Thursday Reads #LaueringTheBar
Posted: September 8, 2016 Filed under: Foreign Affairs, morning reads, U.S. Politics 70 Comments
Good Morning!!
Last night’s “Commander-In-Chief Forum” on NBC and MSNBC was way beyond pathetic. Matt Lauer is not a serious journalist, and why he was picked to moderate is a mystery. Even Chuck Todd or Rachel Maddow might have done a better job.
But just imagine if Joy Reid had been chosen to moderate. I have no doubt she would have asked fairer questions and would have been willing and able to fact-check Donald Trump’s lies. She would very likely have asked Hillary Clinton some serious questions about foreign affairs instead of spending 10 minutes cross-examining her on emails and then repeatedly interrupting and bullying the first woman candidate for POTUS as Lauer did.
This morning #LaueringTheBar is trending on Twitter, and Lauer is being skewered everywhere. What an embarrassment for NBC, a once-great network! For anyone who didn’t see Lauer’s disgraceful performance, you can read the entire transcript at Time Magazine.
Some choice tweets:
https://twitter.com/Shakestweetz/status/773858742328709121
https://twitter.com/wilw/status/773707216864022528
https://twitter.com/JeffreyGoldberg/status/773705056013156352
In a forum devoted to veterans’ affairs, Lauer never asked Trump about his attacks on the Khans, or his multiple draft deferments.
I could go on and on, but I want to share some more substantive reactions to last night’s media debacle (mostly just links).
Jonathan Chait: Matt Lauer’s Pathetic Interview of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Is the Scariest Thing I’ve Seen in This Campaign.
I had not taken seriously the possibility that Donald Trump could win the presidency until I saw Matt Lauer host an hour-long interview with the two major-party candidates. Lauer’s performance was not merely a failure, it was horrifying and shocking. The shock, for me, was the realization that most Americans inhabit a very different news environment than professional journalists. I not only consume a lot of news, since it’s my job, I also tend to focus on elite print-news sources. Most voters, and all the more so undecided voters, subsist on a news diet supplied by the likes of Matt Lauer. And the reality transmitted to them from Lauer matches the reality of the polls, which is a world in which Clinton and Trump are equivalently flawed.
Lauer focused a third of his questioning time on Clinton’s private email server. Her decision to follow Colin Powell’s advice is a legitimate blot on her record. But Lauer did not move the ball forward on the question in any meaningful way….
The impression an uninformed or even moderately informed viewer would receive from this interview is that the email issue represents a sinister crime, perhaps completely disqualifying from office, rather than an unjustifiable but routine act of government non-transparency.
The email exchange would not by itself be so alarming except when viewed in juxtaposition with Lauer’s hapless interview of Trump. Trump began the interview by boldly insisting, “I was totally against the war in Iraq. You can look at Esquire magazine from 2004. You can look at before that.” This is a lie. Trump has been quoted supporting the invasion beforehand and even afterward. Nobody has produced any evidence of Trump contradicting his support for the war before it started. His line to Lauer was transparently ridiculous – how could a 2004 interview supply evidence of having opposed a war that began in 2003? But Lauer did not try even a single follow-up.
Lauer’s attempt to press Trump was the completely ineffectual technique of asking repeatedly if he is ready to serve as commander-in-chief. Lauer probably believes the answer is no, but nothing about this question would drive home Trump’s extraordinary lack of knowledge. Instead it allowed him to performatively demonstrate his confident, alpha-male reality-show character as a prospective chief executive.
More reads on last night’s forum:
Dylan Byers: Critics blast Lauer’s ‘Commander-in-Chief Forum’ performance.
Charles Blow: Donald Trump is Lying in Plain Sight.
NBC News: Barack Obama Urges Americans to Challenge Trump’s ‘Wacky Ideas.’
Politico: ‘Embarrassing to our country’: Trump suggests he’ll fire top generals.
New York Times: Matt Lauer Fields Store of Criticism Over Clinton-Trump Forum.
Washington Post: Donald Trump’s thoroughly strange claim about his Mexico visit.
Huffington Post: Matt Lauer Failed the Moderator Test.
