{"id":10229,"date":"2019-09-28T03:43:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-28T10:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/?p=10229"},"modified":"2019-10-16T13:42:56","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T20:42:56","slug":"from-russia-with-a-plan-after-his-press-conference-why-donald-trump-called-the-media-the-enemy-of-the-american-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/?p=10229","title":{"rendered":"The Daily Beast: The Truth About Trump\u2019s Ukraine \u2018Server\u2019 Conspiracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"The%20Daily%20Beast%3A%20The%20Truth%20About%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20Ukraine%20%E2%80%98Server%E2%80%99%20Conspiracy\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Daily-Beast-Insane.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-10888\" title=\"Daily Beast Insane\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Daily-Beast-Insane-300x265.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"265\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Daily-Beast-Insane-300x265.png 300w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Daily-Beast-Insane-1024x905.png 1024w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Daily-Beast-Insane-800x707.png 800w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Daily-Beast-Insane.png 1258w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>By<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0<\/a><a title=\"PL Amazon page\" href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Peter-Lance\/e\/B001HD1116\" target=\"_blank\">Peter Lance.\u00a0<\/a> September 29th, 2019. <\/strong>In light of what <a title=\"Kevin Poulsen Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kpoulsen\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Kevin Poulsen<\/strong><\/a> of The Daily Beast calls <a title=\"Daily Beast &quot;Trump's Insane Ukraine 'Server' Conspiracy\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/crowdstrike-the-truth-about-trumps-insane-ukraine-server-conspiracy\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;<strong>Trump&#8217;s Insane Ukraine &#8216;Server&#8217; Conspiracy,&#8221;<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0I&#8217;m reposting my piece for\u00a0\u00a0<strong><a title=\"PL Huff Post 2.18.17\" href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/58a7f2b4e4b0b0e1e0e20b23\">The Huffington Post<\/a>\u00a0on the President&#8217;s continued use of what Josef Goebbels called &#8220;The Big Lie.&#8221;\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>February 18th, 2017<\/strong>. During his rambling, seventy-seven minute\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/02\/16\/us\/politics\/donald-trump-press-conference-transcript.html\" target=\"_blank\">press conference<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Thursday the 45th President of the United States ricocheted between boasting (once again) about his November victory, by blatantly misstating his electoral vote ranking, to describing his month-old chaos presidency as a \u201cfinely tuned machine,\u201d to assuring reporters in the East Room that he\u2019d been \u201cbriefed\u201d and if the U.S. &amp; Russia ever threw down in a nuclear exchange, the \u201cholocaust would be like no other.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That was one truth even his son Barron surely knows without having to consult a PDB.<\/p>\n<p>The holocaust line and his musing that \u201clots of things are done with uranium including \u2026bad things,\u201d were among many \u201cDr. Strangelove\u201d moments in that jaw-dropping shoot-from-the-hip performance.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-presser.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-10889\" title=\"Trump presser\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-presser-300x226.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-presser-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-presser-800x603.png 800w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-presser.png 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On CNN Jake Tapper called it\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/videos\/politics\/2017\/02\/16\/trump-press-conference-jake-tapper-unhinged.cnn\/video\/playlists\/donald-trump-press-conference-2-16-17\/\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cwild\u201d and \u201cunhinged.\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley described it as\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/bigstory.ap.org\/article\/60a22e93df684f0ebaaaec63e5e68147\/trump-unprecedented-fashion-president-rips-press\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cbizarre theater.\u201d<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0Even Shepard Smith on Trump-friendly Fox News characterized his repeated misstatements of fact as,\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=-TfqTHlMszA\" target=\"_blank\">\u201ccrazy.\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Never one to hide his light under a basket, he began by crowing over \u201cthe incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration&#8230;\u00a0I don\u2019t think there\u2019s ever been a president elected who, in this short period of time, has done what we\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Certainly there\u2019s never been one who has shredded the truth with such audacity.<\/p>\n<p>-His travel ban threw airports into gridlock until it was flatly rejected by the Ninth Circuit, But on Thursday Mr. Trump called the &#8220;rollout&#8221; of his executive order, \u201cvery smooth;\u201d in fact, \u201cperfect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>-He fired National Security Advisor Michael Flynn Tuesday after he lied to the Vice President about the content of his calls to the Russian ambassador, but now he insisted that \u201cwhat (Flynn) did wasn\u2019t wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>-When April Ryan, a veteran African American reporter, asked him if his plans to rework the \u201cinner cities\u201d included getting input from The Congressional Black Caucus, the President asked, \u201cAre they friends of yours? Set up a meeting;\u201d as if he subscribed to the old stereotype that \u201cevery black person knows every other black person.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cTHE LEAKS ARE REAL. THE NEWS IS FAKE\u201d<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nContinually questioned by reporters about disclosures in Tuesday&#8217;s\u00a0<strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/nyt-trump-campaign-aides-had-repeated-contacts-with-russian-intelligence\/\">New York Times<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0that a number of his campaign aides had repeated contacts with the Russians, at a time the U.S. intel community says they were hacking the election in his favor, Mr. Trump responded that \u201cthe whole Russian thing (is) a ruse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can talk all you want about Russia,\u201d he said, calling it a \u201cfake news, fabricated deal, to try and make up for the loss of the Democrats and the press plays right into it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a classic cut-off-the-head-of-the-messenger\u201d move, he then insisted that the real problem in this Russian scandal was the continuing disclosures to the press. The leaks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose are criminal,\u201d he said, \u201cI\u2019ve actually called the Justice Department to look into\u201d them.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if they were just \u201cfake news or\u2026 real leaks,\u201d he responded, \u201cWell the leaks are real\u2026 absolutely real. The news is fake, because so much of the news is fake.