Category: Unpresidential

Trump Tries to Undercut New York Times Article by Lying

At a rally in West Palm Beach, Florida, Donald J. Trump went on a raving tear about the media, telling the crowd the press will say any lie in order to keep Hillary Clinton in power.

As his evidence he cited a The New York Times article published back in May with the headline “Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private” where the authors conducted more than 50 interviews over the course of six weeks.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/15/us/politics/donald-trump-women.html)

In his speech, Trump claimed that one of the women featured in the article, Rowanne Brewer Lane, recanted her story which undercut the rest of the evidence.

However Brewer Lane, who was interviewed for this story by Fox and Friends, only disputed the Times’ framing of her account, never the facts of the events.

“Actually, it was very upsetting. I was not happy to read it at all,” Brewer Lane said. “Well, because The New York Times told us several times that they would make sure that my story that I was telling came across. They promised several times that they would do it accurately. They told me several times and my manager several times that it would not be a hit piece and that my story would come across the way that I was telling it and honestly, and it absolutely was not.”

But when asked what the reporters got wrong, Brewer Lane said they took her quotes and “put a negative connotation on it.”

Even though Brewer Lane never disputed the facts of the article, The New York Times story is just not Rowanne Brewer Lane’s account of Trump in the 1990’s but the experience of 50 women who were interviewed for the article. If we can discount Brewer Lane’s story then that still leaves 49 women, 11 who were named, who had the same experience of misogyny from Donald Trump.

Donald Trump lied.

Reality

Unless Donald Trump can prove that the remaining 49 subjects were also misrepresented, it is incorrect of him to declare the story was “proven false.”

And this does not cover the sexist comments made by Trump since announcing his campaign. Just a few examples include:

Trump Threatens to Sue New York Times Over Groping Story, Times Dares Him To

Donald Trump is threatening to sue The New York Times for defamation in response to a Times article published Wednesday night that quoted two women who accused Trump of kissing and groping them without their consent.

Times reporter Megan Twohey wrote in the article that when she asked Trump on Tuesday night to comment on the allegations, he called her “a disgusting human being,” accused the Times of making up the story and said that he would sue the paper if it ran the story.

Then on Wednesday, one of Trump’s lawyers sent a formal letter to the Times threatening a lawsuit if it published the story, according to CNN’s Brian Stelter.

Shortly after midnight on Thursday, the Trump campaign emailed reporters a letter that a lawyer representing Trump had sent to Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet.

The Times is standing by its story.

“I think it is pretty evident this story falls clearly in the realm of public service journalism, and discussing issues that arose from the tape and his comments since it surfaced,” Times editor Dean Baquet told Stelter.

Trump has threatened legal action against the Times and other news organizations before. Two weeks ago, his lawyer Marc Kasowitz threatened to sue the paper for invasion of privacy after it published excerpts from his tax returns. Trump subsequently talked up the potential for a suit in rallies and appearances, finally saying he wouldn’t do it yet but was keeping an eye on the newspaper’s coverage of him.

On Wednesday night, The Palm Beach Post and Yahoo News reported on additional allegations of sexual harassment against Trump. The Palm Beach Post interviewed Mindy McGillivray, who said that Trump groped her at his Mar-a-Lago estate 10 years ago. Yahoo quoted a Facebook comment from Cassandra Searles, Miss Washington 2013 in Trump’s Miss Universe pageant, who wrote that Trump had grabbed her and invited her to his hotel room.

Trump has denied both allegations. Post publisher Tim Burke told POLITICO that he’s not aware of the paper receiving any legal threats from Trump or his campaign.

(h/t Politico)

Reality

The Times responded Thursday with a letter daring Trump to go through with a lawsuit.

Trump Claims People Magazine Reporter Not Attractive Enough to Sexually Assault

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump lashed out Thursday at new reports that he has sexually assaulted multiple women over the years, even attacking the physical appearance of one of his accusers.