Media Matters: Eight Of The First Nine Questions At NBC’s Commander-In-Chief Forum Are About Hillary Clinton’s Email.
It’s difficult to choose the most shocking thing Donald Trump said last night, but for me, the absolute worse was when he “revealed” information he supposedly learned in his confidential security briefings with the CIA.
LAUER: You recently — you recently received two intelligence briefings.
TRUMP: Yes, I did.
LAUER: Did anything in that briefing, without going into specifics, shock or alarm you?
TRUMP: Yes. Very much so.
LAUER: Did you learn new things in that briefing?
TRUMP: First of all, I have great respect for the people that gave us the briefings. We — they were terrific people. They were experts on Iraq and Iran and different parts of — and Russia. But, yes, there was one thing that shocked me. And it just seems to me that what they said President Obama and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, who is another total disaster, did exactly the opposite.
LAUER: Did you learn anything in that briefing — again, not going into specifics — that makes you reconsider some of the things you say you can accomplish, like defeating ISIS quickly?
TRUMP: No, I didn’t learn anything from that standpoint. What I did learn is that our leadership, Barack Obama, did not follow what our experts and our truly — when they call it intelligence, it’s there for a reason — what our experts said to do. LAUER: Hallie?
TRUMP: And I was very, very surprised. In almost every instance. And I could tell you. I have pretty good with the body language. I could tell they were not happy. Our leaders did not follow what they were recommending.
WTF?! In the first place, the candidates are not supposed to talk about anything that happened in those briefings, and in the second place, Trump is claiming that professional CIA officers somehow signaled to him that President Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and current Secretary of State John Kerry have ignored their advice and that the CIA is upset about it? Last night Andrea Mitchell said she believed the intelligence community would have to respond to Trump’s bizarre claims.
I heard on MSNBC that the intelligence community is pushing back on this, but I haven’t seen any published articles about that yet.
This morning, Hillary Clinton held a press conference–the third day in a row she has answered questions from the media. Here’s the whole thing.
Hillary was asked about Trump’s remarks about the security briefings and whether she agreed with him about their contents. She replied simply that she would never say anything about what happened in confidential intelligence briefings. I thought she was relaxed and dignified and gave straightforward answers. I guess we’ll find out later how the media participants evaluate the press conference.
I have two more stories I want to highlight that aren’t about last night’s candidate “forum.”
Mother Jones: Clinton Campaign Says There Is a “Direct Link” Between Trump and Russian Hackers.
A Hillary Clinton campaign spokesman says a new article in the New York Observerestablishes a “direct link” between the Donald Trump campaign and the hacker or hackers who have recently penetrated the Democratic National Committee, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and other high-profile Democratic officials.
On Tuesday, the Observer published a piece maintaining that the DCCC had coordinated—presumably improperly—with the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2015. The story, written by a freelance contributor named Michael Sainato, cited “an internal DCCC memo” leaked to the Observer from Guccifer 2.0—the handle of the hacker or hackers who have successfully targeted these Democratic committees. The Observer is owned by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has been a top adviser to the Republican presidential nominee.
Shortly after the post went up, Clinton spokesman Brian Fallon tweeted: Russian hackers now leaking directly to Jared Kushner’s paper. Trump campaign not even being subtle anymore https://twitter.com/observer/status/773252856740741120 …
In an email to Mother Jones, Fallon elaborated on his tweet: “Guccifer 2.0 is known to be the Russians. And now that they are leaking materials obtained from their hacking to Trump adviser Jared Kushner’s newspaper, that’s a pretty direct link between Trump and the Russians behind this hack.”
Kushner is married to Ivanka Trump and has become an influential figure within Trump’s political team.
Glen Caplin, another spokesman for the Clinton campaign, issued a more complete statement: “The Russians have become even more brazen in their effort to influence the election by leaking documents to Trump adviser Jared Kushner’s newspaper for publication. Trump’s longtime confidant Roger Stone has already admitted he’s in contact with Julian Assange, who has been exposed for actively aiding the Russians. And both Stone and Assange are promising more leaks targeting Clinton as the election approaches, something Donald Trump actively invited. This is a national security issue and every American deserves answers about potential collusion between Trump campaign associates, WikiLeaks and the Kremlin.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Matt Olsen at Time Magazine: Why ISIS Supports Donald Trump. (Hillary recommended this article last night during the forum and this morning during her press conference.)
