Just so you understand
After an appearance alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Monday, President Donald Trump paused to push back against reports that he had disclosed highly classified information to the Russians.
“Just so you understand, I never mentioned the word or the name ‘Israel’,'” Trump told reporters in Jerusalem. “Never mentioned it during that conversation. They were all saying I did. So you had another story wrong. Never mentioned the word ‘Israel’.”
He told them it using his tiny stunted repertoire of gestures – the pinch on “never mentioned,” the point on “during that conversation.” The two little hands pushing at the invisible barrier on “Never mentioned the word ‘Israel’.” The gestures always underline how stupid he is.
The story Trump was reacting to was this one, which ran a week ago in the Washington Post. And the thing about that story is that, well, the word “Israel” is never mentioned. Not one time.
Of course it’s not. If it had been I wouldn’t have guessed Saudi Arabia. The fact that it was Israel was kept under wraps for some hours after the story appeared.
In a follow-up story, the New York Times reported — citing anonymous sources — that the information that Trump had passed along had come to the United States from Israel. But even in that piece there is no allegation that Trump mentioned the word “Israel” in his Oval Office meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Trump is the denying an allegation that, literally, no news organization made. He’s also implicitly confirming that, yes, he did talk to the Russians about classified information.
But that’s ok, because he’s Trump, and his “base” will think he made a meaningful point, and it will go on this way until he kills us all.
No Israel. No Israel. You’re Israel.
Notice that in making this lame defense, he is confirming that the source was Israel.
In a news conference. Yes.
There aren’t enough desks in the world to withstand the daily bombardment of foreheads. It’s like an episode of Columbo, except instead of a smart villain tripped up by a deceptively bumbling detective, we have an actually bumbling villian tripped up by his own stupidity while we all stand and stare.
lol
(Laughs hard…)
In this version of Colombo, it’s a bit frustrating for the title character. He’s never quite gets to say ‘just one more question’, because by the time he normally would, the villain has essentially checked himself into the prisoner’s box, with what’s effectively a signed confession. He’s reduced to ordering coffee and getting refills. ‘Just one more coffee… Thanks.’ And it’s just not the same.