In 2005, People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff went to Mar-a-Lago to interview Trump and his wife, Melania, for a story on their first anniversary. Before Melania arrived, however, Trump took Stoynoff into a room alone.

“I turned around, and within seconds he was pushing me against the wall and forcing his tongue down my throat,” Stoynoff wrote on Wednesday.

She said Trump also told her, “You know we’re going to have an affair, don’t you?”

At his rally on Thursday, Trump questioned Stoynoff’s claims, arguing that she wasn’t credible because she didn’t come forward sooner. He also implied that he wouldn’t have been interested in sexually assaulting her anyway because of the way she looks:

Why wasn’t it part of the story that appeared 20, or 12, years ago? … I was one of the biggest stars on television with “The Apprentice,” and it would have been one of the biggest stories of the year. Think of it. She’s doing this story on Melania, who’s pregnant at the time, and Donald Trump. Our one-year anniversary. And she said I made inappropriate advances.

And by the way, the area was a public area. People all over the place. Take a look. You take a look. Look at her. Look at her words. You tell me what you think. I don’t think so. I don’t think so.

(h/t Huffington Post)

Response

PEOPLE stands by Stoynoff’s story of being assaulted by Trump in 2005 while on assignment for the magazine.

The following is a statement by PEOPLE Editor in Chief Jess Cagle:

We are grateful to Natasha Stoynoff for telling her story. Ms. Stoynoff is a remarkable, ethical, honest and patriotic woman, and she has shared her story of being physically attacked by Donald Trump in 2005 because she felt it was her duty to make the public aware.

To assign any other motive is a disgusting, pathetic attempt to victimize her again. We stand steadfastly by her, and are proud to publish her clear, credible account of what happened.

It is heartbreaking that her fear of retaliation by Trump kept her from reporting the incident when it happened. She has carried this secret for more than a decade, and we hope that by coming forward now she is relieved of that burden.

Reality

All of this stems from a leaked 2005 video where Donald Trump bragged about sexual assaulting women.

While ultimately these are all allegations, the hypocrisy of Trump is to dismiss his allegations while say Bill Clinton’s alleged sexual assault victims deserve to be heard.

Media

Trump’s comments are at the 17:30 minute mark:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3hJjWTLRB0

Giuliani Lies Clinton Didn’t Visit Ground Zero After 9/11

Former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani accused Hillary Clinton of failing to honor the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that took down the World Trade Center, incorrectly suggesting at one point that she lied about visiting Ground Zero in the aftermath.

“Don’t tell me, if you said that, that you remember September 11, 2001. I remember September 11, 2001,” Giuliani said during a Donald Trump campaign rally here in Florida. “Yes, you helped to get benefits for the people who were injured one day. But I heard her say she was there that day. I was there that day, I don’t remember seeing Hillary Clinton there.”

While Clinton was not in New York on Sept. 11, she flew there on Sept. 12, in one of the few airplanes allowed to travel after the attacks. Pictures of Giuliani and Clinton inspecting the destruction together are widely available.

Clinton, who was a U.S. senator from New York at the time of 9/11, was in the District that day. The Pentagon was also attacked, and security officials feared the Capitol could also be targeted. Clinton flew to New York with fellow Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) soon after the attacks.

She describes that scene in detail in her book, “Hard Choices,” and refers to the “long sleepless night in Washington” before flying to New York on Sept. 12. She does not appear to have said publicly at any point that she was in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001.

She most recently described her experience in the aftermath of 9/11 during an interview with CNN last month in which she detailed finding out about the attack that day as she was en route to the Capitol.

“There weren’t that many survivors; the ones that did survive were grievously injured. The loss of life was overwhelming,” Clinton told CNN during the interview. “But it was also my job and the job of other officials to get our city and state and country what we needed.”

Earlier this year, Trump praised Clinton’s efforts after the attacks, saying in July she was “enormously supportive and enormously helpful.”

