Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

The republican speaker is a slippery little devil.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Boeing: repeatedly making the case for high speed rail.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Everybody saw this coming.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Narcissists are always shocked to discover other people have agency.

No one could have predicted…

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

Speaker Mike Johnson is a vile traitor to the House and the Constitution.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Republicans: “Abortion is murder but you can take a bus to get one.” Easy peasy.

Jack be nimble, jack be quick, hurry up and indict this prick.

This blog will pay for itself.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

You are here: Home / Politics / Information Warfare / Our Failed Media Experiment: Retroactively Rewriting Trump’s Lafayette Square Photo-Op

Our Failed Media Experiment: Retroactively Rewriting Trump’s Lafayette Square Photo-Op

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All is for the best, in this best of all possible worlds! Please take our word on this, citizens!

It’d be less degrading if the Putin / Trump kakistocracy network were holding these media headliners’ blackmail material. But it seems to be just a craving for ‘normalcy’ — defined as ‘Repubs in charge, like our tinpot gods intended.’



Props to the Washington Post (i.e., the local paper) for resisting The Narrative — “The lingering questions about the clearing of Lafayette Square”:

The most important question asked about the clearing of Lafayette Square on June 1 of last year came that day from Attorney General William P. Barr…

In footage from that moment, you can see Barr speak to the commander, after which the commander’s head droops with seemingly intentional melodrama. From a report released Wednesday by the Interior Department inspector general, we learn what Barr asked.

“Are these people still going to be here when POTUS comes out?”

“These people” were the protesters. And “POTUS,” of course, was the president of the United States, who, within an hour, emerged from the White House, strode through a square newly and contentiously cleared of demonstrators and posed for several photographs outside of a church…

We don’t know Barr’s side of the story because the inspector general’s report focused only on the conduct of the U.S. Park Police (USPP), the organization that falls within the Interior Department’s mandate. Many other agencies were on the scene that day, including Bureau of Prisons officers — airdropped in by the Justice Department in response to the ongoing protests — and the Secret Service. Most of the officers there were under Park Police direction (except the Secret Service) but the inspector general only “sought interviews and information from individuals outside of the USPP when doing so would provide us with information about the agency’s USPP’s activities. Accordingly, we did not seek to interview Attorney General William Barr, White House personnel, Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) officers, [D.C. Metropolitan Police (MPD)] personnel, or Secret Service personnel regarding their independent decisions that did not involve the USPP.”…

… Without an explanation of the early Secret Service deployment, which is outside the scope of the DOI IG report, we can’t rule out the possibility that Trump’s schedule determined the timing of the assault on protesters. Without knowing more about the official who was apparently seeking to move up that timing, whose identity and affiliation are mysteriously redacted in the DOI IG report, we can’t pursue an important lead that might explain that early deployment. Without an investigation that looks beyond the Park Police to all the participants involved in that violent affair, a task the IG report expressly disavows, we can’t make particularly meaningful conclusions. The uncertainties left by the report don’t mean that we need to overstate our certainty in the other direction—we really don’t know why the Secret Service jumped out early—but news headlines should reflect the report’s limitations and its deliberate blindspots, not the government’s party line.

Reader Interactions

62Comments

  4. 4.

    NotMax

    Barr’s interpretation and understanding of the breadth and scope of command afforded by the “General” part of his title is … flawed.

    /understatement

  5. 5.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    The attack occurred at 7PM Eastern so it would get prime time coverage on State Media.

  6. 6.

    Kay

    Pwn All The Things
    @pwnallthethings
    ·3h
    The Tuesday of that week, the President’s team sent DOJ a draft lawsuit that DOJ was to bring to dispute the election result

    Real information and communications starting to come out now.
    The Trump Administration were dead serious about overturning the election. They were planning on remaining in power.
    It’s just extraordinary. An actual coup effort going on behind the scenes all through December.
    I’m starting to understand better now why the whole Republican Party opposes an investigation. I didn’t realize they would leave a written record of the coup attempt- didn’t occur to me.
    These people have to be prosecuted. This really can’t go unanswered.

  7. 7.

