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.
“The federal government long denied using “tear gas” . . .” (JT)
So the killing of a trespasser at the Capitol Building is a “righteous” shooting.
But (allegedly) using tear gas to disperse rioters and arsonists from Lafayette Park is a cause for national hand-wringing.
I think I’m starting to understand how this works.
It is almost as if the rioters’ cause is the determining factor.
that was a hoot JFeldman, sounded a bit like a return to Tin Pan Alley songs…
There’s always enough room for decent sorts like yourself here in Oklahoma.
Haggard ( Run Out of Bakersfield) & Jim Beam are still legal here!
& My wife has a better deal then Tammy. No Fault Agreement. We said we DO W/out the Govt. 🙂
Ok1,
Oklahoma is one of the states I haven’t yet visited, (OH, OK, MO, AR, KS, & RI). I hope to visit these at some point if things go well.
The Seasons here can change on a whim, they let us know we’re alive, a bit of an adjustment, but we don’t have the cougar problem here as friend has in Colorado.
In that neighborhood I think she needs a couple of grizzy bears to sort things out. lol;)
(Just imagine a horde of mid 40s/50s horny women ) LOL:) I’m in fear for for my Life!
Anyway, eastern Ok, Lake Tinkiller area is really nice.
BTW: I may have had a mild stoke ? I feel better but it was something tough.
Ck Ivermectin, etc., kills spike proteins from the CV19 shots # boosters, some say.
Glad you recovered from the stroke, events such as this often show us what is actually important in life.
Thks Darren.
I don’t know, but I don’t think racers/people like Dale Earnhardt Jr every won any races without their foots on the accelerator pedal shoved through the floor board & no or little breaking.
This latest bout exhaustion, whatever, I know what I spent it on & I’m seeing positive results in all classes of our citizens nation.
None of us ride for free. LoL;)
It reminds me of an ole joke of a trucker hauling chickens & a rooster throwing hens out the back that was pulled over by a trooper.
https://slaynews.com/news/ivermectin-reduce-excess-deaths-74-percent-new-study/
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/09/federal-court-rules-fda-abused-its-authority-anti/
Good job. A lot of people are still living the lie in their minds because no one was allowed to tell them.
Dr Peter McCullough for the win.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think racers/people like Dale Earnhardt Jr every won any races without their foots on the accelerator pedal shoved through the floor board & no or little breaking
Correction:
“I don’t know, but I don’t think racers/people like Dale Earnhardt Jr every won any races without their foots on the accelerator pedal shoved through the floor board & no or little breaking, patience & discernment. “
The OSS psychological profile of Hitler described his use of the big lie:
“His primary rules were: never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.”
Source: https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/psychological-analysis-of-hitler-s-life-and-legend-2
Hitler didn’t use the big lie. He identified it as a tactic of his opponents.
I don’t mean to be overly cynical, but all I see anymore is, ‘Dems lie. Dems gaslight. Every time they open their mouths. Dems are corrupt, privileged, aristocrats. Dems are the elite the young and woke think they are fighting against. Blah, blah, blah.’. Wake up the other half of the country, nay, Western world, and we might have a case. Let’s hope these posts help and save us from the eventualities of the 1930s. Otherwise, the requisite response is, ‘Yep.’, and, ‘So?’. What do we do??? Until we are strung up by our necks for advocating decency and common sense, and in America, law.
“Remember when they made up 91 fake charges against a former president but couldn’t find who left some blow in the current guy’s White House?” @MonicaCrowley
Please try to remember what aristocracy is: It’s government by the BEST. What we have is the opposite: kakistocracy., or government by the worst.
I’m glad you said that because this is a public lynching by the demoncrats LOL
At some point you will accept your former progressives buddies are simply stupid.
Their ethics were corrupted.
Let’s face it the democrat base is. We have however decently intelligent people who run the dem ruses for the nation.
We just saw the ivy leagues pump them out and 80% get A’s. LOL
Okay that didn’t work.
I grew up here, and before I paid attention to politics the general indoctrination from the tv radio and paper publishing was gung ho dem.
I was unknowingly, because I didn’t pay attention and had other interests and pursuits, brain washed hard to the demoncrat left.
So this is used by the liars in charge, and has been used, for some time.
The Washington Compost and its writers like Mr. Bump are inveterate liars. They are propagandist for the party in power. The engage in character assassination and invariably publish damaging stories on their opponents whether true or not and often immediately before an election. They are insidious Bump is a particularly nasty and dishonest scriber of lies. Their type of journalism is basically Pravda or Stormtrooper light. The only good thing to know is that their influence extends barely beyond the salons of Georgetown. The NYT is far more pernicious and outright evil as their malign influence invades the body politic like a virulent virus. From the coverup of the Ukrainian famine and Holocaust to their protection of the CCP and modern terrorists, the NYT is a true abomination
Re:Lafayette Park……Like many of us, I followed that story closely. The IG for the Department of the Interior was an Obama man.