Giuliani has become a regular presence on the campaign trail and is an active TV surrogate for Trump. He said Wednesday that Americans “need a strong man, need an independent man, need a man who tells it straight.

“Sometimes really straight,” he added, laughing. “But boy, a heckofa lot better than being a liar.”

(h/t The Washington Post)

Media

Trump Tweet Storm Further Divides Republican Party Before Election

Twitter

Donald Trump attacked House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republicans who he claimed had been “disloyal” to him in a series of defiant Tuesday morning Twitter messages.

The tweets come after a number of GOP luminaries announced they could no longer support their nominee in the wake of the publication of a 2005 video showing Trump bragging about groping women. Trump apologized for his “locker room” talk and has flatly refused to drop out.

On Monday, Ryan said he would no longer defend Trump through the last month of the general election campaign — but he neglected to rescind his endorsement of the New York businessman.

In the messages, Trump said “the shackles” had been removed, and he said the “disloyal” Republicans are more of an impediment to a victory than Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton — analysis that could well be correct if some portion of his base refuses to support him at the polls.

Pundits have warned for some time that the Republican Party could be on the verge of a civil war.

A spokesman for the House speaker said, “Paul Ryan is focusing the next month on defeating Democrats, and all Republicans running for office should probably do the same.”

As Trump attacked his fidelity, Ryan’s own Twitter account posted a series of policy discussions on Tuesday morning.

During the primary season, Trump rose to prominence by attacking the “establishment” elements of his party, whom he painted as self-serving and unconcerned with the general populace’s well-being. That populist tactic had seen less use, however, during the general election as Trump sought to win over moderate voters.

(h/t CNBC)

Faked Conspiracy Travels From Russian Propaganda to Donald Trump’s Mouth

At an October 10 campaign rally, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump claimed Clinton family friend and adviser Sidney Blumenthal told Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, that “one important point has been universally acknowledged by nine previous reports about Benghazi: The attack was almost certainly preventable.” Trump alleged Blumenthal said that “if the GOP wants to raise that as a talking point against her, it is legitimate”:

However, Newsweek reporter Kurt Eichenwald found the alleged Blumenthal comments “really, really familiar.” Eichenwald found the comments “so familiar” because, in fact, “they were something I wrote.”

In an October 10 article, Eichenwald revealed that Sputnik, a news organization “established by the [Russian] government controlled news agency, Rossiya Segodnya,” discovered in a WikiLeaks dump of Podesta’s hacked emails “a purportedly incriminating email from Blumenthal” calling the Benghazi attacks a “legitimate” talking point against Clinton.

In reality, Sputnik’s declared “‘October surprise’” quoted “two sentences from a 10,000 word piece” Eichenwald wrote for Newsweek “which apparently Blumenthal had emailed to Podesta.” Contrary to the lies from Sputnik and Trump, Eichenwald’s article is not about how the Benghazi attacks are Hillary Clinton’s fault, but rather “the obscene politicization of the assault that killed four Americans” and “the Republican Benghazi committee which was engaged in a political show trial disguised as a Congressional investigation.”

Even though “once they realized their error, Sputnik took the article down,” Trump continued to use Russian state media’s lie as a weapon against his political opponent. This fits Trump and his campaign’s pattern of questionable relations with Russia, including calls for the Kremlin to commit a cyberattack against Hillary Clinton.

Reality

So how did Donald Trump end up advancing the same falsehood put out by Putin’s mouthpiece?

On the internet a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its shoes on, and this incorrect story was clearly shared enough in the areas of the internet where conspiracy theories and pro-Russian views thrive. Trump must have seen this story on Sputnik or shared on a site that uses Russian propaganda as a source.

If the dark areas of the internet where conspiracy theories are incubated is where Trump and his campaign go looking for information then this should be a major concern.

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y86z3k5s8XY

In Debate, Trump Admits to Not Paying Federal Taxes

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said “of course” he used a $916 million loss in 1995 to avoid paying federal income taxes.

