Trump ‘Seven-Hour Phone Call Gap’ Story Turns out to Be Another Media-Manufactured Hoax
CNN: “The 6 pages of WH switchboard logs for 1/6 are complete based on an official review of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter. There are no missing pages & the 7 hour gap is likely explained by use of WH landlines & cell phones.”
One big reason why trust in the mainstream media has dipped to all-time lows is the near-constant stream of supposed “blockbuster” stories about President Donald Trump during his time in office that turned out to either be blown way out of proportion or were twisted or manufactured to fit a narrative that didn’t remotely match reality.
The most notable and infamous instance of a story that was long on dramatics and theatrics but short on actual substance was the “Russia collusion” hoax in which the MSM and their Democrat allies including failed 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton alleged that Trump colluded with Russia to “steal” the 2016 election.
We heard it for four years, but as we all now know, the real conspiracy during the 2016 election was the one where Clinton’s campaign and the DNC colluded with high-ranking intelligence officials in the Obama-Biden administration to sabotage Trump’s presidential campaign by, among other things, trying to pass off a fake dossier otherwise known as the “Steele dossier” as definitive proof of Trump’s supposed guilt.
The latest instance of a media “bombshell” story that in the end turned out to be a gigantic nothingburger was the one where they breathlessly reported earlier this week that there was an alleged “seven-hour gap” in Trump’s phone logs on the day of the Capitol riot. The insinuation was strong from the Usual Suspects in the press, on the left, and the Never Trump “right” that what this really meant was that Trump perhaps had figured out a way to circumvent having any calls show up on an official log because he perhaps was conspiring with “other officials” who were supposedly in on the Capitol riot plot or whatever.
Interestingly enough, this “report” first surfaced back in February, and at the time, even news outlets like the New York Times were noting that “it is well known that Mr. Trump routinely used his personal cellphone, and those of his aides, to talk with other aides, congressional allies and outside confidants, bypassing the normal channels of presidential communication.” In other words, the mysterious “gap” was likely able to be explained away by that or another similarly inconvenient fact.
But for some reason, maybe to distract from Joe Biden’s basement polling numbers or from the fact that the Jan. 6th Committee has found nothing to implicate Trump, CBS News and the Washington Post reported on the story earlier this week as though it was new news:
BREAKING: CBS News and the Washington Post have obtained White House records turned over to the House, which show a gap in President Donald Trump's phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes on January 6. https://t.co/52MSlvy5f9
— CBS News (@CBSNews) March 29, 2022
White House logs from Jan. 6 turned over to House show gap in Trump calls of seven hours and 37 minutes https://t.co/jnDZ2e9Tj4
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 29, 2022
Here’s a tweet from CNN where they initially talked about the “speculation” as to what the alleged gap could mean:
The mystery of the seven-hour gap has fueled furious speculation as to why calls are missing. https://t.co/vytFrgI9i9
— CNN (@CNN) April 1, 2022
Twitter blue-checks rushed to proclaim this supposed phone call gap proved that Trump was somehow involved in helping orchestrate the Capitol riot. Some, like the WaPo’s Bob Woodward (who with colleagues broke the “gap” story), even compared it to the missing minutes from the Nixon tapes:
CNN just admitted that the “Trump phone log gap” was a total hoax
Here are some epic blue-check Ls: pic.twitter.com/vNhjk6uhCb
— Jewish Patriot 🇺🇸 (@MAGAJew2) April 1, 2022
'Astonishing': Bob Woodward compares Trump call log gap to infamous Nixon tapes gap https://t.co/63sBHd0CaX
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) March 31, 2022
Sadly for the media and Democrats, the story had to be walked back after multiple sources said the log “reflects Trump’s typical phone habits” and was “not unusual”:
CNN Breaking: The 6 pages of WH switchboard logs for 1/6 are complete based on an official review of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter. There are no missing pages & the 7 hour gap is likely explained by use of WH landlines & cell phones link👇🏻
— Jamie Gangel (@jamiegangel) April 1, 2022
From the CNN story:
According to multiple sources familiar with Trump’s phone behavior and the White House switchboard records, the January 6 log reflects Trump’s typical phone habits. He mainly placed calls through the switchboard when he was in the residence but rarely used it when he was in the Oval Office. The fact the log does not show calls on January 6, 2021, from the Oval Office is not unusual, said the sources, because Trump typically had staff either place calls directly for him on landlines or cell phones. Those calls would not be noted on the switchboard log.