After an investigation that lastewed a year and a-half, he determined there had been no wrongdoing. Period.
I like the subtle way Professor Turley shows a pic of the Bump on the Post so we can see for ourselves what a dork he is.
It’s a mystery how anyone still a) reads the Post; b) believes what they read in the Post; c) is surprised when what they read in the Post turns out to be utter nonsense. They’ve gone from reporting news (presumably, at some time in the distant past) to simply serving as a daily narrative propper-upper for the Orange Man Bad cultists.
Personally, I think there are stories more worthy of Turley’s commentary than “WaPo dishes out more ridiculous fabrications and refuses to back down when confronted with actual facts because why would they?” But that’s just me.
can Phil swim? will anyone at WahPutz leadership care if Bump and other writers drown when the company drowns for good?
https://www.semafor.com/article/08/29/2023/washington-post-lays-off-staff-from-arc-xp
** The Washington Post lays off staff from tech arm, Arc XP, the technology arm of the paper**
“Since Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Post in 2013, the paper has invested heavily in Arc, believing that the software company could represent a significant line of revenue beyond the paper’s advertising and subscription business.
With subscriber numbers dipping from 3 million to 2.5 million, the Post is reportedly likely to lose nearly $100 million this year. The paper already laid off over 30 editorial staffers earlier this year, and new interim CEO Patty Stonesifer has been meeting with staff in recent months to discuss long-term “weeds” within the paper.”
Gold star dad goes scorched earth on biden, blinken, austen, milley, et al, calling biden a “disgrace to this nation”…
(*of course the Democrat-propaganda-fake-news will ignore this gold star father’s words because the fake news only serve Democrat narratives)
“Two years has gone by and where are we? To be frank, we’re knee deep in bullsh*t, is where we are. Everyone who held a key position in the military still has that position or has been promoted, ” Schmitz began.
“Not a single person has been held accountable. Our so-called leader can’t seem to even utter their names in public, not even once,” he continued. “Mr. Biden has run his entire campaign for 50 years as the family man. Well I’ve got news for you, sir. The curtain has been lifting…”
https://dailycaller.com/2023/08/29/gold-star-dad-scorched-earth-biden-treatment-kabul-attack/
“…and that campaign slogan will never work again. We have seen what’s going on in your family and even worse, we’ve seen how you’ve been treating us as Gold Star families. And there couldn’t be anything more disgusting and cowardly than the way you have treated us. You are a disgrace to this nation.”
“As far as any sympathy from the administration in the last two years, there has been none. That was very surprising to me,” said Steven Nikoui, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, who was 20 at the time of his death. “I thought, you know, they would have reached out at some point … but that hasn’t happened.”
((the fake propaganda news doesn’t want to give attention to these angry gold star families who are ripping joe biden a new ahole….now if it were trump being criticized, these angry families would be given airtime every single day, all day long))
Best line from this father’s speech:
“When I stood there on the tarmac watching you check your watch over and over again, all I wanted to do was shout out, ‘It’s two f*cking thirty, assh*le.’ But out of respect to the other grieving families I bit my tongue. But as you can probably tell by now, I’m done biting my tongue.”
Man if he had….priceless!
No one is ever held accountable — for 9/11, the seditious conspiracy against Trump, the Covid leak, or anything else. The regime benefits from, and in most cases, causes such things.
That follows what Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Scheller had said.
Venezuelan drug cartel leaders know how to take care of liars, swindlers and grifters. US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy should take note for impeachment proceedings and rogue Judges
😉
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12457087/Venezuelan-narco-body-dumped-Caribbean-Sea.html
Fugitive drug lord ‘Taliban’ who stole cartel’s 450lb cocaine shipment is tossed ALIVE into ocean with an anchor tied to his waist
Excellent piece. I will remember the name “Philip Bump.”
Was there a name associated with the email from the Washington Post that attempted to dismiss your work?
I would like to remember it as well.
You’re too fair-minded to call Philip Bump for the lying, dishonest, partisan hack that he is. Oh, but he works for WaP, so what can you expect?
O T (somewhat) – The Daily Mail is reporting today that they have read emails tying Hunter Biden to a plan with Burisma to close down Shokin’s investigation of Burisma.
