Legal Commentary

"Trump weighs firing FBI chief..." "Trump aims for adulation..." ? the Washington Post reports on the inside of Trump's head.

I feel a little embarrassed for the Washington Post, embarrassed and disgusted. They flaunt their disregard for journalistic standards with front page headlines that state ? as if it were verified fact ? what's going on in Trump's psyche. These are front page headlines right now:

1. 1. "Trump aims for adulation. Biden goes virtual. The two are running vastly different presidential campaigns." The facts here are that Trump is doing rallies, while Biden is staying out of view. "Trump has been spending heaps of cash staging crowded rallies designed to motivate his most fervent fans...." Where is the evidence that Trump is seeking "adulation" as opposed to simply trying to win the election using a method that has worked in the past and that he's good at? The rallies are shown on TV, and it's free coverage, so, like paid advertising, it's a way to reach people who are holed up at home. WaPo is gratuitously inserting the popular Trump-is-a-narcissist theory into its news headline. 

2. "Trump weighs firing FBI chief after election amid frustration with Wray, Barr." Does WaPo know Trump is weighing firing Christopher A. Wray and that he's frustrated with him? The article ? based on unnamed "people familiar with the matter" ? says there have been repeated discussions. I assume the sources were not present for the discussions but somehow in a position to have heard about them ? otherwise WaPo would put it more strongly than "people familiar with the matter." This material is at the top of an article that eventually gets around to material about Hunter Biden's laptop. I'm thinking the trip into Trump's mind ? for the weighing and frustration ? was developed to distract readers from the real news that had to be put in the paper. If we keep reading, we see this:

In a letter sent Tuesday night to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, an FBI official sought to dodge questions posed by Johnson about the bureau?s knowledge of Hunter Biden?s purported laptop. The FBI has ?nothing to add? to a statement made by Director of National Intelligence John Rat­cliffe, who earlier this week dismissed suspicions that the Biden laptop was the product of a Russian disinformation campaign, the letter said. Ratcliffe told Fox Business Network on Monday that the U.S. government has no intelligence to support such claims. 

By not disputing accusations leveled by Democrats and some former intelligence officials that the laptop?s late-season reveal could be another form of foreign election interference, the FBI gave tacit support to the idea that the emails in question are genuine. But the bureau?s letter to Johnson was not that explicit, noting the criticism leveled by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz over Comey?s actions in 2016.

That's hard to read! Easy to misread. 

Full post as published by Althouse on October 22, 2020 (boomark / email).