As discussed yesterday, President Donald Trump has said the he will not yield in his continuing tweets with personal or insulting attacks on the media, political opponents, and journalists. To drive that point vividly home, he re-posted a video showing him punching a man with the CNN logo on his head during a wrestling match. It seems a posting designed to virtually taunt his aides and allies on the Hill who have tried to convey to him that these tweets are alienating allies and costing the GOP critical time and energy.
With the raising anger and threats directed at the media, it is a chilling and irresponsible post from anyone, let alone the President of the United States.
The video follows tweets calling out CNN saying, “I am thinking about changing the name #FakeNews CNN to #FraudNewsCNN!” The video is altered from from WrestleMania 23 in 2007.
Here is the video:
CNN has responded with the following statement:
“It is a sad day when the President of the United States encourages violence against reporters. Clearly, Sarah Huckabee Sanders lied when she said the President had never done so. Instead of preparing for his overseas trip, his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, dealing with North Korea and working on his health care bill, he is instead involved in juvenile behavior far below the dignity of his office. We will keep doing our jobs. He should start doing his.”
So are we to believe that the one who was too chicken hearted to go to Vietnam in his early ’20’s has become a feared warrior at the age of 71? Such accomplished fighting skills would have come in handy during the Tet offensive.
The only thing the slow and obese Trump could slam anyone with would be his golf cart.
Thank you, James Strnal, I thought the same when I heard about this absurd video. Sad that this man is our President.
Look at what he is doing for the Veterans now…then was then and now is now.
He is trying to cut benefits and healthcare for vets, too.
As a veteran myself, do tell.
Considering this was the most “liked” tweet the president made in the past month it seems to have brought in much more supporters than the comparative handful in the political class and media class who express outrage did themselves .
For many, this type of tweet represents humor and a punch in the face to those who the public regards as lying elitist in some of the media. If this video was taken in a different context, namely the actors and the CNN logo for a head, it would be rather benign to most.
I would rather see a tasteless tweet of a fake wrestling romping than see a president prosecuting elective wars, killing thousands, throwing regions in to disarray, and then gloating and laughing off the spectacle on TV.
It’s a tweet. It’s only a threat if one makes it.
It’s a threat. The media knows it because they dealt with it everyday on the campaign. And you know it too but choose instead to offer a weak tea justification.
Please compare Trump’s “threat” to journalists v. to foreign countries where journalists are routinely killed and/or imprisoned.
Thanks Darren for your very sophisticated take on it. Obama laughs after an American is beheaded and our snob bubble goes crazy with a benign tweet! As far as I’m concerned the snobs can go to hell !
He represents the federal government. It’s not a goddamn joke.
‘president prosecuting elective wars…’ You mean George Bush. Obama dialed it back, limited the ongoing and necessary stuff, and it happens to be working. Your ilk criticize when not enough people are getting killed as when people get killed. Darren, you lose credibility more and more. Stick to the legal mumbo jumbo. Trump is Bush squared. He has next to no idea what to do.
Yes, your friend Obama turned victory into defeat, helped stir the mideast flames, drew a red line for Syria, Saw the Russians moving west and south yet decided to enter the fray in Libya so that anarchy could prevail in that nation.
Obama’s policy of decreasing our involvement where we weren’t directly threatened wasn’t necessarily bad, but the way he managed the situations that followed were terrible and then to enter Libya…? You really have to think things out a little better issac.
Trump is breaking the tradition of politicians hiding their true selves from the public and pretending to be someone else. Trump might not be “presidential,” but face it, the current crop of politicians, especially the Progressives, have got to be about the dumbest bunch of leaders a nation could consider possible. Good for him that he has the stomach to stand up to the nonsense and throw it back into their faces.
And MSM crying over the loss of the 4th estate, what a sick joke as they have fully prostituted themselves to a very dumb Progressive movement. They deserve to wither away into obsolescence.
I predict that the breaking of the climate fear scandal will shatter the Progressive movement and the MSM idiots that wouldn’t know good science if it hit them in the face. I think it is coming sooner than later, thanks to Trump.
Trump just won the WWE vote.
If anyone is a Twitter user, read Tom Nichols’ twitter thread on this topic today. He is one of the smartest and boldest “never Trump” conservatives. Rick Wilson and Mary Beth Glenn are also terrific, too. It’s almost invisible, but there are good, moral conservatives out there and it’s a pleasure to support them.