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When pressed on whether his administration\u2019s relationship with the Kremlin might be too cozy as a result of his own dealings with Moscow, Mr. Trump insisted flatly, \u201cI own nothing in Russia. I have no loans in Russia. I don\u2019t have any deals in Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>MULTIPLE RUSSIAN CONNECTIONS<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>But in the two months since we\u2019ve used this website to curate the best investigative reporting on the Trump election, transition and presidency, we\u2019ve assembled more than\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/category\/the-russian-connection-election-hack\/\" target=\"_blank\">100 articles<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0proving that Donald Trump has had\u00a0<em>dozens\u00a0<\/em>of business relationships here and abroad with interests from The Russian Federation \u2013 many dating back to the early 2000\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-17-at-9.16.35-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"568\" height=\"427\" \/><\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s been in multi-million dollar deals with oligarchs and Russian gangsters; some of which could have produced the kind of\u00a0<em>kompromat<\/em>\u00a0that Vladimir Putin, an ex-KGB Lieutenant Colonel, could use to lean on the U.S. President. His production of The Miss Universe contest in Moscow three years ago was far from Donald Trump\u2019s only contact in his relentless pursuit of business in the former U.S.S.R.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s no wonder that after getting such relentless questioning from reporters on the Russian issue, which the DOJ and congressional committees are now investigating, Mr. Trump lashed out at the media Friday with a series of Tweets aimed at the press<\/p>\n<p><strong>ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just after arriving at his Mar-a-Lago weekend retreat in Palm Beach, Mr. Trump Tweeted, \u201cThe FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @CNN, @NBC News and many more) \u00a0 is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people. SICK!\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-tweet1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-10884\" title=\"Trump tweet\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-tweet1-300x132.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-tweet1-300x132.png 300w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-tweet1-1024x451.png 1024w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-tweet1-800x353.png 800w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-tweet1.png 1192w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Then, 16 minutes later, apparently deciding to expand the objects of his vitriol to include two more network news organizations \u2013 ABC and CBS \u2013 he deleted the word \u201cSICK.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now the message read, \u201cThe FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBC News @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American people!\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-Tweet-2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-10885\" title=\"Trump Tweet (2)\" src=\"http:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-Tweet-2-300x138.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"138\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-Tweet-2-300x138.png 300w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-Tweet-2-1024x471.png 1024w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-Tweet-2-800x368.png 800w, https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Trump-Tweet-2.png 1176w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Carl Bernstein, who doggedly investigated the Watergate scandal with Bob Woodward for<em>\u00a0The Washington Post<\/em>, and who later served as the D.C. Bureau Chief for ABC News, was\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2017\/02\/17\/business\/trump-calls-the-news-media-the-enemy-of-the-people.html\">quoted in\u00a0<em>The NYT<\/em><\/a><\/strong>\u00a0as saying, \u201cDonald Trump is demonstrating an authoritarian attitude and inclination that shows no understanding of the role of the free press.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>THE BIG LIE<br \/>\n<\/strong><br \/>\nThat<em>\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0piece recounted how President Nixon, forced to resign over the Watergate cover-up, famously told his own National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger in 1972 that, \u201cThe Press is the enemy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t the first time that Donald Trump had taken a page from the Nixon playbook, as I noted in an article for\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/58681f63e4b068764965c273?timestamp=1483221570212\">The Huffington Post<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0filed on New Year\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n<p>But two weeks later in another\u00a0<strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/entry\/587bf925e4b03e071c14fe30?timestamp=1484520576079\">HuffPost<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0I identified\u00a0<em>the real role model<\/em>\u00a0that the President and his chief strategist Steve Bannon are channeling day-by-day as they put the U.S. media on the same level as a network of Kremlin spooks.<\/p>\n<p>It was\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Joseph_Goebbels\">Josef Goebbels<\/a><\/strong>, Adolf Hitler\u2019s Nazi Minister of Propaganda, who perfected \u201cthe big lie\u201d theory first set forth in Volume One, Chapter Six of Der Fuhrer\u2019s chilling manifesto\u00a0<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mein_Kampf\">\u201cMein Kampf.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright\" src=\"http:\/\/investigatingtrump.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/Screen-Shot-2017-02-17-at-9.59.02-PM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"377\" height=\"245\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,\u201d Goebbels wrote, \u201cpeople will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and\/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes\u00a0<em>vitally important<\/em>\u00a0for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So if any of you\u2019re wondering why, after his buffoon-like performance on Thursday, Donald Trump started The President\u2019s Day weekend by drawing down on \u201cthe media,\u201d understand that the real protectors of the state are the reporters who work each day to rip the lid off corruption, hypocrisy and yes \u2013 maybe even treason.<\/p>\n<p>Goebbels, was right, \u201cthe truth<em>\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0the mortal enemy of the lie. And in an administration that is nourished by falsehood at every level, the media is the best hope that \u201cthe American people\u201d will get through this presidency with their democracy intact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"The%20Daily%20Beast%3A%20The%20Truth%20About%20Trump%E2%80%99s%20Ukraine%20%E2%80%98Server%E2%80%99%20Conspiracy\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p>By\u00a0Peter Lance.\u00a0 September 29th, 2019. In light of what Kevin Poulsen of The Daily Beast calls &#8220;Trump&#8217;s Insane Ukraine &#8216;Server&#8217; Conspiracy,&#8221;\u00a0I&#8217;m reposting my piece for\u00a0\u00a0The Huffington Post\u00a0on the President&#8217;s continued use of what Josef Goebbels called &#8220;The Big Lie.&#8221;\u00a0 February 18th, 2017. During his rambling, seventy-seven minute\u00a0press conference\u00a0Thursday the 45th President of the United States [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10232,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10229"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10234,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10229\/revisions\/10234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10232"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlance.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}