In recent months, ISIS has made clear that it’s closely following this election, too—and it has chosen a candidate. Interviews with ISIS members and analysis of social media, including in a recentForeign Affairs article by Mara Revkin and Ahmad Mhidi, make it clear: “ISIS is rooting for Trump.”
This year, ISIS isn’t simply a passive observer of American politics. Since the group’s rapid rise in 2014, ISIS has established a far-reaching, sophisticated propaganda machine. Its members rely on social media to shape public opinion, recruit new members and mobilize followers to carry out attacks. Now, some of them are using those channels to advocate for Trump. In August, one ISIS spokesman wrote: “I ask Allah to deliver America to Trump.” Another supporter declared: “The ‘facilitation’ of Trump’s arrival in the White House must be a priority for jihadists at any cost!!!” ISIS is working to drum up support for the candidate it has called “the perfect enemy.”
That may come as a surprise to some. After all, Trump has spent this election season making a series of combative and bellicose comments on terrorism—from his pledge to kill the families of terrorists, his plans bring back torture of suspected terrorists and his call toban all Muslims from entering the United States. But the truth is, Trump’s statements and extreme policies aren’t just contrary to our values—they play right into the hands of ISIS.
Please read the rest at the link above.
So . . . what else is happening? Please post your thoughts and links on any topic in the comment thread and have a terrific Thursday!
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
ecocatwoman
mablue2
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
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This is the candidate that the Richmond Times Dispatch endorsed.
LOL! I wonder how they feel about that now?
My God, I haven’t seen a man so out of his depth since Admiral Stockdale.
Not to worry, people. He promised not to smoke weed in the White House. Life is good.
What a moron! Put down the Joint Governor
Yikes!!! Does this help Fluffy-Doo?
I think we all watched the same mess last night. Honestly, I’m encouraged by the fact that so many in the media seem to be recognizing, finally, that there has been an absurd double standard applied to the two main presidential candidates. I hope that Hillary Clinton sticks to her game plan and continues to be true to herself throughout the debates. Seeing the candidates side by side should be really interesting.
The work of people like BB ( and other Sky Dancers ) who are blogging and on Twitter writing about the double standard and the failure of the press to do its job is having an impact.
Thank you, BB, and everyone who is staying on this! Bravo!
Thanks, Beata. Your opinion means a lot to me.
Ditto, thank you BB, Dak, and all of you.
I also will make a small donation today! I really appreciate you all, presenting great amount of information, and friendship.
I’m glad we’re a bonded community and safe place.
Agreed, Beata, I look at the papers, listen to the “news” and then have com here daily since its very beginnings nags (2008) to get the real scoop on what’s going on in the world
Janice, yes! Hillary must stick to HER game plan.
“You control the terms of the conflict. Make them play your game. Don’t try to play theirs.”
– Legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden
I’m still skeptical about the media finally getting with the truth of the matter. After seeing the “reaction ” from cnn last night, it was all the same old shit. And I really don’t feel confident about a Hillary win in November. This idiot bigot fascist Trump will be put in office by a bunch of other idiot bigots voters who listen and believe the crap the big money controlled press will tell them. They don’t need much pressure to sway them to Trump because they already hate Hillary (she is a woman) and they are anti gay/black/Latino/immigrants etc. I’m horrified.
You need to take a look at the state polls. In order to win Trump would have to make up a great deal of ground, and he basically has no campaign. No ground game, very few state offices, almost no staff.
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Trump can’t possibly win with only white men. In addition, Clinton has made inroads with college-educated women who have traditionally voted Republican. Clinton has support in all the states that matter and quite a few very red states are up for grabs now. The electoral college maps all heavily favor Clinton. This will be a landslide.
Do.Not.Trust.The.Media – it is in their interest to spin this as a close race. It isn’t.
oops lost “Don’t trust the media” in that last sentence.
