No. Trump uses an unsecure cell phone, and a room of them were once baffled by light switches and had to sit in the dark. Anyone capable of the technical wizardry is a threat for being a smarty pants, and has been driven from the village.
8 Likes
The president is accused of colluding with a foreign power, to gain the presidency. The FBI is not a spurious organization given to flights of fancy about such things. It’s an incredibly serious issue, and asking about it is a legitimate question. If Trump’s feelers were hurt by this question, he shouldn’t be in public office, let alone the presidency. I am unaware of other presidents using their authority to have the microphone removed from someone’s hand. If questions were answered by reporters being polite to Trump, that’s what they would do. There is no evidence to show that he’s forthcoming.
6 Likes
Mostly because most authoritarian leaders are better at neutering the press first. See Hungary, Turkey, Russia, Philippines…
6 Likes
Every president in my lifetime has told reporters that it was someone else’s turn. My presidential hero, FDR, famously once told a reporter to put on a dunce cap and stand in the corner.
The investigation question is a legitimate question, but it wasn’t the first one Acosta asked. He had a question (and several followups) about the migrant fearmongering first. Those were also legitimate questions, but Acosta was not the only reporter there. He didn’t have to be the one to ask all the questions. Several other reporters there asked about the investigation.
2 Likes
Yes. And then, when a journalist from NBC received the mic, and had the temerity to point out that Acosta was a ‘diligent and hardworking’ reporter who ‘busted his hump’ like everyone else…
(Okay, we all need to have a long conversation about American idioms)
… Trump snaps; “I’m not a big fan of yours either. You are not the best.”
… Then Acosta takes umbrage at that, and starts talking directly to Trump (the audio is… sadly… inaudible) and trump says;
“When you report fake news, you are an enemy of the people.”
So no. This is not a President politely (if tiredly) asking a reporter to pass the mic.
This is a shitty presser (only his third in three years) characterised by a bizarre and combative and fucking weirdly old-man racist level of ignorance in his interactions with anyone who wasn’t pretty or white or fawning.
(And the the press secretary releases a doctored video of an incident to justify suspending Acosta’s credentials… so, yes, even if you were going for some kind of imaginary equivalency in ‘rudeness’ justifies actions you now need to balance that one act of rudeness against, ‘ongoing and sustained verbal attacks on journalists credibility’ and ‘dissemination of false information from whitehouse pres-sec accounts and channels…’)
23 Likes
Presidents telling someone else to ask a question, yes, having someone else physically taking the mike away, no. Roosevelt is not a modern president. A President calling the press the enemy of the people, not since Nixon. Nixon who was removed from power for his corruption.
8 Likes
You’re confusing me with someone who supports Trump.
If FDR was not a “modern president” then I would say we need less modernity in the White House.
1 Like
I don’t know that, but you seem to be oddly both sides of what I view as a clear attack on free speech. The press knew about FDR’s handicap, but never mentioned it, out of deference, and later press knew about JFK’s girlfriends but didn’t think them newsworthy for a family paper. So, yes, there is a significant difference in press relationships now and then.
2 Likes
I haven’t been exactly quiet on BoingBoing w/r to my views on Trump (and the rest of the GOP).
I just don’t have any problem holding the idea of Trump as a malignant asshole and a reporter as a bit of a self-entitled prick in my head at the same time without my head exploding.
I listened to the entire press conference, found it bizarre and unusual in so many respects that I wouldn’t say the altercation with Acosta was the standout part (that would be the part where Trump started making fun of losing Republican candidates by name, completely wierd), but I was surprised as it happened at Acosta’s vehement insistence on keeping the floor for the second question.
1 Like
This is another depressing but predictable developement.
Trump supporters will celebrate this.
I believe given that there wasn’t an outright and overwhelming backlash during the midterms caused by the behaviour of the administration during the last two years, we will see even more of it during the next two years.
The polarisation of the US political “landscape” now is a stable and clear fact. This administration strives on that.
Prediction: since Trump has now to search compromise in Congress, I believe the administration’s approach to international politics as well as to interactions with jurisdiction, press, and other political players outside Congress (e.g. NGOs) will be used to distract from that.
Having seen the first two years of this admin, I believe that rethorics and actions will get even more aggressive, because it caters the base.
And in 2020, the result might well be a strong support for Trump by the same people who support him now.
However, the opportunity exists for the Democrats to change that. I’m curious about their approach.
6 Likes
Monkeys are flying out of my butt.
1 Like
That might be because of your support for his insupportable actions. Claiming you don’t support him doesn’t really change the fact that what you are doing here is supporting him.
6 Likes
Awfully, I think this poor intern was instructed to try and provoke him. She actually looks worried, like she thinks he might actually do something to her. I think the WH (Sanders etc) tried to run a play where they’d catch violence on live, but it didn’t work because … most humans behave decently, and Jim Acosta is most certainly one of that group.
The intern really does behave rudely. Poor her. Intern really though? Any proof of that? Who is she?
4 Likes
I wasn’t convinced by the Prison Planet video either, but this video from the planet Tatooine is pretty damning. I’ve queued it to the relevant bit.
Here’s an alternate view:
Jim Acosta’s a total bastard! From this other angle you can see that he actually cuts off that poor girl’s whole arm!
11 Likes
This is intentional.
3 Likes
I think Sanders must have meant “clearly doctored in this video.”
I am literally incapable of processing what’s going on now.
1 Like
Really, that gets you to say someone was being a bit of a prick?
I don’t think I want to know what you think of most of modern society’s interactions… 
1 Like
But this is where the whole thing spins out of any kind of rational sense from the administration.
You could certainly make an argument that Trump (being the person giving the press conference) is entitled to decide when one reporter has had enough time on the mic, although usually that is divvied up amongst the reporters and the press officer in advance.
Once he did that, again you can argue that Acosta put himself in the wrong by trying to carry on. Thereby arguably depriving other reporters of the chance to ask their questions.
Fine. Take that view. You could then legitimately bar him personally from further press events.
Sending an intern to wrestle the mic off him a) makes for a ludicrous spectacle and b) is pretty shitty a thing to ask an intern to do.
But fine, you’ve decided that’s what you want to do.
Again, if he refuses to give up the mic, you have another legitimate rationale (obviously there is always room to disagree over whether the conduct in fact justifies it) to exclude him.
But no, the administration decides to go with “he laid hands on the intern”. Ok.
Again fine, if you think he did fair enough.
But no, they have to go one further and produce altered footage to support their claim. When they don’t need to.
It’s the level of stupidity and malice required that’s flabbergasting.
Trump supporters don’t care why he’s been ejected.
Trump opponents will not be swayed by crappy footage.
Republican supporters who don’t like Trump might well support a ban based only on what actually happened (as your posts indicate even if you don’t go that far personally) but obviously fake footage won’t help that.
Using tampered with footage is just stupid.
17 Likes
Because that’s what she’s used to in her normal work environment?
4 Likes
