This morning, I was surprised to receive a note from the Washington Post on my prior criticism of the Post’s Philip Bump as previously spreading “false stories” and refusing to accept the facts after they were established by the media. The Post has declared that Bump’s original claims on Lafayette Park, the Hunter Biden laptop, and Russian collusion were true and they stand by them. In light of the unprompted review by the Post, I wanted to lay out what the Post is now embracing as true.
At the outset, here is the email that I received this morning:
Dear Jonathan,
In your recent piece in The Hill, you wrote that “Bump has repeatedly spread false stories and then refused to accept the falsity of his own earlier claims, even after most of the media have admitted the errors.”
The Washington Post stands by Philip Bump’s reporting and your characterization of his articles as “false” is incorrect.
Lafayette Park
The first Post link is Bump’s claims over the “photo op” controversy in Lafayette Park. Many of us criticized Trump’s photo op in front of the church as well as the level of force used to clear the area of Lafayette Park. Yet, media and pundits like Bump and University of Texas Professor Steve Vladeck (who is a CNN contributor) went further to claim that former Attorney General Bill Barr cleared the park in order to hold the photo op.
There was never evidence to support that factual conclusion. I testified in Congress not long after the clearing of the area and stated that the conspiracy theory was already contradicted by the available evidence. I encouraged Congress to investigate the question and establish the truth of the matter. The issue was not whether it was worthy of investigation but whether it was established as fact.
We previously discussed the Inspector General report on the Lafayette Park protests and the debunking of Bump’s conspiracy theory. The Inspector General of the Department of Interior conducted an investigation over the last year and found that the clearing was not done “to allow the President to survey the damage and walk to St. John’s Church.”
In other words, it was false. Not arguably false. It was false.
One of the most cited articles was by Bump titled “Attorney General Bill Barr’s Dishonest Defense of Clearing of Lafayette Square.” He stated:
“It is the job of the media to tell the truth. The truth is that Barr’s arguments about the events of last Monday collapse under scrutiny and that his flat assertion that there was no link between clearing the square and Trump’s photo op should be treated with the same skepticism that his claims about the use of tear gas earns.”
It was later proven that Barr was speaking truthfully about both the photo op and the tear gas. It was Bump who was giving a false account.
After the release of the report, the Post responded with a second article by Bump entitled ‘The lingering questions about the clearing of Lafayette Square,” which struggled to keep doubt (and the conspiracy theory) alive. Bump emphasized a scene shortly before the operation where Barr reportedly said “Are these people still going to be here when POTUS comes out?” Bump said that that reference to the protesters still raises a “lingering question.”
However, buried in the article, the column admits that the “preparations were made before Barr arrived at the scene. That’s compelling evidence for the argument that the area was going to be cleared despite Barr’s presence.” It also states that “The inspector general’s assessment does add new information to the established timeline that reinforces the Park Police’s assertions that the area was cleared to erect new fencing to better protect the White House complex.”
So Bump’s original claims were false. However, Bump still sought to pretend that there are still doubts. He wrote that there remain questions of whether all of this was just “essentially a coincidence.” It was a bizarre claim. The Post acknowledged that the report detailed the approval of the plan at least a day earlier to address the violence around the White House and threat of a breach of the compound. It also detailed how the operation was supposed to go forward earlier on that day but personnel and fencing were delayed. In the meantime, the White House decided on its own to move forward with a photo op. Barr’s comment would seem the obvious one when told about the plan for a photo op as the personnel were still deploying to clear the area. None of that seems particularly challenging or incomprehensible.
Of course, the photo op was not the only false account by Bump from that day. The federal government long denied using “tear gas” in its operation as opposed to pepper balls in the clearing operation on June 6th. The difference has little real significance either legally or practically. The IG found that “the USPP incident commander did not authorize CS gas for this operation. Expecting that CS gas would not be used, most USPP officers did not wear gas masks.” Not only did the IG not find evidence of tear gas in the federal operation, “the MPD confirmed, that the MPD used CS gas on 17th Street on June 1. As discussed above, the MPD was not a part of nor under the control or direction of the USPP’s and the Secret Service’s unified command structure.”
