Trump Coast Guard speech: Will not back down in face of media onslaught
Trump’s ability to fight when others gave up on him won the election, and may win the media war
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I can’t recall a media feeding frenzy quite like has been directed at Donald Trump. What’s remarkable about this frenzy is that it takes place in the absence — as of now — of any actual evidence of Trump wrongdoing, much less illegality. More on that later in the post.
Sometimes I think it resembles how the media swarmed all over Mitt Romney after Benghazi in September 2012, accusing him of politicizing the deaths of four Americans. The media purpose plainly was to help Obama escape political damage by making the story about Romney.
I wrote about it at the time, Dead Ambassador dragged through streets, MSM furious at Romney criticism of Obama:
If there ever were a doubt, no matter how small, that the mainstream media is deeply in bed with the Obama campaign, the reaction to the killing of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and several other Americans should put such doubt to rest.
Beginning early this morning, when news was just breaking, the left-blogosphere and mainstream media, led by MSNBC, has attempted to shift the focus from the Obama administration’s failure to protect our embassies and for its apologies (both before and after the attack on the Cairo Embassy) to whether Mitt Romney was wrong to criticize Obama last night.
No, I’m not kidding…. So now the focus of the MSM is whether Romney made a mistake, not the dead Ambassador, not the Obama administration failures, not the complete disarray of U.S. MidEast policy, not the rise of Islamists, no none of that.
The usual suspects were at the lead in attacking Romney, as they are in attacking Trump. Here’s Chuck Todd:
The feeding frenzy was so intense that mainstream reporters coordinated questions at a Romney press conference to make sure the focus of news coverage was on whether Romney should apologize and not the mistakes of the Obama administration (including Hillary Clinton):
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I described it as “two days of non-stop all-out Romney bashing from the media.”
That’s what it’s been like for Trump since before the election, but all the more so after winning. It’s as if that two-day Romney feeding frenzy was never-ending.
The question is whether Trump’s presidency can withstand this unprecedented media swarm.
That fevered pitch is despite the fact that as of this moment in time there is zero evidence that Trump has done anything wrong, much less criminal.
As to alleged Russia collusion, every person with access to information who has made a statement has indicated that as of this time, there is no evidence of collusion. Dianne Feinstein said that just recently, after receiving a classified briefing from the CIA.
As to the alleged leak of classified information to the Russian Foreign Minister and Ambassador reported by The Washington Post, what exactly did Trump say? We don’t know, we only know what WaPo paraphrases based on anonymous sources. The focus of the WaPo story and alleged worst transgression was that Trump revealed a city from which threat information was obtained regarding bombing airplanes. From that city identification, WaPo argued, the Russians might be able to piece together the source. That’s speculative, and disputed on the record by all three officials who were in the meeting. Yet who actually leaked sources and methods? Not Trump, the media, with the NY Times reporting that the source was Israel, and ABC News reporting the method – an Israeli spy in ISIS. So we have zero evidence of Trump wrongdoing, and very substantial evidence of media disclosure of sources and methods.
On the latest bombshell, the Comey memo about Trump making comments about the investigation, we don’t have the memo. We might in a week or two, but as of now all we have is double or triple hearsay, Comey wrote what we call a “prior consistent statement” (usually excluded in court unless to rebut a claim of recent fabrication), which a friend of Comey’s partially read to a NY Times reporter. Such second or third-hand partial reporting without any verification is not evidence of anything. Even if provided to Congress, the memo may end up being nothing more than self-serving statements that weren’t even conveyed to Congress when Comey testified on March 20.
Yet in this evidence-free atmosphere, the media is swarming like never before.
If it were any other president, I’m not sure he could survive this onslaught. But Trump is different.
That difference was on display at the Coast Guard Academy today, where Trump delivered a speech. All the media are focused on Trump’s claim that he has been treated worse by the media than any other politician in history. That might be hyperbole, but not by much.
“Look at the way I’ve been treated lately, especially by the media. No politician in history — and I say this with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly.”