Excellent roundup this morning BB. I had a tough time sleeping last night. I was up before sunrise tracking down opinions on the FIASCO that was the Commander-in-Chief Forum. Everything I’ve seen, except from the diehard Trumpers, was negative against Trump, Lauer and NBC/MSNBC. What a spectacle last night was. Wasting Hillary’s 30 minutes on questions about emails THAT HAVE FUCKING BEEN ANSWERED 100 TIMES, instead of asking her questions concerning what she believes her role will be as Commander-in-Chief. But I was glad to see Donald Trump revealed as the stupid ass he is, the sexist he is, the Putin lover he is, the Russian Propagandist he is, the U.S. Intelligence nincompoop he is, the Obama hater he is, the enemy of the U.S. Armed Forces that he is.
See y’all later, I’m still news surfing.
So was I. Up early, and lots of coffee.
Thanks, Mouse. I had trouble sleeping too. I’m going to take a nap soon.
BB…….Just wondering, how closely are you watching the polls? Has anyone noticed in the 3 and 4 way polls how many voters Hillary is losing to Johnson? It’s not Stein (also a woman) who’s diminishing Hillary’s poll numbers, it’s Johnson. I have a feeling what we’re seeing are those Bernie voters, who I suspected all along were really Ron Paul Libertarians and notorious he-man-woman-haters, going for Johnson. It also partially explains why Hillary is polling so far behind Obama and Kerry among white men.
Here is a MUST READ
Fear of a Female President
Hillary Clinton’s candidacy has provoked a wave of misogyny—one that may roil American life for years to come.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/10/fear-of-a-female-president/497564/?utm_source=atltw
The more the gender caste system breaks down — and once you see it for the caste system it is, you can’t unsee it, so it will break down — the more testerical the Old Order will become.
But I’m not convinced that the idiocy during the campaign will continue if, God willing and the creeks don’t rise, Clinton becomes President. Most people are all about power, and their reaction towards someone who holds it is very different from their reaction to someone who isn’t there yet.
It reminds me of something I heard years ago. In the late 1950s or so, the leadership at Macy’s in New York was thinking of getting on board with this newish civil rights thing and (gasp) hiring black as well as white sales assistants. So they cautiously did some market research and polled their (white) customers on how they’d feel about buying from blacks. The answer was unequivocal: Ewww! Never! What are you thinking? (That was the gist. Nobody said that, of course.) Well, for some reason, the leadership decided to do the right thing anyway and began hiring blacks. And guess what? There wasn’t so much as a hiccup in sales figures. Apparently, once faced with a done deal and Macy’s stamp of approval on the new hires, people found they could buy from blacks just as well as whites.
I think we may see some of the same effect with Hillary in the Oval Office. It’ll be a done deal. People will start convincing themselves they’re okay with that.
I hope you’re right.
“testerical”, BRILLIANT!!
I love it!
Yeah, I’m totally stealing that too!
Thanks mouse, very interesting article. Forewarned is forearmed.
Tump is giving a speech in Cleveland, at some charter school. He’s lying, outright lying, saying she never takes responsibility. Trump is up on his EMAIL nation, emails, emails, emails, emails.
And he just said he’d have caught Bin Laden before 9/11. Does anybody actually believe that possible?
Yeah, right! Here’s how that would have ended for Trump
Wile E. Coyote. Such a loser. Sad!
Hell no!
Oh FF’s sake! He wouldn’t even have known what al-Queda was then. I doubt he really knows now, come to think about it.
I’m not sure where we’d be without Joy Reid and Charles Blow. The tweet selection was great. I’m totally in the dumps today. Read the Chait piece. Can we been that dumb as a nation?
Love Joy Reid. We need to send a petition to NBC to have UpChuck Todd replaced by Joy Reid since she is LITERALLY the only reporter at the Network
Apparantly others agree ANonOMouse: https://www.change.org/p/msnbc-sign-to-have-joy-reid-co-moderate-3rd-presidential-debate-with-chris-wallace-fact-check/sponsors/new
Wow. Maybe we can actually have fair moderation for that debate!
