Media Attack Lines Were Written Before Musk and Trump Uttered a Single Word
As Democrats try to run out the clock before Americans discover their candidate is an empty vessel, we watched as our “reasonable” and “enlightened” friends across the aisle humiliated themselves to prevent Trump from getting his message out.
The usual suspects were out in force ahead of former President Donald Trump’s Monday night interview with tech titan Elon Musk on X. As panic began to set in among the “enlightened” class over what Trump might say, warnings of the disinformation and misinformation that was sure to come filled the airwaves.
The opening salvo came from a surprising source – European Union Commissioner Thierry Breton – who reminded Musk of the EU’s content rules in a Monday morning letter. Mary Chastain covered that story here.
At Monday’s White House press briefing, Washington Post correspondent Cleve Wootson asked press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre “what role does the White House or the president have … stopping the spread of that [misinformation] or sort of intervening in that?”
The Washington Post’s Cleve Wootson: “One more, @ElonMusk is slated to interview [@realDonaldTrump] tomorrow — tonight on — on @X. I don’t know if the president is going to — feel free to say if he is or not — but I — I think that misinformation on Twitter is not just a campaign… pic.twitter.com/zKxJNF1zbf
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 12, 2024
During the interview, the Harris campaign took to X – which they refuse to call “X,” to excoriate Musk for “using his purchased platform … to spread Trump’s unhinged and hateful agenda to millions of users.” They also asked supporters to “chip in $25 now to help Kamala and Tim have the resources to respond to their lies.”
The post continued: “The richest person in the world is a lackey for Team MAGA. … Now, Musk is using his vast fortune and broad reach to try to control our democracy.”
Democrats really do accuse others of what they are actually doing. Somewhere, Saul Alinsky must be proud.
Soooo it’s ok for MSM to carry your BS water but if Elon does an interview with Trump it’s dangerous?? So damn hypocritical . What are yall afraid of? The truth ? pic.twitter.com/SmbGBRSBmE
— Wildman (@Theganeush) August 13, 2024
At any rate, following a delayed start due to technical issues, the event that Trump called “the interview of the century” began. And two hours later, the press pounced. As they say on Fox News, the “bat signal” went out from the Democratic National Committee or whatever entity it is that disseminates the narrative of the day to the legacy media. And predictably, the event was widely panned by all.
Below is a round-up of the largely negative media reaction to the interview.
Here’s what the mainstream media is saying about the #ElonMusk & #DonaldTrump Interview pic.twitter.com/NR1aGF8LdP
— Valuetainment Media (@ValuetainmentTV) August 13, 2024
One of the most brutal accounts of the interview came from USA Today’s Rex Huppke. His headline read, “Trump rambles, slurs his way through Elon Musk interview. It was an unmitigated disaster.” Except for the technical issues before the conversation began, Huppke failed to explain to readers precisely why it was an unmitigated disaster.
According to Huppke, “He was rambling, babbling on about crowd sizes and immigration and President Joe Biden and whatever else seemed to pass through his mind. He was also badly slurring his words, raising questions about his health, and doing nothing to knock down rising concerns about his age and well-being. … He sounded like a disoriented, racist Daffy Duck.
He noted that “Musk, meanwhile, has the interviewing skills of a stoned introvert. He did little but cheerlead Trump and agree with every bizarro thing that fell out of his mouth.
“I’m not going to quote anything Trump said in the interview because it was either too stupid to merit transcription or a mere repetition of the nonsense he spouts at every rally he holds,” Huppke wrote. “A big part of Trump’s problem right now is he has become almost unbearably boring. Build a wall. Drill, baby, drill. Marxist, socialist something-something. Harris only recently became Black. Blah, blah, blah.”
At the end of his sophomoric rant, Huppke told readers he is now convinced that Harris can beat Trump.
The fake “news media” seems to have all received the same memo from their masters.
Does anyone who actually heard the conversation between Elon and Donald think this is accurate? I didn’t hear a “disaster”. It sounded like an entertaining conversation to me. pic.twitter.com/RdbcSDRDFE
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) August 13, 2024
Perhaps the biggest takeaway from this much-hyped event is that there wasn’t one.