In fact, the District admitted that it used tear gas about a block away in its enforcement of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s curfew. The admission was itself breathtaking since the media lionized Bowser for her stance against the operation and specifically the use of tear gas. For a year, the District knew that it used the tear gas and said nothing to the public as Bowser basked in the media glow – and Barr was attacked as a liar. Bump simply does not discuss that disproven “fact.”
Yet, the Post is now claiming that Bump has not published false claims on Lafayette Park and stands by his account that the park was cleared for the photo op and presumably that tear gas was used by federal officers.
The Hunter Biden Laptop and Campaign Spying
The Post also stands by Bump’s repeated claims of Russian collusion by the Trump campaign. I previously criticized Bump for those columns. Bump was, as usual, consistent and categorical in embracing any claims against Trump. For example, Bump slammed Trump for claiming that his campaign was spied on by the FBI under the Obama Administration. (Trump used the term “wiretapping” which is a rather dated term for surveillance). Bump again guffawed at the suggestion. Later it was shown that the surveillance did target both the campaign and campaign associates.
In 2021, when media organizations were finally admitting that the laptop was authentic, Bump was still declaring that it was a “conspiracy theory.” Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Bump continued to suggest that “the laptop was seeded by Russian intelligence.”
The media like the New York Times later admitted that the laptop was authentic but the Post now insists that Bump was correct that the laptop was seeded by Russian intelligence and that there was never FBI spying on the Trump campaign.
Russian Collusion
Bump and I have sparred in past years over Russian collusion. FBI officials have acknowledged that the Russian collusion investigation was based on false reports, including the Steele dossier. The Special Counsel found that the investigation lacked a factual foundation for the full investigation launched under former FBI Director James Comey.
Even as other media was acknowledging that the Russian collusion claims were debunked, Bump was still swinging. In one column, he declared:
‘The report details how the Russian collusion conspiracy was invented by Clinton operatives and put into the now-infamous Steele dossier, funded by the Clinton campaign,’ Turley writes, incorrectly. At another point, he writes that “President Barack Obama and his national security team were briefed on how ‘a trusted foreign source’ revealed ‘a Clinton campaign plan to vilify Trump by tying him to Vladimir Putin so as to divert attention from her own concerns relating to her use of a private email server.’ It then happened a few days later.” That is also incorrect.”
Let’s start with the second claim. Bump says that it is untrue that Obama was briefed on the Clinton campaign plan. Notably, in the long time line that follows, Bump never shows how the statement is false. Indeed, he admits that “Russian intelligence obtained by the U.S. government indicates that Clinton’s campaign decided to ‘vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service.’”
Note Bump does not deny the briefing occurred. Indeed, the line is based on the Durham report and the briefing was previously reported by media. Rather, he later reveals that he is just objecting because the Clinton people would not confirm the intelligence report. He writes:
“That allegation remains unconfirmed to this day despite Durham questioning Clinton staffers about it. Clinton herself told Durham that the claim — sourced to Russia, which Durham describes as a “trusted foreign source” — “looked like Russian disinformation to me; they’re very good at it, you know.”
So Bump is citing Clinton whose campaign funded the dossier, hid the funding in its legal budget, denied its role to reporters, and actively pushed not one but two false claims with the FBI.
Bump then adds, bizarrely, that “it’s strange to argue both that the Clinton campaign explicitly sought to dig up dirt linking Trump to Russia, leading to Steele’s work in June, and that it wasn’t until late July that they decided to make this a core strategy. The latter undermines the former.” I will leave that to you to figure out.
Now on to the main event. Bump says it is false that “The report details how the Russian collusion conspiracy was invented by Clinton operatives and put into the now-infamous Steele dossier, funded by the Clinton campaign.”
Once again, when you get to his proof, it is not there. He does not defend the actual allegations in the dossier that Durham demolishes in his Report. He only suggests that others may have invented or pushed their own conspiracy theories a couple weeks earlier.