The six pages of White House switchboard logs for January 6, 2021, are complete based on an official review of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter. There are no missing pages and the seven-hour gap is likely explained by use of White House landlines, White House cell phones and personal cell phones that do not go through the switchboard.
Gee, another “walls are closing in” Trump scandal that wound up being a media-manufactured hoax. Total shocker.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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Comments
Yep. All a hoax. Of course, that only means that now the democrats will be hysterically demanding to know what phone calls were made & who Trump was talking to during those 7 hours. But at least we know there was nothing nefarious or illegal about the gap.
WaPooo!, again.
It’s okay. In three or four years, when it no longer matters, they will issue a retraction.
The real “gap” is in the news reporting that manipulates, stretches, takes things out of context in order to give the wrong impression.
“Some, like the WaPo’s Bob Woodward (who with colleagues broke the “gap” story), even compared it to the missing minutes from the Nixon tapes”
The “investigative press” is like Hollywood. Due to a recent “supply chain shortage” of new and exciting ideas, they have both been reduced to doing nothing but issuing inferior remakes of their “hit” releases of long ago.
One might even speculate this is because they’re in exactly the same business: fiction.
What a surprise! I can’t believe the lamestream misleadia would lie about President Trump! You would think that maybe if Trump were even a fraction as bad as they try to portray him as then they wouldn’t have to make sh*t up about him.
This will not be a popular opinion but unless you are a super political junkie you likely didn’t care even if you heard of the seven hour gap myth, and more than likely you didn’t hear about it.
Vast majority of people also don’t think the riot crossed the line into an insurrection, do think the Democrats are overplaying it for political reasons and don’t like it.
However they also think Trump caused the riot by preaching that the election was stolen, correctly blame him for holding the rally, and they overwhelmingly reject the stolen election/voter fraud narrative (of which 2 years later there still exists no evidence).
Just flip the script and would you have liked Democrats demanding an election we won be overturned with no proof of any voter fraud?
What if Democrats rioted demanding that?
The Democrats politicized it and overplayed it but the riot is not something the public likes.
Ben Shapiro and Andrew Klavan have both made the same points I am making now, if those are bolsheviks to you than there really is no hope for ya.
Proving there was no insurrection does nothing for us, the public never thought there was one they think Trump exercised horrible judgement, caused a riot, and is being a sore loser when he lost the election.
No evidence of voter fraud you say? There’s a little voter fraud being talked about ……but there is a shit ton of evidence of ELECTION FRAUD…..
This is just a little preview a small preview of what’s out there……the task to organize it will be a massive task.
anyone making a statement like that cannot be considered serious.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/ballot-bombshells-20-episodes-exposing-fraud-illegalities-and#insticator-commenting
The case for fraud is a total joke.
The case presented by the website you link to is just a lot of hear say and nonsense from a long discredited reporter. The ‘studies’ and ‘investigations’ linked are done by conspiratorial grifters like Ayyadurai. The way the article is framed is so bloody dishonest – the Arizona joke audit which would flunk any basic examination is used as an example; even when it concluded no fraud. It even cites overturned rulings! Jesus man, if this is your standard of evidence it wouldn’t surprise me if you thought Elvis was still alive.
That said there is a lot of evidence of Republican’s fraud. Sending in fake electoral slates is pretty much the definition of fraud.