Thanks for that Contrask. I’ll sign right away. But I want a petition for Joy to replace UpChuck Todd on MTP both weekday and Sunday. He’s pathetic.
Getting Chuckles the Toad and Mrs. Greenspan off the air needs to be a mission for us!
I love Joy Reid. When Hillary becomes POTUS, Joy would make a great press secretary.
Wonkette has this:
http://wonkette.com/606353/badass-sen-barbara-boxer-has-some-questions-about-donald-trumps-illegal-immigrant-models
Barbara Boxer saw the Mother Jones investigation of Trump’s modeling agency and wrote a letter to Homeland Security to tell them to GET ON IT! hahahahaha
I’m sure we’ll see this on teevee tonight…
I thought she was spot on, let’s investigate.
So here are my thoughts which seem to be going viral on Facebook atm:
Each day I come closer to fully understanding the rise of NAZIsm and how a modern country allowed a Holocaust to occur. It was a “only in books” mystery to me prior to this year. I remember also reading about the complicity of many priests, church hierarchy and supposedly moral, church going people. It’s one thing to watch people cast votes for the village idiot. It’s completely another to realize you know people that consider a white nationalist sociopath/pathological liar whose sentence structure implies some kind of serious dementia a viable option to be what’s portrayed as leader of the free world. How do you fall for such obvious practically cartoon character evil? Makes me want to hide my children and pets. For the record, our nation’s Generals are not going to order our troops to commit war crimes. Our military is not the personal Mongolian horde of a deranged dictator. Our nation’s intelligence wonks are not bad poker players with tells that infer basic treason. Our media however, are a bunch of folks who have completely lost their moral compasses. Facts matter. What’s Constitutional matters. How our government was set up to create and enforce the rule of law matters. The basic rights of all our citizens matter. WTF is a morning news celebrity doing moderating a national security forum? Where is our Uncle Walter Cronkite to expose the snake oil and inform a troubled and very ignorant mass of people? How can we be normalizing the same kind of white nationalism that we fought the civil war and two freaking world wars to defeat?
Very well said, Dak. I’m glad it’s going viral.
From “Awake!” by Walther von der Vogelweide ( c.1170-1230 )
The sun no longer shows
His face; and treason sows
His secret seeds that no man can detect;
Fathers by their children are undone;
The brother would the brother cheat;
And the cowled monk is a deceit,
Who should the way to Heaven direct;
Might is right, and justice there is none.
Arise! we slept, nor of the peril recked.
Thank you for this reference Beata – I learn so much here! The Middle Ages fascinate me.
Kind of depressing that that’s from around 1200 AD. We’re not getting better in a hurry, are we?
Extremely well said Dak.
I’m just not sure our very ignorant mass can handle the truth. It’s irrelevant from their POV. No amount of information about Trump – and let’s start with his parade of goons straight out of The Sopranos as campaign staff – will offset the fact she’s a GIRL!!!
You’re on the mark, Dak!
Wow! Great thoughts. I have been thinking about how intellectually bankrupt our fellow Americans really are. It is just staggering to think about. When accurate and knowledgable information is super easy to come by more people than ever are bamboozled and befuddled. It doesn’t make any sense. All these people have to do is use a small portion of their brain and go look up the facts. Apparently, that is just to damned difficult to do. Why people want to walk around in a constant state of ignorance is beyond my comprehension.
Peter Daou’s new site is up!
http://shareblue.com/
This is the new home for the blog Blue Nation Review.
Thank you! I was wondering how to find it.
Sue, Gene Kelly’s “Invitation to the Dance” is on TCM tomorrow ( Friday ) at 4pm EST if you are interested in watching it.
Thanks, Beata! I’ll be watching.
I’ve always thought that Kelly was a genius, but lately, for some reason I’ve fallen in love with him.
Might be that famous derriere.
Ah well, the heart wants what the heart wants.
Enheduanna, I shouldn’t have nested my comment to Sue under your post. I’m sorry.
Thank you for the link to Daou’s new site!
No worries Beata! I read all the comments and I’m a fan of Gene Kelly myself. I call TCM my “default” channel because I’m there unless GoT or some other good commercial-free program is on.