“Did you use that $916 million loss to avoid paying personal federal income taxes?” moderator Anderson Cooper asked during Sunday’s presidential debate, referring to a New York Times report on Trump’s tax returns.

“Of course I do, of course I do,” Trump said.

The Republican nominee’s 1995 tax return showed him declaring a loss of more than $900 million—which he could have used to avoid paying federal income taxes for almost two decades.

Trump has yet to release his tax returns, bucking a decades-old presidential tradition and prompting suggestions that he could be “hiding something.” He has repeatedly said he will release them after the IRS completes a “routine audit,” but the audit does not prevent him from releasing the returns. Clinton and her running mate, Tim Kaine, both released their tax returns in early August and have hit Trump over his failure to do the same. Trump’s running mate, Mike Pence, released a decade of his tax filings in September.

“I understand the tax code better than anybody that’s ever run for president,” Trump said during Sunday’s debate, criticizing Clinton for failing to reform tax code loopholes as a Senator. “It’s extremely complex.”

When asked, Trump declined to say for how many years he has avoided paying federal income taxes.

“I pay tax, and I pay federal tax too, but I have a write off. A lot of it’s depreciation, which is a wonderful charge,” Trump said. “I love depreciation.”

(h/t Fortune)

Media

MSNBC

Trump Threatens Hillary Clinton With Jail If Elected

Donald Trump’s pledge Sunday night that he would order his attorney general to investigate Hillary Clinton, and his quip that she should “be in jail,” is a direct breach of the tradition of nonpartisan rule of law.

“If I win, I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation. Because there has never been so many lies, so much deception, there has never been anything like it,” Trump said during the second presidential debate.

A president is not typically authorized to order specific criminal investigations of individuals, let alone a public pledge to investigate a political opponent. Former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted that President Richard Nixon’s attorney general “courageously resigned” after being asked to fire a special prosecutor investigating the Watergate scandal.

When Attorney General Elliot Richardson refused, Nixon went on to fire several members of his cabinet in what became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre.”

The FBI and Department of Justice have formally closed the inquiry into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as secretary of state. So the notion of a new president seeking to force the re-opening of the case, because a new party is in office, is essentially unprecedented.

Also note that while Trump has previously talked about investigating Clinton on the campaign trail, including discussing the statute of limitations for charges related to the email issue, his language then was less definitive than what he said Sunday night.

In July, he said he expected “the attorney general will take a very good look at it, from a fair standpoint,” referring to the email inquiry.

(h/t NBC News)

Reality

What makes this country different from other countries, dictators, authoritarians, is the peaceful transfer of power. Donald Trump, on a national stage, just threatened to jail his opponent if elected. There are no words to describe how dangerous this comment is to our union.

Trump Almost Turned Second Debate Into an Episode on a Bad Reality Show

Donald Trump’s campaign sought to intimidate Hillary Clinton by inviting women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual abuse to sit in the family area close to the center of Sunday night’s presidential debate.

The four women planned to walk in the debate hall at the same time as the former president and confront him in front of a live television audience, according to sources close to the situation.

The plan was first reported by the Washington Post but was later confirmed by NBC News. It was thwarted moments before the event went on-air when the Commission on Presidential Debates intervened to prevent it, even threatening to get security to block the women.

The four — Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Kathy Shelton — eventually sat in the audience alongside other ticketed members.

If the plan had gone ahead, the women would have sat in the Trump family box which was in an elevated area close to the stage and in front of the cameras.

“We were going to put the four women in the VIP box,” Trump supporter and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was quoted as saying by the Washington Post. “We had it all set. We wanted to have them shake hands with Bill, to see if Bill would shake hands with them.”

The newspaper said the plot was nixed by Frank J. Fahrenkopf, the debate commission’s co-chairman and a former Republican National Committee chairman, who warned that security personnel would remove the women.