The more important part of the speech, however, was Trump’s pledge to stay the course, not to back down, and to keep fighting (emphasis added):
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Now, I want to take this opportunity to give you some advice. Over the course of your life, you will find that things are not always fair. You will find that things happen to you that you do not deserve and that are not always warranted. But you have to put your head down and fight, fight, fight. Never, ever, ever give up. Things will work out just fine.
Look at the way I’ve been treated lately — (laughter) — especially by the media. No politician in history — and I say this with great surety — has been treated worse or more unfairly. You can’t let them get you down. You can’t let the critics and the naysayers get in the way of your dreams. (Applause.) I guess that’s why I — thank you. I guess that’s why we won.
Adversity makes you stronger. Don’t give in. Don’t back down. And never stop doing what you know is right. Nothing worth doing ever, ever, ever came easy. And the more righteous your right, the more opposition that you will face.
I’ve accomplished a tremendous amount in a very short time as President. Jobs pouring back in to our country. A brand-new Supreme Court justice — who’s going to be fantastic for 45 years — (applause) — a historic investment in our military. Border crossings — thank you to our General — are down more than 70 percent in just a short period of time — a total record, by the way, by a lot. (Applause.) We’ve saved the Second Amendment, expanded service for our veterans — we are going to take care of our veterans like they’ve never been taken care of before. (Applause.)
I’ve loosened up the strangling environmental chains wrapped around our country and our economy, chains so tight that you couldn’t do anything — that jobs were going down. We were losing business. We’re loosening it up. We’ve begun plans and preparations for the border wall, which is going along very, very well. We’re working on major tax cuts for all. We are going to give you the largest tax cut in the history of our country if we get it the way we want it, and we’re going to give you major tax reform. (Applause.) And we’re also getting closer and closer, day by day, to great healthcare for our citizens. (Applause.)
And we are setting the stage right now for many, many more things to come. And the people understand what I’m doing, and that’s the most important thing. I didn’t get elected to serve the Washington media or special interests. I got elected to serve the forgotten men and women of our country, and that’s what I’m doing. (Applause.) I will never stop fighting for you, and I will never stop fighting for the American people.
Trump’s single-mindedness, ability to compartmentalize, and bull-headed determination may get him through this.
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Comments
The media are playing a very dangerous game, and it is likely to turn out very badly for them.
Trump won the election for a reason. A majority of Americans are sick of the lawlessness on our borders, sick of the rampant corruption in D.C., and sick of the media trying to ram their leftist agenda down our throats 24/7. We elected Trump for a reason, and we are not going to sit back and twiddle our thumbs while the media and their corrupt accomplices — in both parties — try to destroy Trump’s presidency with fabricated scandals and obvious lies.
If they want a war, they will get one. But they won’t be happy with how it ends.
RE: “The media are playing a very dangerous game, and it is likely to turn out very badly for them.”
It already has.
Media revenues are dropping like a rock this year.
Already CBS’s ad revenue is down 30% so far this year.
(What I posted links to yesterday – on LI.)
I cut the cord on all television. It’s a direct protest of everything media related. Including sports and ESPN, which I used to love to watch.
I cancelled my season NFL tickets. The heck with their PC and pink shoes on Susan G Komen day. I’m done.
If I find more ways to cut their revenue, I will. My whole family gave up television. From the kids (for whom it was easiest, they all watch twitch tv for their favorites anyway) to all the parents.
They are conducting war on the nation. Fine, war it is. Checks to the swing districts go out next year to everyone who supports Trump in the Repub party.
Good. I will never buy a cable package as things stand, purely due to the absolutely ridiculous content on ESPN over the last year.. not to mention all the others.
Tolerating the open partisan aggression and collusion confirmed in the DNC Wikileaks dump won’t happen. They have lost their credibility. But their dying grip is still mighty.