Follow Rick Wilson but not familiar with the other conservatives.Will check them out. We need honest republican conservatives to stand up as Susan Collins did the other day. Trump needs to quit obsessing on women’s blood and clean up his act.
Mr Turley since you seem to be living on another planet let me share with you , we don’t have journalists in American media , we have criminals pretending to be journalists , especially at CNN!
Get out of your snob bubble , you cannot live there for long without losing all respect from people who hate that bubble of deranged reality full of patronizing elites with zero real life accomplishments !
Having the respect of people like you would be a badge of shame.
What crime has CNN committed?
Meantime at WWE WrestleMaina, The Undertaker had some choice words. “You Will Rest in Peace”.
This is hilarious. Trump was not my candidate, but I feel this need to defend him against the professional, corporate liars. He’s doing a great job all on his own. Any one that takes either party seriously needs to lighten up.
I can’t believe how we have such an incompetent media. It’s an embarrassment to our country. Bad enough here but wondering how other citizens from other countries perceive how corrupt our media has become and how untrustworthy they are.
It’s a stupid distraction and a comedy. The seriously liability is on the media for failing to accurately inform the public. They are the criminals. Trump is Trump.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow/watch/maddow-trump-behavior-hurts-the-presidency-but-he-doesn-t-care-981068867877
Mr Turley , get out of your internal and external snob bubble some day and taste and smell the reality , CNN and mainstream media is a fake news propaganda arm of liberals . Stop living in a deranged reality !
Media and Hollywood has been inciting violence against our president , it’s time to take the fake journalist head on and let them feel the fire that they very easily dump on others! I knew mr Turley and others living in his skin bubble would have run to their blog and here it is. I didn’t even have to read what patronizing comments must be in the above article !
So, what I’m reading here is to lighted up correct? So if Obama would have shown him walking into “FOX NEWS” and opening up with a AR-15 I bet you all would be laughing your asses off.
You have totally usurped the irony of the tweet. 🙄
Oh please. Get over yourself.
You lefties heads supported two weeks of the President getting stabbed in a stupid production in Central Park.
You are all a bunch a butthurt
Hypocrites. No one bothered to tell the Left and their alter ego ANTIFA to tone it down or stop. 🙄
So tell me…,,what is the difference between a play that depicts the assassination of President Trump — widely praised by the MSM — and this video? If you have an ounce of honesty left in your system you must agree there is no difference at all.
The president’s oath of office requires him to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. It does not require him to be a doormat for every Woodward/Bernstien wannabe in the media.
Great point for demonstrating the inner conflict faced by so many lefties. JT should ponder and write on this subject.
The play graphically depicts a bloody stabbing and assassination of a Trump-like character to the delight of cheering audiences.
The video depicts Trump knocking down and punching a corporate logo.
Listen to what Bongino says. He explains why the uproar is a joke. Trump is just a typical New Yorker
Speaking of Scott Adams (thx tbob!) here is a detailed analysis of why Trump’s Tweets are going to destroy this world:
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1ZkJzyXQXgoGv
Oh, and BTW, I feels sooo chilled by the tweets, and sooo irresponsible. Not!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
Good video!
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
I couldn’t agree more with this man’s video.
Yes , someone tell this to elites of the swamp we don’t f give a crap wgat they or their buddies in the media think !
As Scott Adams put it: “The biggest story in the world is that the biggest story in the world just……sort of…..went away.” The vast left wing Russian conspiracy story that was giving CNN their highest ratings ever for almost a year has quietly gone away. So now Trump tweets a video of fake wrestling with a fake knockout punch of fake news CNN. It’s hilarious.
It’s gone away?? What alternative reality are you living in?? Mueller is hiring lawyers with experience in financial fraud and prosecuting mafia figures among other things. He just hired one who is fluent in Russian. Did you read the articles in the WSJ [such a liberal publication -LOL] or in LawFare blog the other day?? Jesus, catch up.
I must have missed that while reading about child sex slavery colonies on Mars. 😉
Sure, I saw the so-called “bombshell” story you are referring to. You do know that LawFare blog is written by James Comey’s good friend Benjamin Wittes? And you know who he is, right? Not buying much of what he has to say. James Comey himself may be cutting a deal for immunity as we speak for all we know. There’s a lot of testifying behind closed doors going on right now.