Bump curiously starts the relevant timeline in June 2016 and emphasizes that the Clinton campaign did not make the collusion effort a “core strategy” until July. That formal decision is used rather than the earlier dates when Fusion was hired and the research funded by the campaign. Durham details how Fusion approached Steele in May 2016 to do the work.
Bump details how figures like Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook were raising Russian concerns as proof that the Russian collusion allegations were not just the work of the campaign.
Citing the Clinton campaign manager as evidence that others were raising the concerns is hardly compelling. It also does not alter the fact that the campaign’s dossier manufactured false allegations that were then fed to the government and media.
However, the Post now stands with Bump’s continued fostering of the Russian conspiracy theories.
I have previously criticized Bump for his refusal to acknowledge his past false statements. I suggested that he was at odds even with his own newspaper. While this may trigger yet another hit piece in the Post, I felt that it was worth setting out the basis for my prior criticism. Now the Post has clarified that it is standing by the claims that (1) Lafayette Park was cleared for a photo op, (2) Barr did lie about the use of tear gas, (3) the Hunter Biden laptop was seeded by Russian intelligence with false information, (4) there was never any spying of the FBI on the Trump campaign, and (5) the Clinton campaign did not create and foster the false Russian collusion claims.
That, if nothing else, offers needed clarity. As Bump himself intoned in his past writings, “It is the job of the media to tell the truth.” So the truth is that these were all true statements and the Post stands by them.
You forgot to mention to move the FBI HQ to Wyoming.
Oh no….not Wyoming….far too nice a State.
How about Fort Irwin, California…..that way they get to live in the middle of no where, pay the outrageous California Taxes, and have to comply with the idiotic California Laws…..and shopping is really expensive due to the gas prices.
They favor Democrats….let them live in a Democrat Utopia.
No smog, no over population issues, even illegal aliens avoid the place.
Plus, Fort Irwin needs a reason to exist now that desert armored warfare is a thing of the past.
If a prog/left democrat is speaking, you can be assured that it is a lie. That’s all you need to know.
The Washington Post is ridiculous. Of course, the WP stands by Philip Bump and continues to express its deep distain for facts and evidence. And the WP’s unassailable “logic” is that Presstitute A agrees with Presstitute B, which agrees with Presstitute C; and, therefore, all three Presstitutes must be correct.
i can’t believe what I just read in JT’s blog, I was a long lasting democrat who changed in 2016. I’m just a law-abiding citizen of a country i once strongly believed in. What ever happened to the days of JFK THE 1ST PRESIDENT I coild vote for who made me feel great about government, the president and why not Camelot, I do not claim to be a learned scholar, just an average Joe or Josephine who was so impacted by a “journalist” JT wrote about. In my remaining years, can I just read about the country coming together and just plain unity/
Fascist Democrats don’t want Unity…so GET THAT our of your head
There is NO ONE more Hate Filled, Greedy, Hypocrite than a Democrat!
They want Power and Money…and will DESTORY any and every one to GET IT!
WP says: “Democracy dies in darkness.” Lying on important public issues is an extreme form of darkenss. Therefore, the WP is killing democracy.
edamahl@gmail.com: And the lights have been out at WaPo for a very long time.
I will tell you where Barr was a lia’. In regards to 20 election. He was asked on video about 2000 Mules. He laughed and said a guy drivers by a ballot box 5 times and that shows voter fraud. He called it a joke. He knew that was a li’. He knew you had to have not driven anywhere near the ballot boxes 2 weeks before election days and no where near 2 weeks after end of election days. He knows you had to for the voting period. Drive to DNC office to pick up the zuckerbuck ballots. Then drive to ballot boxes and then drive back to DNC offices to get paid and show the photo. The law was the ballot box had to have a working camera over it during election period. The feed had to be preserved for 23 months after. They were only able to get 15 to 20% of the feeds. On every one we saw it lined up. Billy up to the Bar knew this and buried it. Worst AG in history and that takes a lot when you have Garland wandering around
I heard a rumor that the “peaceful” protesters at Lafayette Park injured fifty Secret Service agents.
