fking break!!! So far one Republican has been wounded at their baseball practice, dozens of ordinary people have been killed or wounded all over the country on the Democratic side.
I tend now to get violent and rant on about the Russo-Republicans if I’m not really careful, and I don’t want to do that. I’m a peace loving gentle person, have always been. But the political climate now tips me away from that side of me. Which I hate. So I just don’t comment very often.
I’m going to vote for Joe Manchin in November. I’m also going to keep working for Richard Ojeda for US Congress, and vote for him, even though he dumps hard on Nancy Pelosi in a recent commercial. He’s not a rich Republican, and his hostile demeanor is a result of years of military leadership training, not his natural personality.
But it’s hard to face those decisions, and I really don’t want to talk about them. Talking on the phone working for Ojeda is really really hard. I actually told a Trump supporter while phone banking at the end of the short conversation “Well, you know, you can either vote D for Democracy, or R for Russia!” and hung up. No harm done, he was never going to vote for any Democrat, and it’s the truth as well. But hard for me to be so asssertive, even when it’s clearly true and what I believe.
I have thought about going somewhere the vote will be close to work, where the politics are less toxic than they are here, and them I realized that they’re toxic everywhere right now.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bill Arnold: He shouldn’t be so sure that Stone or some other Rethug operative will hesitate to arrange an “accident” for him.
Citizen Alan
@schrodingers_cat:
For a liberal, the history of the Supreme Court since 1968 has been one long, miserable parade of tragedies and missed opportunities. Stop for a moment, and think about where we would be today if Thurgood Marshall had lived but one more year. Bill Clinton would replace him, most likely with a black Justice who would easily be the most liberal person on the court. Bush V Gore would have gone the other way. Just imagine every 5-4 conservative opinion for the last quarter century going the other way.