Here is a quote from the article:
” ‘I think they were getting pressure and they requested Hunter help them with some of that pressure,’ Archer said.
‘The request is like, ‘Can DC help?’ he added. ‘There weren’t specific, you know, ‘Can the Big Guy help?’ It was always this amorphous, ‘Can we get help in DC?’
Archer said Pozharskyi told him Hunter ‘called his dad’ – though clarified the word the Burisma executive used was ‘DC’.
‘I just know that there was a call that happened there and I was not privy to it,’ he said.
Three days later then-VP Joe visited Kiev and met with President Petro Poroshenko, part of his role in leading relations with Ukraine for the Obama White House.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12453245/Emails-Hunter-Biden-tried-help-shut-Burisma-probe.html
Assuming these emails were not invented by the Russians, how can any House Republican refuse to approve impeachment proceedings?
Archer went one step further in his testimony to Congress. He said he had knowledge that it was Joe they called. After a recess in which his attorney reminded him that he was implicating himself in the Bribery scheme, he asked for, and was granted, permission to change his story. He was a board member and Hunter’s partner. He knew goddamn well it was Joe that was called.
Now all the talking heads act like he didn’t say it.
@Tom
That revision was easier than giving him immunity.
You can expect Archer to get that if this case goes to a criminal court.
In fact, it could be tangential in the tax case when talking about funds from Burisma.
There’s a lot of smoke.
The impeachment process will get started when they come back. It may not lead to impeachment, but it will lead to the discovery process where they can’t hide anything anymore.
Because they say they can only impeach on things he did as president, not VP.
Theres plenty he did in the past 3years, they’re just part of the uniparty hellbent on demoralizing Americans to the point of giving up or angering them to a civil war… some may be getting kickbacks as well
“Because they say they can only impeach on things he did as president, not VP.”
If thats true, then you subpoena him in the Hunter case, have him lie about it under oath, and impeach him for perjury.
The NY Times and WAPO aren’t the only papers that have been ruined by hiring young barely educated (indoctrinated) “journalists” that have arrived out of the new paradigm of J Schools…Objectivity is wrong and it may even be evil. These kids, and I do mean kids, have no clue about how the world works, especially journalism. We see them in the press briefings as they massage KJP as if she were a sore leper and they are Mother Theresa. They laugh at her jokes, grimace when Peter Doocey or Jacqui Heinrich asks a really question in a too polite fashion. They are best described as sycophants with a need for acceptance.
But it must be pointed out that it isn’t just the NY Times and WAPO along with ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN et al, it is also former major newspapers that are now rags in the business of being an employment agency for leftist children that will do whatever the Democrats tell them to do. I am talking about the Boston Globe for one, the L A Times for another, we can add USA Today and any of the many small papers that use A.P. exclusively for their news.
I read a comment the other day that was pretty spot on is explaining this new phenomenon and it is that as the media has gone into the tank for the Democrats it has become impossible to break out of the mold so to speak, i.e. when a Maureen Dowd actually criticized Biden regarding his seventh grandchild it shocked the political universe and when Jake Tapper actually said that Trump was right and Biden was wrong about Hunter and various issues it blew up the mediasphere. Therefore, and this is key, the media lefty goons cannot actually say something like Biden is looking too old because if a Chuck Todd or an Andrea Mitchell said that it would be the end of the world.
Bottom line is that these apologists for the democrats are now locked in to defending Joe Biden, a man they ALL KNOW is corrupt, a man they all know is senile and a man they all know was never intelligent. They are trapped telling you that inflation is ok and the economy is strong, that the border is secure, that gas is going down, that boys should swim on girls teams and that if you think Biden is too old you should just watch him. They are trapped defending the indefensible.
If WaPo and the NYTimes didn’t have incompetent journalists, they’d have none at all. Just part of the degradation of western civilization. The best years are behind us.
When Philip Bump sounds exactly like Gigi, then you can rest assured everything he writes is pure bullsh!t.
maybe Bump is Gigi.
I’m not discounting the possibility, but Gigi is a more prolific liar than Bump.
So what you’re saying is that Bump and Gigi are NUTCHACHACHA,aka Gnatasha???
I get so confused, but that is so plausible as to be undeniable.
That was on my mind when I wrote the comment. 🤔
The whole issue of ‘fake news’ is that its hard to spot and stop.
It’s not that hard. .. there’s just so much of it!
7 of the 10 richest counties in the Country surround DC…THEY ARE stealing at an ever increasing pace!
This is much ado, WaPo simply made a typo, it should read:
“The Washington Post stands by Philip Bump’s reporting and your characterization of his articles as “false” is correct.”