I haven’t read your other links or analyzed the reason why CBS revenue has declined. But in general, media companies experience a rise in ad revenue during presidential election years and a drop in ad revenue the next year. Political advertising is a big business driver for them in elections years. It dries up to nothing in inauguration years.
True, but last year they didn’t get much ad rev from Trump.
It is way worse than that. Last quarter the left in a clearly coordinated effort, had begun to drive all conservative media from the air. O’Reilly, Hannity, entertainment comedies, conservative commentators on liberal channels are all being purged.
These people seem to not understand the role of POTUS nor of the extent of his authority. I am waiting for one of these boobs to come out and demand that Trump recuse himself from anything involving Russia. I wonder if that direct hotline is still active? Would Trump need to be cleared by Congress to answer were it to ring? These people are nuts.
Excellent words from our president.
I hope he has honest trusted advisors.
Honest trusted advisors would be great.
But some (any) support from Republican “leaders” is essential. as soon as the Dems and the MSM make up a new story, the Republicans immediately go in the tank to support the fake story. Disgraceful and close to treason..
In many ways, Trump is becoming the underdog in the msm war. He has the opportunity to turn this into his advantage but he has a propensity to open his mouth and bring up something that destroys any sympathy for him. His tweets aren’t much better. After meeting with Comey he tweeted that Comey had better hope that their conversation wasn’t tapped. Why? Any administrator knows not to make a threat unless it is the final action. I am at a loss as to why he doesn’t seem to get the mood of the country and what the msm is trying to do to him. Of course, they are trying to ruin him but he seems to want to help them do it. Sympathy is an American pastime but it has to be used like a magic potion or it can turn into disgust. I hope he can get back on track and get rid of his inner family as his closest advisors. Listen to the people who got him there instead including us.
Their anger is is fuel.
Thank goodness their fuel causes only backfires.
Donald Trump has succeeded in pulling out the rug on the most corrupt administration and most corrupt news media and corrupt political hacks ever to be present in the United States.
He has so far rescued our liberty from theft by these hacks. This is serious business: he is akin to George Washington, in Washington’s booting out the British monarchy.
The msm is Pravda; their backers are corrupt Soviets-lite. But Soviets nonetheless.
Whoever said it: Best election ever.
Thank God trump won!
Now we must go to the wall to support him.
It’s not just the media playing a dangerous game. The prog dems are also betting the farm on bringing him down. The dem old guard will be gone if he survives. The #NT republicans will also make themselves irrelevant. They won’t have any voice with the man they tried to destroy. Finally, the RINOs – they will be falling over themselves trying to get his agenda passed to redeem themselves. He could very well complete the political re-alignment he started in 16. A new right of center rep party that downplays the 5% #NT crowd and replaces them with dissatisfied centrist dems picked off from the unions and blacks (blacks are seeing their employment chances rise as illegals drop). If he can replace the 5% #NT with 10-15% dems, he is home free. But, he has to survive.
As prof points out, there is no proof. If he hasn’t done anything wrong, I don’t see him backing down. If innocence counts for anything, I’de say the odds are 60-70% in his favor.
One thing’s for sure. If he survives, he will be the cleanest pol in DC and no attacks on him will have any traction from then out.
Painful as this is, at the end we will all know who our friends and enemies are. No doubts at all.
Yes indeed, the MSM is hot to “bring Trump down”, as they are so fond of announcing, but they don’t have the requisite weapons. The usual tactics—obsession with irrelevant details, endless litanies of lies, over-the-top accusations, a nonstop supply of stupid questions—haven’t worked so far. He has so far proven to be stampede-proof. And the Dems in Congress will have trouble forcing anything from a President who isn’t prepared to surrender.
But the weakness here isn’t Trump. He’s the center, and it looks like the center intends to hold. The weakness is the Senate. The MSM’s little tricks will work against the Senate; they always have in the past. The GOP Senators are hardly adamantine pillars of righteous intransigence; too many of them are weenies just hoping to survive another term without having to do anything courageous, or even useful. If the Senate goes as squishy as usual, the ability of the Administration to do anything useful will be seriously hobbled.