Clinton’s campaign manager Robby Mook said Hillary knew about what he called an “awkward stunt at the beginning of the debate.”

“He wanted to throw Hillary Clinton off her game. And he need to rehabilitate what has been a failing campaign,” Mook told reporters.”The stunt didn’t work and frankly the debate didn’t work for Trump because this race fundamentally hasn’t changed.”

He added: “This was a painful moment in her marriage and it was litigated very heavily 20 years ago … this was an attempt by Donald Trump to throw her off, try to distract. The problem that he has, and the reason he lost this debate, is he has no command of the issues.”

Bill Clinton has denied all the allegations lobbed by his accusers and was never charged with any crimes, but was impeached by the Republican House in 1998 for lying about an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Broaddrick, who has accused the former president of rape, submitted an affidavit in 1998 denying that Bill Clinton had made nonconsensual sexual advances, which she later recanted.

(h/t NBC News)

Trump Hosts Surprise Panel with Bill Clinton’s Accusers

Donald Trump, reeling after two days of Republican disavowals and disaffections over a 2005 videotape of him bragging about his ability to get away with sexual assault, attempted to change the subject to his opponent’s husband’s alleged infidelities.

Just 90 minutes before his second debate Sunday night with Hillary Clinton, the GOP nominee held a surprise panel, broadcast live to Facebook, with women who have accused Bill Clinton of sexual misconduct — in effect, dousing a campaign already on fire with buckets of fresh gasoline and bringing the worst fears of many Republicans to a stunning realization.

Seated beside four women — including Juanita Broaddrick, Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey and Kathy Shelton — Trump addressed viewers ahead of the debate, making an issue of the sexual history of Bill Clinton, who is not running for president.

“These four very courageous women have asked to be here, and it was our honor to help them,” Trump said of the women who then excused his comments caught on tape and released on Friday.

“Actions speak louder than words,” said Broaddrick. “Mr. Trump may have said some bad words, but Bill Clinton raped me and Hillary Clinton threatened me. I don’t think there’s anything worse.”

Broaddrick once signed an affadavit saying Clinton did not in fact rape her, but later recanted.

Standing in the back of the Four Seasons Hotel ballroom were Trump’s closest aides, including Breitbart publisher Steve Bannon and David Bossie, who have made a career — on the fringes of conservative politics — out of attacking the Clintons.

The surprise roundtable and the tawdriness of the subject is unprecedented in presidential politics, especially on the eve of a debate.

Trump, whose campaign has long tested a fragile Republican coalition that now is undeniably in tatters, is responding to a 48-hour period in which he saw dozens of GOP officeholders pull their endorsements after the video recording that showed him bragging to TV host Billy Bush about his ability to get away with “grab[bing women] by the pussy.”

Ever defiant amidst calls that he surrender the nomination and step aside, Trump is instead engaging in a scorched-earth assault that is only likely to further erode his diminished standing with women voters with potentially devastating consequences for the Republican Party, which is now bracing itself for more sweeping losses down the ballot.

Clinton, who has taken a few days off the campaign trail to prepare for the second debate and the very likelihood of such an attack from Trump, has said very little publicly since the lewd videotape came to light on Friday.

Her campaign, however, issued a statement roughly an hour before the debate began characterizing Trump’s publicity stunt as an act of desperation.

“We’re not surprised to see Donald Trump continue his destructive race to the bottom,” said Clinton’s communications director, Jennifer Palmieri. “Hillary Clinton understands the opportunity in this town hall is to talk to voters on stage and in the audience about the issues that matter to them, and this stunt doesn’t change that.

“If Donald Trump doesn’t see that, that’s his loss. As always, she’s prepared to handle whatever Donald Trump throws her way.”

(h/t Politico)

Reality

Donald Trump is asking you to ignore the actual recorded words he said 10 years ago, but to pay attention to the allegations of women against the spouse of his political opponent 20-30 years ago.

Media

CBS News

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