That op-ed has nothing except for the Georgia SoS investigating allegations. That the Georgia SoS is investigating at all is a thorough debunking of the idea that he or the governor rigged the Georgia Election.
The Trump speech did not cause the “riot”.
There were tons of election irregularities.
Democrats in 2016-2020 (and even now) claim Trump somehow stole the election. There WERE riots in DC over this. Maybe you missed those? Those riots were much more damaging than a few broken windows.
Color me surprised. I knew there had to be some simple explanation.
Of course now they’re going to say that his regular habit of not using the switchboard from the Oval Office was illegal. Fine, let them say it. I don’t think so, but even if it was, that wasn’t the point they were trying to make. Their point was that this was proof of a conspiracy, that he deliberately didn’t use the switchboard because he knew he was making calls that there shouldn’t be any record of. Now we know he didn’t use the switchboard because he never used it when he was in the Oval Office.
So no conspiracy, nothing unusual, just his normal (and sure, perhaps illegal if you insist) behavior for four years. He didn’t instigate the riot, he wasn’t involved in it, his offer of the National Guard had already been turned down days earlier, at first he didn’t try to talk the rioters down because he had no reason to suppose they would listen to him, but when it was made clear to him that for his own sake he had to dissociate himself from it he did. There’s still no evidence that the rioters took any notice of his call for them to go home, or that they would have if he’d made it any earlier.
That’s factually incorrect. The log clearly shows a number of calls before and after the missing period. The missing period is precisely during the time frame of the insurrection and we already know calls were made during that time.
Actually a judge has ruled that Trump was plausible in inciting the insurrection and more recently likely committed felony obstruction in relation to Jan 6th.
With respect to the National guard that’s a pretty god awful argument , the question is in relation to the day itself not the prior references
With respect to Trumps handling of records he is orders of magnitude worse that Obama. The man took classified records from the white house, flushed notes down the toilet and used burner phones.
PS: It appears that 0bama had the same habit of not using the switchboard when he was in the Oval Office. So even if a case could be made that it’s illegal, the Dems won’t be making it.
I believe fundraising calls or other uses of the official government communication channels for political purposes (such as discussing RNC strategy) is illegal/improper. Didn’t Al Gore get into trouble for just that when he was making fundraising calls from his VP office line?
In that case, Trump using a personal phone to call people for political discussion is not only reasonable, but the correct process that abides by the law.
No, using the White House phones for discussing political strategy is just fine.
Fundraising in the White House is illegal no matter whose phone you use. You have to go across the street to do it.
This whole fabricated story reeks of Adam Schitts
Releasing partial and fabricated bombshells to select media is what he does
It’s ALL he does
Bob Woodward just has to accept reality: his big heyday was decades ago. He sounds like Al Bundy going on and on about his incredible high school football career. Sorry mister but that’s the past; the world moves on for all of us.
More #fakenews.
Let’s get the impeachment proceedings and congressional investigations going, already.
No evidence equals no case except in the woke world and Biden who wants an indictment to draw attention away from his abysmal record and the Biden RICO enterprise
The Doctrine of Media Untruth
When knowledge, wisdom, independent thought, even basic competence were no longer requisites for success, then the media naturally slid into mediocrity, and mastered networking and obsequiousness instead of valuing independence.
As a general rule, when the New York Times, the Washington Post, National Public Radio, Public Broadcasting Service, NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, and CNN begin to parrot a narrative, the truth often is found in simply believing just the opposite.
Put another way, the media’s “truth” is a good guide to what is abjectly false. Perhaps we can call the lesson of this valuable service, the media’s inadvertent ability to convey truth by disguising it with transparent bias and falsehood, the “Doctrine of Media Untruth.” Victor Davis Hanson
We live with a news media that doesn’t value the truth at all. They will say literally anything any source feeds them as long as it helps Democrats remain in power, and that’s assuming they aren’t just making things up wholesale without any sourcing whatsoever.