This shameful, and it IS shameful, assault on a sitting, duly-elected president makes my skin crawl with deep revulsion. If anyone can weather this, Trump can, and I very much hope he does.
Can he do it on his own? I’m not so sure. He really needs support from his base now, active, loud, and constant support expressed often to Republicans in Congress. Personally, and I would not consider myself a part of Trump’s base, I am thinking about sending tinfoil hats to quite a few Congresscritters and insisting that they don them in public unless and until they can prove that any of the charges and innuendo about the president are true. Heck, I might start sending them to the NYT, Newsweek, CNN, and etc., as well.
I was a Cruz supporter in the primary. But part of Trump’s base or not, the war against the media is every conservative’s battle, and we have to do our part.
Trump is the general we have, and whatever his flaws, he is also one qualified to take the fight to the media, our biggest progressive enemy. (Education and government agencies are surely close behind).
It is heartening to see so many different political backgrounds here united in the view of this situation. In this lies our power.
We won a battle in the last election, our biggest taste of victory since the 2010 wave election slowed their march (but didn’t stop as Obama got creative with his pen-and-phone). We should have expected nothing less than a ferocious and continuous counter-attack. Having gotten their hands on so many levers of power they will use the ones they have relentlessly to get back the ones they lost.
We need to keep exerting pressure on Congress … It is war.
Now, cue the ending to “Animal House”, because we also win with humor ;-).
“Was it over when the German’s bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell NO!” Heh, one of my favorite film diatribes of all time!
I think the Henry V – Speech on the Eve of Saint Crispin’s Day might also be appropriate here! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-yZNMWFqvM
Kenneth Branagh. Sigh. That is one of the best.
On a less fabulous level, I would also nominate: https://youtu.be/QoLywiaM6PA
How about a quote from Capt. Lloyd W. Williams of the 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines, AEF. Retreat? Hell, we just got here.
Trump is great.
But I see what the media is doing every day, you’d think Trump should be crucified at dawn.
This is absolutely surreal.
Now a special Prosecutor???
Don’t make me gag.
I can’t believe my eyes anymore.
Briar patch. Please don’t make me appoint a special prosecutor. Oh no!
LOL Good one!
I suspect that Trump has trolled the Democrats and the Media into “hounding” him into doing what he wanted, but they would not have consented to if he had politely requested it. “It” being the investigation of collusion between the Russians (and other foreign actors) and Clinton Inc. – Hillary’s Campaign and the Clinton Foundation.
“LOCK HER UP!”
If he pulls that off that it will be the single greatest move of political judo ever …
Trump pulled it off time and again all through the primary and general.
These Dems and MSM are just too dumb to breath without life support.
(I’m looking at you Soros and Saudis……_
Real evidence of how bad this latest attack is: the stock market dropped over 300 points as a result of this FAKE news onslaught. The market is shaken because the Republican agenda is in jeopardy (paraphrase from the WSJ)….because of this MSM propaganda. Dangerous, as I said in a previous thread.
I am hoping @NOFLOW is right – if Hillary is FINALLY tried as a result of “Russian interference” with our election, it will be sweet! Watch the MSM turn on a dime to protect their darling, Hillary, when they find that the evidence reveals the DEMs and the Clinton Crime Syndicate were the culprits, not Trump. As MM says, schadenfreude-alicious!
The reality is that the media today is an arm, a willing weapon, of the left and for Democrats overall. They prove it daily, and believe they can take out a President….again, very dangerous.
Speeches like this one today reveal why he won, and it was brilliant. Very Churchillian. As you all may know, I am no Trump fan, but I hope he prevails against this onslaught, as he continues to “…fight, fight, fight….” and that he will, in fact, “…never, ever, ever give up….”:)
Thanks for this article, Professor. I was getting kind of depressed over this surreal situation.
Full speech.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKwcFsHe_nA