    Kay

    Will Stancil
    @whstancil
    ·2h
    Given the pressure being placed on DOJ to try to invalidate the election, I would like to know, more than ever, why Trump installed a bunch of loyalists at DoD during the same period, and why all living Secretaries of Defense issued a letter warning against a military coup

    That letter becomes much more understandable with more and more context and information. They knew by early December this thing was completely out of control.

  10. 10.

    dmsilev

    @debbie: If they were convinced that they’d win out, nobody would have seen the documentation or be in a position to do anything about it.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    @dmsilev:

    Remember, Trump tore up every piece of paper after reading it. Seems somewhat sloppy not to proactively order others to do the same. He knew what he was trying to do was not legal.

    ETA: Seems sloppier than that suit he was wearing on Monday.

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    The US Park Police did not clear protesters to allow for then-President Trump’s march to St. John’s Church last June, but instead did so to allow a contractor to install a fence safely around the White House, a new report states

    Hmmmmmm….

    So the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain saw (or was told) that Lafayette Square was empty and just felt like a fascist photo op?

    Sure Jan. You slapdick.

    ETA – It’s especially sickening when all of this was broadcast in real time by different mediums.

  15. 15.

    JMG

    The ones inside the Trump administration who didn’t think the coup would work kept detailed records. The coup participants, not so much. BTW, 21 GOP representatives voted no on a resolution awarding the Capitol Police a medal for 1/6. Dept. of Justice should hoover up their phone and Internet records from Election Day until now.

  16. 16.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:   It’s interesting this stuff is dribbling out after the Senate Republicans refused to allow a bipartisan January 6th investigation.

    Time to gear up the House and Senate investigations.  Who cares if they are not “bipartisan”?  That makes them more likely to be accurate.

    I felt a little frisson of fear when you connected the DOJ with the Secs of Defense letter.  We are not out of the woods until the Republicans’ potential to try this again is crippled.

    More shoes to drop.

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: it’s just as mind-blowing as the concept of a Russian asset installed in the WH, and equally supported by the facts.  Which, at some point, the powers-that-be in this country really should consider following, wherever they lead.

  20. 20.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    I think they were seeking a delay hoping they could touch off mass rioting and unrest so the transfer wouldn’t happen. If they could get the DOJ to file something they’d have the time they needed to fire up the loyalists and get them rioting.  Once there was a delay and it looked like they were succeeding in stealing it our people would come out too.

    They have to be prosecuted for this. They can’t get away with attempting it.

  22. 22.

    Redshift

    @Baud:

    Did they ever install that fence? 

    I looked it up, and apparently they actually did install fencing that night. I was sure I was going to find they’d started the next day or something. But for once, they actually came up with a plausible lie, instead of obvious bullshit that their minions have to believe to prove their loyalty.

  24. 24.

    Leto

     

    @debbie: he tore those papers up, but there were people putting all those scraps back together. It’s going to take years for all the information to come out, and honestly we don’t have that kind of time. I don’t even know if we’ll have the will/ability to prosecute all the people involved in this.

  27. 27.

    Elizabelle

    @Jeffro:   I was thinking about that, the Russian asset installed in the White House, yesterday, with the Reality Winner thread.  She may have gone about it wrong, but she cared enough to try to prevent that outcome.  She is a far more principled American than any of his accomplices.

    I would like to see ALL of the Mueller report.  Except to protect intelligence assets, I think it is our due as Americans to know what was in there.  What did Barr not want to get out?

    I would also like to see credible followup on how much of the Steele Dossier turned out to be true.  The wingnuts were so busy discrediting it at every turn, assuring each other it had been repudiated.  I could not care less about golden showers.  It’s the financial and connectivity that interests me.

    I would like to see Trump prosecuted for any money-laundering he has done, and his actual financial dealings with Russians brought to light.  I see in tonight’s NY Times that Cyrus Vance is leaning hard on Allen Weisselberg of the Trump Organization, who has so far refused to cooperate.  They are allegedly preparing charges to be filed, as early as this summer.

    I want a pony too, dammit.  Make that a horse.

  28. 28.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Leto:  I don’t even know if we’ll have the will/ability to prosecute all the people involved in this.

