Maybe I'm naïve, but I can't see what benefit the Trump Administration is gaining from picking a fight over the estimates of the comparative crowd sizes for the inauguration of of President* Trump and the first inauguration of President Obama.
I suppose that everyone expects that any president and his press secretary are going to lie from time to time. But when a new president comes into office and the very first thing that they do is lie and argue about something that is demonstrably provable, and the very first press conference with the new Press Secretary is nothing more than a tongue-lashing to support a lie, what good comes from that from their perspective?
Hell, even The Weekly Standard is appalled:
What's worrisome is that Spicer wouldn't have blown his credibility with the national press on Day 2 of the administration unless it was vitally important to Trump.What this is illustrating is that Trump is extremely thin-skinned, that he cannot accept being challenged on anything, and that even if it's a non-consequential thing and fighting over it will only damage his brand, he's gotta hit back.
And if media reports about crowd size are so important to Trump that he'd push Spicer out there to lie for him, then it means that all the tinpot-dictator, authoritarian, characterological tics that people worried about during the campaign are still very much active.
You know who obsessed about crowd size? Fidel Castro. You know who did not? George Washington, John Adams, Andrew Jackson, FDR, Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, Clinton, and every other man to ever serve as president of these United States of America.
Going to be a very interesting four years. Or fewer.*
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* If he pulls a Palin.
12 comments:
Perhaps to point out the bias in the media's reporting ??
'Cause they pretty much lied when using the pictures that they did.
Still, Barry had a bigger crowd. But Trump's wasn't as low as the media tried to portray. Can't figure out why they had to try to downplay his numbers even lower. I don't see how that did anything for the Medias credibility....Neither side has any, really.
His supporters already know the mainstream news sources "lie" about him so he doesn't have to call anything a lie. He just has to constantly present his "alternative facts" and they will know who is lying.
B, "they pretty much lied"? Really, please explain. As you admit, Obama had a larger crowd, but Spicer insisted that Trump's was larger. There was no downplaying, the transit and other numbers were reports as was, and the picture is self explainitory.
The crowds that were shown in the pictures were not, apparently, the larger crowds that were there later.
In other words, they showed a pic for Trump that was, apparently, taken earlier, when the mall was emptier.
Again, Barry had the largest crowd. But Trump didn't end up with a mall that was 2/3 empty as was shown. I posted a gigapixel (from CNN, so that should help you believe it) that shows the crowd at about TWICE what is shown in the pictures previously shown. (see previous posts on this blog for examples).
I have heard (but cannot verify) that Trumps inauguration had the larges audience, if you include Tv and internet broadcasts. Makes sense, many of his supporters have jobs....and a significant number of Barry's supporters 4 and especially 8 years ago were on government assistance, so had no job to lose by attending the inauguration. Again, I haven't been able to verify the claim about number of viewers.
C'mon, B, stop apologizing for those guys You're better than that.
President* Trump lied. On his first full day in office, he lied about something that was provable.
He did not have the largest crowd in history. President Obama did.
He did not have the largest TV audience in history. President Reagan did.
Hell, he lied about his pre-inaugural concert being the first one at the Lincoln Memorial. Obama had one in 2009 with about 40 times the attendance (10,000 for Trump, 400,000 for Obama).
The facts are against you and so you trot out some vaguely racist crap about Obama's supporter being on welfare while Trump's all hold jobs. They had over two months to put in for a day or two off, they could have gone to see Your Guy get in.
Trump was lying and he got caught lying The Defenders of All Things Trump only degrade themselves by their mealy-mouthed defenses of the Lies of The Donald.
CM: You may be right about this. I was merely pointing out an answer to your question. (and responding to CenterPuke).
TheDonald isn't "My Guy". He was merely the best choice of many bad ones.
Truly, the DNC could have fielded a candidate that could have beaten him. It's just that Hillary was the worse candidate of our choices (hell, Bernie might have won, had the DNC not screwed him....).
Many people voted for The Donald simply because he wasn't Hillary. (She would have fucked us even worse than the Donald may).
BTW, did y'all hear that the Clinton foundation has no new donors, now that Buying Hillary gets you no value? There is no influence for sale...no influence to peddle...
Odd, that.
B. Can you verify your claim about the attendees to Obama's inauguration being on government assistance, and those not attending Trump's because they were working? Could you please post some reference sites so that I may see the facts you are stating? Or are you just making up these statements to fit your world view?
And to piggy back off Ms. Comrade, arguing about the size of crowds on his 2nd day in office while there are many more important issues in this country to deal with would indicate to me that Mr. Trump is more concerned with his image than the presidency.
Full disclosure, I voted for Ms. Clinton, not because of her policies, but because of what I saw of Donald Trump's behavior. As a man, he is not anyone I would want to associate with. Not that he would ever hang around with the likes of me, but I would sever contact with anyone that acted the way he does.
Dale
ATCS (ret.)
Don't sweat the small stuff - Boyd Worsham
Boyd could build a building on a short schedule.
Last I heard 60 out of 690 senate confirmable positions in the incoming administration had been filled, and many national security employees from the Obama administration have been asked to stay on for an indefinite time at the last minute. And this is what Trump is worried about. Could we maybe get a government pretty soon?
-Doug in Oakland
B:
1) The Trump picture was taken at 11:47 EST, about 15 minutes before Trump took the oath, the crowd is not getting larger in any meaningful way at that point.
2) See 1 above.
3) The gigapixel shows no such thing. What it shows is a lower angle shot that reduces the ability to judge the crowd size due to the angle. If you check the time of the pictures, the two,in question are contemporaneous.
4) It's awefully early on to start with the "alternative facts". I've "heard" that Trump likes pizzas with black olives from Comet Ping Pong...that doesn't allow me to make pronouncements about this as fact.
5) Trump's strongest support in the Midwest seems to have come from the meth and heroin crowd, not quite so busy working they are. This is based upon looking at the worst hit areas for meth labs amd opioid abuse voting results, those are facts.
6) Trotting out the standard Republican "welfare queen" line is hardly a winning tact.
Perhaps we could, instead, debate the size of Kim Il Don's ego ??
So, we're being deflected. But from what?
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