None of the commentary I’ve read or watched came anywhere close to Huppke’s scathing portrayal of the discussion. Nor, however, was it flattering to the former president.
The morning edition of Politico Playbook described the interview as a “two-hour-plus meander through the former president’s usual obsessions, which only occasionally touched on his actual opponent, VP Kamala Harris.”
The Wall Street Journal wrote: “It was hyped by Trump’s team as ‘the interview of the century,’ but the audio-only event felt more like overhearing a telephone call, often with rambling, between two figures who have grown closer as Musk’s politics have shifted to the right.”
The Journal called Trump out for “falsely claiming that ‘over 20 million people’ entered the U.S. having escaped prisons, mental institutions or insane asylums.” They also criticized him for inflating the number of illegal immigrants that crossed into the country last month. Trump is prone to exaggeration.
Axios’ reporter Stef Kight joined CNBC on Tuesday morning to discuss the interview. Aside from a recounting of the issues covered by the two men and a bit of analysis of both campaigns’ strategies for victory in November, there was nothing remarkable or disparaging about it.
Billed on X as an “unscripted” interview “with no limits on subject matter,” it was the type of occasion that typically causes Republicans to brace themselves for the type of inflammatory remark that Trump has become famous for. But that wasn’t necessary.
Their positions on the issues were pretty much aligned except for climate change. My feeling is that it really didn’t change anyone’s mind, one way or the other.
The real story was written before a single word was uttered. As Democrats try to run out the clock before Americans discover their candidate is an empty vessel, we watched as our “reasonable” and “enlightened” friends across the aisle humiliated themselves to prevent Trump from getting his message out.
—–
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
leftists win b/c they are not afraid
they hate life so they dont care about civility etc
the elites have them so manipulated they vote for their own demise
They always are. Jennifer Rubin released her column praising Kamala’s VP pick before she picked one, the name was blank ZXZX.
After Jennifer Rubin left Commentary magazine for Pravda on the Potomac she became so open-minded her brains fell out of her head.
Evidently you missed the memo: the at image you cite was a hoax:
https://www.mediaite.Com/media/this-is-a-fake-image-washington-post-forced-to-shut-down-viral-column-hoax/
Rubin is a dreadful battleaxe who doesn’t need to be lied about. The truth will hit her hard enough.
As Biden explained, “We choose truth over facts.”
They wouldn’t be pulling this stuff if Trump wasn’t winning.
People don’t seem to get that.
You don’t try to stop your opponent from being heard if you’re beating them handily.
You don’t try to have your opponent jailed if you think you’re going to win.
You don’t get someone to shoot your opponent in the head if you think the people hate him.
Whatever the media, the left, and their nevertrumper allies say remember that they tried to kill him.
They’re not actually confident. They’re terrified.
Because they know we’re coming for them.
…and will be the loudest, most unGodly braying crowd of “victims” this side of the Atlantic.
I disagree. If Kamala was winning, the left would be even more unhappy than they are now and would show even more hatred toward President Trump for having so much trouble with an absolutely horrible candidate.
I follow CNN’s data analyst Harry Enten. He’s a straight shooter. He’s warning Democrats not to get too far ahead of their skis.
https://hotair.com/ed-morrissey/2024/08/13/cnn-analyst-warns-dems-polls-are-one-thing-enthusiasm-is-quite-another-n3793087
I think the only sensible belief is to assume Big Don is 5 points down, and work still harder to get him home:
https://www.donaldjtrump.Com/join
Hell with the polls. The last one is the only one that counts.
Every campaign should be run with same sense of urgency as of their candidate was behind; complacency is an enemy. That said the polls showing a bump for Harris have lots of issues; small overall sample size and way over sample of d/prog as a % of those polled. The ‘not Biden’ bounce for Harris is likely temporary as the d/prog party platform in Chicago is gonna pander to the woke weirdo leftists of the d/prog party.