Thanks!
Hillary is running against Trump, his many evil allies, including those from other lands, and the mainstream media. This obviously makes it very difficult for her. It also makes one seriously wonder whether this country can survive in any recognizable form. You have got a very dumbed- down electorate, full of people who seem to have no knowledge of history or politics or economics or anything which might give them a grounding. They are happy to beleive insane conspiracy theories, which are more interesting to them than the nuts and bolts of governance. They are frankly pretty much akin to the credulous people who used to line up outside the county fairs and buy the colored water that was sold to them by hucksters and shills as being a cure-all for any ailment they might have.
Obviously, Trump is the far more dangerous version of the crooked carny huckster. People used to laugh at the “yokels” who bought into those things. Unfortunately, there are millions of them now, and they additionally have the anger and belligerence which makes them sure they are right. It has gotten to the point that Trump can say anything, and his supporters will believe it. And then of course we have the media, which is supposed to at least provide a sense of objective reality, but they have thoroughly relinquished that role. I honestly don’t know what they see themselves as; probably celebrities who can do no wrong. They take no responsibility for their bias or their false stories. They don’t even retract them, much less apologize for them. And they have developed an amorality which is very disturbing. What was Lauer trying to do last night? “Get” Hillary? Gain his media buddies’ acclaim for hammering at her? Indluging himself? Trying to be more important than the actual reality of who leads the country? Some of all of those I think. And that is truly dangerous to democracy, because he let Trump get away with lies, inanities, and the attacks which he told Hillary she must not make in her segment.
I read about all of Trump’s comments, and I thought that there were several which should destroy him, most of all his attempting to divulge aspects of his briefing. Even if he made them all up, as is most likely, it still should be a state crime, as he embarrassed the President, the CIA, the military, while he provided propaganda to our enemies. But of course there is what happens, and then there is what the media spin on it is. Apparently the media will let most of it go, and will go back to focusing on the emails. One would like to hope that what happened last night will provide a wake-up call to the public. I also think that in a head-to head debate, Hillary can make Trump look like the dangerous idiot he is.. But that also somewhat depends on the media’s filter. One headlne from last night was, “Clinton wobbles on style; Trump stumbles on substance.” I would say that any news organization which would write that, is a disgrace to journalism. But we’ve all seen far worse in this campaign. I do think Hillary can win; but with insidious forces we have arrayed in our country, one seriously tends to despair that we can keep the center holding, and move forward. Hillary is optimistic about it, though, so that should give some heart to us all.
David Axelrod was on CNN criticizing Hillary about her “style” following the forum. In no way can Axelrod be considered a Hillary supporter, much less a surrogate. Comments like his help Trump.
So where are Hillary’s surrogates? She needs more of them on TV and she needs the ones she has to do a much better job. Hillary has a long list of endorsements from all walks of life. Get strong surrogates like Xavier Becerra out there! I haven’t seen him at all lately. There is no time to waste.
On MSNBC this morning, Mika said Hillary has had to “dumb herself down” because she’s running against “this idiot” [ Trump ]. As we all know, Mika and her boyfriend Joe helped get “this idiot” nominated by giving him unprecedented free air time during the primaries. I don’t recall Mika calling him an idiot back then. Trump was so good for ratings and that was all that mattered.
Also on MSNBC this morning: IU grad Mark Cuban. He’s a great surrogate for Hillary. Hope to see more of him!
I hope Cuban explained his theory on Trump’s tax returns. I think he’s most likely spot on (!) about that….hahaha
Xavier Becerra is on MSNBC right now! Yay! Cuban and Becerra on within minutes of each other! Clinton surrogates getting it done!!!
No surrogates for Trump. Sad!
Well, there you go. Style vs substance, and the MSM thinks substance is worth only as much as style. Gah!
I hope this makes it to all the MSM: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/election-complaint-filed-doj-florida-ag-2013-trump/story?id=41954631&cid=clicksource_4380645_1_hero_headlines_bsq_hed
Whoa!
It’s made it to ABC, so that’s the MSM! Hope it continues and blows up on Trump!