The calls were orchestrated by the White House
This doesn’t look good. Trump’s cronies have been getting intelligence officials and Republicans in Congress to tell the press to stop reporting on Trump’s ties to Russia.
The Trump administration has enlisted senior members of the intelligence community and Congress in efforts to counter news stories about Trump associates’ ties to Russia, a politically charged issue that has been under investigation by the FBI as well as lawmakers now defending the White House.
Acting at the behest of the White House, the officials made calls to news organizations last week in attempts to challenge stories about alleged contacts between members of President Trump’s campaign team and Russian intelligence operatives, U.S. officials said.
The people who are supposed to be investigating the subject have been doing this.
It’s been an ongoing story that Congressional Democrats say there should be an independent investigation, and I haven’t been following it very closely because it seemed too insidery. But sometimes insider stuff just shouts for attention. This story makes it very clear why the Dems wanted an independent investigation as opposed to ones led by Republicans. It’s because “led by Republicans” might turn out to mean “held captive by Republicans.”
The calls were orchestrated by the White House after unsuccessful attempts by the administration to get senior FBI officials to speak with news organizations and dispute the accuracy of stories on the alleged contacts with Russia.
The White House on Friday acknowledged those interactions with the FBI but did not disclose that it then turned to other officials who agreed to do what the FBI would not — participate in White House-arranged calls with news organizations, including The Washington Post.
Two of those officials talked to the Post anonymously, which will make Trump squawk even more.
The decision to involve those officials could be perceived as threatening the independence of U.S. spy agencies that are supposed to remain insulated from partisan issues, as well as undercutting the credibility of ongoing congressional probes. Those officials saw their involvement as an attempt to correct coverage they believed to be erroneous.
During the investigation. Not cool.
But hasn’t the Supreme Leader already declared that ‘anonymous source’ is to be read as ‘made up by the dishonest media’? Therefore there’s nothing to see here, move on.
Honestly, the idiot starts a war with the press and then has his goons ask them ever so nicely to please not report this particular piece of naughtiness. Was he born in Cloud Cockooland?
President Manchild has announced that he will not be attending the Correspondents’ Dinner this year.
Can’t for the life of me think why!
I’m sure the public reason for skipping the dinner is that he doesn’t want to legitimise the fake news enemy of the people.
I suspect the fact that Trump was roundly humiliated by Obama at that dinner and he doesn’t want to revisit either the memory or provide another opportunity for the same to happen is pretty strong.
He is such a pathetic man. SAD!
Oh, and AoS @ 1, I was watching an interview with a White House correspondent yesterday (can’t remember which one) where they and the studio presenter were discussing the irony (if not bald faced hypocrisy) of Trump standing up at CPAC and berating the Press for using anonymous sources at the exact same moment that an ‘official’ anonymous source was giving member of the Press Corp a briefing. They made the point loud and clear that all administrations routinely, daily, provide such briefings as a way of getting information or a narrative out there that they don’t want to do officially.
Maybe one solution would be to refuse to run the ‘official’ anonymous stories. Another might be to publish the name of the source. Either way it would force the White House to either cease using the practice. It would of course disrupt the easy flow of stories for the press corp and I guess there is the chance that sometimes the individual providing the information is also an ‘unofficial’ source.