I’m referring to the nonstop Russia Russia Russia headlines and chatter on CNN. I’m referring to the quiet corrections issued by AP and NYT acknowledging their errors in reporting about the Russia story. You remember the talking point “All 17 of our intelligence agencies agree…” that one? Yeah, bogus. They admitted so.
I’m saying the nonstop Russia hysteria has noticeably taken a back seat. Will it be back depending on what happens with Mueller’s investigation? Sure. But then again the direction his investigation takes is also very much unknown at this stage and may just as easily point to Obama officials and Hillary Clinton and her campaign, the DNC, etc. while it clears Trump. All remains to be seen.
The article was not written by Wittes.
I was pointing out that he runs LawFare blog. And I don’t think there’s all that much to the WSJ story.
Here’s another take on the Mueller investigation:
“Mueller must also conduct an investigation which is perceived as fair to both sides. On the Clinton/Democratic side, there are a number of unanswered questions related to Russian electoral intervention. Among them is the question of whether the “wiped clean” Clinton e-mails are in Russian hands (as asserted by the Steele dossier), whether the tarmac meeting of Bill Clinton and the Attorney General quashed the investigation of Hillary’s e-mails, and whether the Clintons and Russian uranium interests engaged in quid pro quo and “pay to play” operations.
The most important unanswered question is whether the Clinton campaign funded the Orbis Trump smear campaign and did they understand the campaign could be conducted by Russian intelligence?
Mueller must question Steele himself on his sources and some of the sources themselves, investigate whether they could be Russian intelligence agents, and determine the role of Clinton donors and campaign officials in the funding of the anti-Trump dossier.
The Fusion-Steele matter is explosive because it suggests that Russia’s most damaging intervention in the 2016 campaign may have been its creation of the Steele Dossier, remarkably paid for by the Clinton campaign! If so, the Clinton campaign (not Trump) was the prime sponsor of Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2017/06/19/is-russiagate-really-hillarygate/#178438b95cf6
Trump is taunting the news organization for making allegations that Melania Trump has the worst job in the world because she has to sleep with him, and that she must be only staying because of their son. MULTIPLE major news outlets and pundits have made similar unfounded accusations. The media has crossed all lines in their coverage of Trump, and there is zero excuse for that.
Trump’s responses are not effective, and there is zero excuse for that. Ignoring it and taking the classy road did Bush no favors. He allowed the Left to define him and didn’t deign to respond to most of their fabricated stories. Trump does respond, but he does so inappropriately. He does not explain to the people outside of his base how and why the media is wrong and out of line. It becomes quid pro quo where both sides are throwing mud and pointing fingers at the other saying “they started it!”
There are more important things to focus on, and there are more coldly effective ways to combat the media’s disgusting attacks on him, his wife, and his son. He could have easily bypassed the mainstream media and shown the public the viciousness of their coverage, but he didn’t. He played into their hands and made comments similar to theirs so it becomes both of their fault.
Granted, he didn’t hold up a severed bloody head in effigy of his opponents but it’s still not much above mud wrestling. He lets his anger get the best of him. That doesn’t mean he should allow such insults to pass, because that gets into the public mind as truth. But he needs to respond in a way that helps himself.
Does anyone think she still sleeps with him? Does she really want to get up at 4 a m and listen to rage attacks? Highly doubt it.
Stay out of their bedroom! WTHeck? This is why he tweets! Unbelievable!
Good, sensible analysis. Nicely nuanced. Trump has been horribly treated by the media (and others such as the bankrupt DNC) That can’t be denied. That said, this is not an effective way to address the issue. I’m not sure what he wants to accomplish during his presidency (my suspicion is he wants the USA to be a third world country for most of us and shangri-la for .0001% – much like Obama, but that’s just silly ol moi), but I find it hard to believe his tweeting -at least so far- will help even with that dubious mission.
In spite of my own cynicism, I like your fair minded coverage.
this all end quickly if the MSM can apologize to trump for all the negative things they have said about and to him since he started running for President. Yes there can be peace but it has to start with the media and the left
“We will keep doing our jobs. He should start doing his.”
really? CNN hasn’t done their job in years if doing their job means objectively reporting the facts of news that is of importance to the country.
No in fact they have been doing their jobs.
Wolf Blitzer and Barbara Starr have been nothing but the perfect PR delivery vehicle for the CIA and the DOD.
Honestly Mike Rodgers couldn’t be a more perfect sales representative for the NSA if they could buy one and guess what, they have.
No in fact they have been doing their jobs.
Absolutely! Good call.