    We won’t, even if all goes well. There will always be the very sneaky or lucky or marginal who avoid successful prosecution.

     

    What we need to emphasize, imo, is the wrongness. Make it so they return to hiding under their rocks for another couple of generations. That’s a win, I think.

  30. 30.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    All they needed was one win- a court or state who would go along- and they’d have their delay. I say “a state” but of course I’m talking about individual state officials. They just needed one higher-ranking crook to fall on his sword for Dear Leader. Luckily he has no real alliances with people and they all hate him because kissing his ass humiliates them and shows them to be weak and of poor character. They hate him more than we do. His control is fear-based. They hate themselves for being afraid of him.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @zhena gogolia:

    His shiny suits are awful. Why do they always ride up his back? It’s like they’re both too big and too small at the same time. Do they not know his actual  measurements?  Does he lie? My God, don’t take his word for it.

  36. 36.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: His shiny suits are awful. Why do they always ride up his back? It’s like they’re both too big and too small at the same time. Do they not know his actual  measurements?  Does he lie? My God, don’t take his word for it.

    all of the above, I’m guessing. I remember an old sitcom episode– one of the fat schlubs with the hot wife things they kept turning out in the 90s– where hot wife was sewing XL labels into his XXL shirts, of something, so he wouldn’t feel bad. Imagine that if fat schlub husband is an unbalanced psycho of a boss and you’ve made yourself unemployable by working for him

  37. 37.

    Kay

    including Bureau of Prisons officers — airdropped in by the Justice Department in response to the ongoing protests

    I love how they omitted this part. Come on, man. Do the whole job or don’t bother.

  39. 39.

    Delk

    Suits? Jeez—look at his hair. The ill fitting lifts in his shoes. He’s an equal opportunity slob. I bet his breath stinks.

  41. 41.

    Elizabelle

    Ha ha.  Even Ruth Marcus of the WaPost is imploring Stephen Obtuse Breyer to retire.
    I’ve urged Supreme Court justices to stick around — but never to retire. Until now.

    … After all, precedents matter in Supreme Court retirements, too; justices learn from the mistakes of their predecessors. The word on the court was that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor left too soon, in order to care for her ailing husband, and turned out to regret her departure. Consequently, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg decided to roll the dice on her own health and a Hillary Clinton victory in 2016. (Ginsburg was also none too amused by comparatively gentle efforts to elbow her out of the way.) The result was a third Trump justice.

    …  Note to Justice Breyer: This is not Ted Kennedy’s Senate, where you worked as his chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee four decades ago. This is not the Senate that confirmed you 87-9 in 1994. Those kind of bipartisan votes on Supreme Court nominees are ancient history. That Senate is no more. “Talk to them” until you discover common ground — Kennedy’s approach for dealing with Republican colleagues, as Breyer related in a talk to students at the National Constitution Center last month — is great advice for high-schoolers learning to navigate the world. It doesn’t work with McConnell.

    And that is why Breyer should retire at the end of the court’s current term, when there is ample time for the Democratic majority to confirm a successor.

  42. 42.

    Matt McIrvin

    The media are signaling that when Trump is reinstalled as President, they’ll accept it as legitimate.

  43. 43.

    Elizabelle

    @Matt McIrvin:   Oh come on.  It is way more likely that they are hacks.

    Southpaw’s recap was interesting.  How the headlines were not borne out in the actual reporting.

    Most media outlets built their headlines around this conclusion—

    • CBS: “Watchdog finds clearing of protesters from Lafayette Park wasn’t for Trump photo op”
    • ABC: “Police did not clear Lafayette Square so Trump could hold ‘Bible’ photo op: Watchdog”
    • CNN: “Watchdog report finds Park Police did not clear racial injustice protesters from Lafayette Park for Trump’s visit to St. John’s Church last June”

    The problem with these headlines is the actual IG report is too jurisdictionally limited to support, and offers multiple reasons to doubt, its exonerative conclusion. (Indeed, if you click through, you’ll find each of the news stories linked above is more equivocal than its headline.) The oversimplification of the report in these headlines and in tv coverage has led to widespread confusion about its contents

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Elizabelle:

    I find his cluelessness unacceptable. If they’re going to stay on that court for a hundred years they have an obligation to pay attention to the actual country and not the theoretical country that lives in their heads. Things have changed. Get up to speed. Chop chop.