IT’s something but drawing to margin of error in polling is uncomfortable.
The Atlantic.
[…] “the former president ranting, as if on the stump, about the recent attempt on his life, the price of bacon, border security, and “nuclear warming,” with gentle, stammering interjections from Musk.”
The coastal-left think all of it is silly and boorish and trite.
Is he not “on the stump”?
USA Today did the same thing, it’s obvious the article was pre-written and/or by someone who did not watch it.
There was absolutely no ranting in the conversation. If you listen to one of the recordings Musk has put up of the convo you would hear that. It reminded me of gathering around listening to intelligent speakers discussing important topics on the radio, the way we used to do. Coastal elites have to think they are superior to everyone so of course they think of someone not their chosen candidate as ‘silly, boorish and trite’. Trump grew these past few years in his ability to communicate in a level even manner. You should take the time to listen. You might find it worth your time. I did.
If Trump loses, Musk is their next target. I would look for him to be indicted (or worse) by next summer if Harris is inaugurated.
Don’t Musk’s main businesses depend upon government subsidy and cooperation? The self-interested thing for him to do would be to support Harris. In supporting Trump, either he is risking everything, or else he is making a shrewd bet.
It’s the other way round. Without SpaceX there is no space programme 😂
David Starkey, over on YouTube discusses the authoritarian putsch of the UK by Labour.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwD3zn5nA5I&t=2424s
He believes that there will be no “civil war” as Musk has predicted… just intersectarian violence. Well, David, how do you see the drive by Labour toward a one party authoritarian rule being turned around without push back when the power of the police and government is turned against the traditional British population? (Note to Scotland Yard…. come and get me you worthless wanker coppers!)
How stupid do you have to be to be brainwashed so easily that you can turn the worst to the best in 2 weeks? That is the audience here. They will swallow anything, then act as if people with minds are the problem.
It is truly breathtaking. It’s good, old-fashioned propaganda.
The only disaster was Rex Huppke’s reporting.
Back in the Cold War days, the USSR used to jam broadcasts from Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. I had a short wave radio and could hear the jamming. We didn’t jam Radio Moscow and I could listen to that station. Fast forward to Century 21. A Muslim attacked a passenger on the Paris Metro. The French government suppressed the video of the attack, but I found it on a Russian station and I thought to myself, how ironic. Now I have to go to Russia to see what I can’t in the West. A complete inversion from the Cold War days. Now Europe wants to block broadcasts from the US. I’m getting an education on what life as like in the old USSR. How long before we get that border wall to keep us in?
You won’t get any real news about Russia in Russian media though
Same here, unfortunately.
Indeed. I am mortified that Russia Today is often the only source of news that the US press is actively suppressing. And that means they can spin it any way they like.
That is interesting.
Reminds me of the French bureaucrats running up to check the British paratroopers passports after the re-enactment at the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Where were these bureaucrats in 1944?
“To be sure, but what have you liberated for us lately?“
My son called my attention this morning to a posting elsewhere. When Trump came out with his “no taxes on tips” policy, the New York Times (I believe) immediately pounced, bitching about the millions of dollars of revenue it would deprive the state from extracting. But then, when Kamala stole Trump’s policy as her own, the tune suddenly became “long overdue social justice for the working man and woman.”
On X someone said the difference between the two reactions is that Trump’s plan would let his billionaire buddies claim some of their income as “tips” to avoid taxation, unlike Kamala’s plan which would not do this. I challenged the poster for his source – not his source for Trump’s plan, but his source that show’s Kamala’s is different. Seeing that Harris’ campaign has been completely devoid of any details, I’m pretty sure that was an impossible ask.
And, BTW, Keith Olbermann took up the post (about tips for billionaires) and repeated it, probably hoping to spread the lie to those poor, ignorant souls who rely on him for their information and news.
and maybe even by the same reporter
I would go farther and ask for just ONE example of a billionaire receiving a tip. ever. in anything but jest.
That’s a service industry staple and that’s beneath the wealthy.