Seriously Jonathan, you lower yourself when you attempt to defend your position vs Bump’s. This hack has zero credibility within his own circles. You should remain above the fray and just nod and say ok. We will all laugh together at this clown.
A lot of people believe that bumpkin clown so push back should occur.
Tragic is the best word to describe what has happened to the Washington Post’s fall from Grace…it has lowered its standards to mediocre tabloid values to the extent that fiction is now fact… RIP Ben Bradlee and Katherine Graham and the once mighty fortress in Journalism Excellence.. no more.
Jonathan, The Democratic Party Media-Cons plan to keep you on the Run.
𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐋𝐞𝐭 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐦. 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩 𝐁𝐮𝐦𝐩’𝐬 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭 ‘𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐛𝐮𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐭’.
Keep Your Powder Dry. Keep Your Eye on the Target.
𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟓, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 | 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧’𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝟒𝟑𝟒 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐚𝐰𝐚𝐲.
8/29/2-23 to 11/05/2024
Result: 434 days
Or 1 year, 2 months, 7 days excluding the end date.
Or 14 months, 7 days excluding the end date.
𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟓𝐭𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑
Give Em Hell: Comer / Jordan
James Comer
𝐈𝐟 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭, 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐉𝐨𝐞 𝐁𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧’𝐬 𝐃𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐞 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐁𝐞?
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/if-james-comer-is-correct-what-could-the-defense-possibly-be/
Jim Jordan
𝐑𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐞𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐉𝐢𝐦 𝐉𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐚𝐧 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐏𝐨𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐳𝐞 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐟 𝐆𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞
Austin Sarat ~ 28 Aug 2023
https://verdict.justia.com/2023/08/28/ron-desantis-and-jim-jordan-offer-a-preview-of-how-republicans-will-politicize-justice-in-the-united-states-if-given-the-chance
𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 ‘𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠’ 𝐈𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒 𝐄𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩 𝐓𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥, 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐫𝐞 𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐑𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈𝐭
By: John Daniel Davidson ~ August 29, 2023
[lINK://] thefederalist.com/2023/08/29/democrats-arent-interfering-in-2024-election-with-trump-trial-theyre-blatantly-rigging-it/
You can smell the fear coming from the left. With nothing else to run on they reach back into the RussiaGate theory. If you don’t believe me you can pick up a copy of the Post and the stench coming from page one will make you gag. You know that when they have to go back to disproven theories that they are reaching for any straw that will keep them in power. Next to these devils putrid smells like a rose petal.
TiT,
They screamed in 2020, “The MOST free and FAIR election EVER!!!”
Come 2024 and if Trump wins, what will they scream then? “RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE!!!!!! THEY STOLE THE ELECTION!!!!!!”
And then let the fun begin.
Excellent analysis again, as usual, Jonathan. And, more of the same from a newspaper that’s best days are CLEARLY behind it. I used to read the WP all the time.
I still occasionally read it when I buy it, single purchase and rarely, right next to the National Inquirer, where it’s displayed for sale. It still works best, I’ve found–like Philip Bump’s “articles” when sitting on the commode . . . when one hasn’t any TP.
The Washington Post works just fine when torn up in small squares. And one issue can last months of TP usage.
The best thing is that one can read about how parasitic worms were found in Biden’s Brain after he complained about headaches–it wasn’t apparently all the problems he’s caused as the WP says.
Oh, yes . . . one more thing . . . apparently the worms had starved from a lack of something to eat nearby . . .
The WaPo and their reporters are the Red Guard of the Dim Party. They spew falsity and gustily accuse every truthteller of the journalistic “crime” that they themselves commit. Forget them as we have Bud Light, Target, Coke, Disney, ESPN, Blackrock and every other woke institution that despises everything that we are or aspire to be. They are not worth our attention, time or money. They will, sooner or later, collide with the great wall of indifference they constructed stone by stone with their zeal to brand us all rubes, ingrates or worse yet evil. I’ve learned to not worry about thiings over which I have no or limited control. That said, depriving them of their money is a simple way to protest their unAmericanism. And when I say, “Tuck Fhem”, I’m not referring to a Mark Twain novel.