  46. 46.

    DMcK

    @Kay:
    Can’t remember where I read it (here, probably!), but IIRC, Trump buys his suits off the rack, under the belief that custom tailoring is only for people trying to hide physical defects.

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:   Yes. I am trying to think up Dr. Seuss rhymes for Justice Breyer. But tired, and time for dinner.

    Just go, Breyer, GO!

    GTFO.

    Today, June 15th, is the anniversary of President Clinton nominating RBGinsburg to the Supreme Court in 1993.

    And I still cannot look at a photo of her without sadly remembering she allowed herself to be replaced by Amy … you know.

    And shut the fuck up to anyone who bleats “we failed her.”

    No.  We did not. We voted like hell against Trump, but the results of a vote are never knowable in advance.  (And screw the Electoral College.)  Too much of a risk, and we all paid for it.  I felt so badly for RBG, holding on by her toenails and fighting her decline, and knowing she might run out of runway before TFG was gone.   She was courageous, but foolish in one major way.

  48. 48.

    Mike in NC

    That photo of the Fat Orange Clown holding the Bible may well have been what became his final downfall, as it disgusted millions of normal, decent people.

  51. 51.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay: 

    I am against life terms for USSC justices. How could we do anything to change that? I like the rolling 18 year terms. That is plenty of time. Something shorter, and get rid of the demographic bingo business.

    @ Cacti: I think so too. Sadly.

  53. 53.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Cacti:

    With all due respect to RBG, hubris got the best of her.

    RBG did nothing to poison the electorate’s mind toward Hillary Cinton. The list of people I blame is very long before I get to her

  57. 57.

    Butter Emails

    BREAKING: Interior Dept. IG report says police cleared protesters from D.C.’s Lafayette Park over fencing installation, not for Trump photo op, @KenDilanianNBC reports. “A narrative we thought we knew is not the reality.” #MTPDaily

    Is this actually even what the report says? I thought the actual phrasing was something along the lines of “the decision to clear the park was made before the Park service was informed of the President’s intent to walk to the church.”  Seems a bit ambiguous. Does that mean:

    Park Service(at some point before the President’s walk): Yeah, we got new fencing that’s going to be installed in a couple days. We’re going to need to clear the park at some point.

    Or

    Park Service: Yeah, we got new fencing that’s going to be installed in a couple days. Let’s tear gas and beat protesters starting at 20 minutes before curfew today.

  58. 58.

    Elizabelle

    @Butter Emails:

    From ABC’s reporting, more than halfway through the story:

    One Park Police commander told the inspector general’s office they were caught off guard about Trump’s plans during a conversation with Attorney General Bill Barr, who asked, “Are these people still going to be here when POTUS [President of the United States] comes out?” according to the report.

    “The USPP operations commander told us he had not known until then that the President would be coming out of the White House and into Lafayette Park. He said he replied to the Attorney General, ‘Are you freaking kidding me?'” the report reads.

    The Interior IG is a Trump appointee, FWIW, although he also seems to be well qualified for the post. Previously, he was appointed to a position at Commerce, again by Trump, after serving on Congressional (sub)committees and clerking for a federal judge.  He went to a real law school.

    His purview was the Park Police, period. He did not follow up with officials/witnesses from other agencies (Secret Service, the rent a cops from Bureau of Prisons). His report seems disingenuous and, of course, TFG immediately claimed he had been fully exonerated.

    To be continued.

  59. 59.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    Trump is a nut shell; he goes to town on the peaceful protesters, hides from the violent ones.

    Want to bet the Jan 6 Coup failed because Trump is coward and went to hide in the White House bunker?

  62. 62.

    Geminid

    @Kay: Justice Sotomayor tried a lot of cases as a federal  prosecutor, and then as a Distict Cout Judge. I think she has her feet on the ground in a way other Justices do not.

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