I can’t speak to billionaires, but I can attest to several instances in which a millionaire of my acquaintance has received “tips” from grateful clients (he does provide services, though not food services). I doubt it would have severely affected his tax bill either way.
CBS was reporting that Trump’s proposal to stop taxing tips would cost the federal government $250 billion in revenue over ten years.
CBS now reporting Vice President Kamala Harris is rolling out a new policy position, saying she’ll fight to end taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.
CBS did the exact same thing as the wretched Pravda Times. These propaganda shills are shameless and unabashed, in their biased and partisan water-carrying:
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/08/media-bias-call-it-by-its-true-name-regime-propaganda.php
As Tiki pointed out, when President Trump proposes a working-class tax cut, the Dhimmi-crat media shills denigrate it for costing the federal government tax revenue.
When crone-harlot, Harris, steals the idea and proffers it as her own, the media praise her for contriving a marvelous and magnanimous policy prescription.
Two tiered reporting, like everything else the Dems foist on us.
Thanks… as Tiki says below, it was CBS, not NYT.
Note well the the TIMES’s resident economic quack, Paul Krugman, has been silent on this issue, where he is supposedly a mastermind.
Pretty easy to do ahead of time since he says the same stuff every time he talks: the 2020 election was stolen, my crowds are bigger than (whatever he’s calling Harris that day), Venezuela is safer than the U.S., Harris isn’t really black, etc. etc. Except this time he was slurring his words.
Probably because those things haven’t changed and Harris is still not a black American 😂😂
He needs to stop recycling that same old garbage. Do you think that will give him the independent voters he needs to win?? Women? Minorities?
Wish we could replace him with DeSantis and maybe the Republicans would win this election.
Slurring? Perhaps your ears need a check or cleaning. I listened to the whole thing, and I did not detect anything like that.
Perhaps you can give us some audio cuts,,,
The stenographers for the DemoncRat party–a/k/a the MSM–doing what they do best, carrying the DemoncRat party message to the public.
The only criticism I have is that the limitation of the medium was definitely felt. Without the ability to give non-verbal cues, it was easy for Trump to fill the pauses with speech rather than moving on to the next subject. However, the reach and engagement of this event cannot be denied.
Who takes the first skibbidy shot to gyatt-drop four dibbiby dabs in pork, Ohio?
Seeing how the assassin was a twentysomething I can only assume the next will be as equally confused as the previous was, but more in the ASD realm.
I have zero trust in the brainwashed masses being produced each day.
Orange Man is Satan/Hitler; Kamala is our new benevolent, beatific, magnanimous and sagacious deity. The “Time” magazine cover of a beaming Harris confirms this narrative, redolent as it is of Stalinist/Maoist propaganda. The only thing missing from the magazine cover was a parade of military troops and/or fighter planes flying in formation, and, a shining sun.
That’s the media puppets’/shills’/lapdogs/trained seals’ line, and, we peasants of the proletariat are supposed to swallow it, uncritically and credulously.
During the interview, the Harris campaign took to X – which they refuse to call “X,” to excoriate Musk for “using his purchased platform … to spread Trump’s unhinged and hateful agenda to millions of users.” They also asked supporters to “chip in $25 now to help Kamala and Tim have the resources to respond to their lies.”
Perhaps Musk should just delete Harris’ X page along with Pres.
Turnip’sBiden’s page and all the other government pages posting wild assertions such as this. And when they complain just inform them they were purveyors of misinformation that incited the masses to violence in violation of X’s Community Guidelines (snicker) and then let them stew about it until the election. What’s good for the goose should be good for the gander.Nope. Instead, they’re still censoring the right.
Naomi Wolf (redpilled Clintonista) did an interview on Alex Jones. X banned her on a vague claim of “copyright infringement.”
Huppke did not listen to the Trump/Musk conversation, nor did any of the other media whores who put their names behind opinions that are not their own. It’s a shame these media types don’t read history or they’d know the useful idiots are the first to be eliminated in a totalitarian regime.
Did anyone tweet her commentary without knowing the meeting was delayed?