“Under certain circumstances, urgent circumstances, desperate circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.”
~Mark Twain, a Biography
Honestly, I lost interest in this article due to it beginning by defending Fat Lying CLOWN Bill Barr, who rivals current AG Garland and privious AG Eric Holder for being a duplicitous lying scumbag who’s probably a bigger criminal than most of the criminals that his DOJ prosecuted.
Defending scumbagging Bill Barr in the media is about as low as defending scumbagging Michael Avenatti in the media. It’s one thing to defend these hardened criminals in court, where it’s a lawyer’s JOB to defend them IF that lawyer is one of their defense attorneys. But defending these criminal CLOWNS in the media is NOT the job of a defense attorney, so criticism of that conduct is well-deserved.
Put simply, Bill Barr is a thoroughly-corrupt thug who began his government career as a lawyer for the CIA. That’s a LOT like being a mob lawyer, and that’s basically what Fat, Corrupt, Lying CLOWN Bill Barr is. Trump picked him because he had no choice after being informed that Barr was the clown that the corrupt Senate would confirm, so I don’t blame Trump — I blame the corrupt Senate, including and especially Mitch McConnell, the Korrupt Klown from Kentucky. There’s not telling what Trump might have accomplished with an HONEST AG and an honest Senate. Forget about an honest media, ’cause that’s NEVER gonna happen.
Barr’s a gator as Imentioned back when trump appointed him. He’s an honorable gator but a gatornonetheless. When the fat hits the pan he’s a DC Insider and no amount of the “right thing” is going to change.
There are little snapper gators floating around the backwaters of the swamp .. . then there are giant 20′ big fat swamp gators like Barr.
If Trump smelled something fishy in Ukraine/Burisma, why wasn’t Barr on top of it?
*Barr’s crocodile tears over the FD-1023 notwithstanding.
I’ve heard a rumor that Dick Head is eyeing a new commenter to caricature. Stay tuned.
>”… so I don’t blame Trump”
Barr, Pompeo .. . freaking psycho John Bolton! Ditch the Mitch working behind the scenes.
There’s a pattern here . .. I blame Trump.
*I know where the buck stops.
It was rather enjoyable to watch the good professor take down in orderly step by step fashion, as he would if he was making a case in a court of law.
Something the WaPo does not appear able to do, and would lose in a court of law.
To the WaPo lurkers or even Mr. Bump himself,
Are you going to continue to double or even triple down on your disproved comments?
Democracy dies in darkness indeed.
“The political left has shown its pattern of propaganda lies within their narratives so many times that it’s beyond me why anyone would blindly accept any narrative that the political left and their lapdog Pravda-USA media actively push?”
Philip Bump is an active part of Pravda-USA, he’s a political attack dog and false propaganda is the teeth he bares. He’ll never acknowledge that his propaganda is false even after it’s proven to be false; therefore, in my opinion, Philip Bump is a bald-faced liar.
The email sent by the Washington Post to Jonathan Truley is signature significant.
Signature Significance: Signature significance posits that a single act can be so remarkable that it has predictive and analytical value, and should not be dismissed as statistically insignificant. SOURCE
In my opinion, the Washington Post engages in activist journalism that supports the Democratic Party and doesn’t care about the truth, the Washington Post cannot and should not be trusted as a reliable news source.
Ironically, Pravda is Russian for ‘Truth’. So, the misleading propaganda starts with the name itself.
What a despicable development. Aligned with late Soviet mendacity.
The mainstream media is in complete lockstep and will remain so until they achieve victory in the 2024 presidential election. They are blinded by their hatred of President Trump. Thank you, Jonathan, for an excellent article.
That tear gas that Bump smells is really the “odor of mendacity” from his writings.
very clear the Democrats are a FASCIST party driven on outrageous propaganda design to enrich the richest and destroy the REST of America
DC is lost…hence GOP needs to remove 75% of Government FROM THERE…while cutting 50% of Federal Spending! End all federal aid to cities, states and colleges. 5% tax on the Gross of All Wall Street Transactions including moving money offshore. Tax all non profits…where anyone gets $100k