Patterico's Pontifications

6/1/2016

Obama Administration Lies About Dishonest Coverup of Admission of Lying

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 11:07 pm



That may sound complicated, but in fact, I’ve oversimplified things a bit in the headline. You’ll see.

Let’s review the chronology.

On May 5, the New York Times Magazine published an interview with Obama’s chief creative writer Ben Rhodes. The article said that the Obama administration’s story about beginning talks with Iran in 2013 was a bit of creative writing itself:

The way in which most Americans have heard the story of the Iran deal presented — that the Obama administration began seriously engaging with Iranian officials in 2013 in order to take advantage of a new political reality in Iran, which came about because of elections that brought moderates to power in that country — was largely manufactured for the purpose for selling the deal.

Obama had wanted to do the deal since at least 2012, and indeed since 2009, sources said — but Rhodes did some creative writing and spun a narrative that started everything in 2013:

In the narrative that Rhodes shaped, the “story” of the Iran deal began in 2013, when a “moderate” faction inside the Iranian regime led by Hassan Rouhani beat regime “hard-liners” in an election and then began to pursue a policy of “openness,” which included a newfound willingness to negotiate the dismantling of its illicit nuclear-weapons program.

But that was horseshit.

So: the Obama administration lied.

But hey, according to Rhodes, those reporters are young, ignorant, and therefore easy to fool. Rhodes is quoted in the article as saying:

The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old, and their only reporting experience consists of being around political campaigns. That’s a sea change. They literally know nothing.

Fox News reporter James Rosen read that article, and thought: hey! I remember asking State Department spokeshole Jen Psaki in 2013 whether it was the State Department policy to lie about stuff like the Iran negotiations. And she admitted they had lied! Here’s the exchange:

Rosen: Is it the policy of the State Department, where the preservation of the secrecy of secret negotiations is concerned, to lie in order to achieve that goal?

Psaki: James, I think there are times where diplomacy needs privacy in order to progress. I think this is a good example of that.

So: the Obama administration lied, and a spokesperson for the State Department admitted they lied.

So, earlier this month, in light of the Rhodes interview, Rosen went back to look for the video of that exchange. But when he found it . . . poof! the exchange was gone, replaced by a white flash.

So the Obama administration lied, and a spokesperson for the State Department admitted they lied, but then they deleted the video admitting they lied.

Upon Rosen’s discovery, Fox News contacted the State Department, which blamed the video edit on a “glitch”:

UPDATE, 3:00pm ET: The State Department blamed a “glitch” for Rosen’s questions being removed.

“There was a glitch in the State Department video,” spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said.

Nobody believed that.

So: the Obama administration lied, and a spokesperson for the State Department admitted they lied, but then they deleted the video admitting they lied, and then lied about deleting the video proving they lied.

With me so far? Good, because it gets better. And even more confusing.

Today, it was revealed that: 1) the State Department has admitted that they indeed did delete the video showing the admission of lying, but 2) the person who did the deletions supposedly doesn’t remember who told them to do it.

So, hey, nobody can really be held accountable, on account of forgetfulness and such.

Nobody believes that.

So: the Obama administration lied, and a spokesperson for the State Department admitted they lied, but then they deleted the video admitting they lied, and then lied about deleting the video proving they lied — and now they are admitting that they lied about the coverup of the earlier lie, but simultaneously lying about who ordered the video edit that covered up their admission that they had lied.

Is that confusing? I don’t see why. It’s perfectly clear to me!

And they say Trump is a huge liar! (And he is. So they’re telling the truth about that.) (Now that’s really confusing.)

BREAKING: Two Reported Dead in UCLA Shooting [Updated]

Filed under: General — JVW @ 12:26 pm



[guest post by JVW]

Developing story: two people are reported dead in a shooting that took place earlier this morning in the Engineering IV building at UCLA. The building is on lockdown and police are said to be looking for two suspects, a male and a female. Here is a campus map with the location of the shootings:

UCLA

More on this story as further details emerge. Here’s hoping that initial reports of the deaths is mistaken.

UPDATE: The Dog Trainer reports it was a murder-suicide and the campus is now safe. The two dead are reported as both being male.

UPDATE II: A commenter on the Daily Bruin article claims the victim is a professor. Take that with the proverbial grain of salt, but there you have it. [Further update: Dog Trainer reports a law enforcement officer said the bodies look like those of a student and professor.]

UPDATE III: The Dog Trainer already has a shrill editorial up calling for more gun control (no link will be provided to those whiny dipsticks). What’s the old saying about the bodies still being warm? Their editorial board has to be the most prissy and useless people in all of journalism.

UPDATE IV: The victim has been identified in the Daily Bruin and by CBS News Los Angeles as Professor of Mechanical Engineering William Klug, He was a young guy who appears to have joined the UCLA Faculty in the last six to eight years.

– JVW

Part Two: Hillary Lies About Emails, Trump Lies About Veteran Fundraising

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 7:34 am



So PolitiFact has finally ruled a Hillary statement about her emails false, based on the Inspector General report. The statement was: “It was allowed” — referring to her practice of using purely personal email and a private server for all government discussion including classified information. It wasn’t. Larry O’Connor at Hot Air points out that Politi(cized)Fact could have reached this conclusion months earlier, but needed the fig leaf of the IG report because they are lefties.

We can’t elect someone this dishonest.

Meanwhile, Jim Geraghty notes that on January 28, 2016, the Trump campaign put out this statement:

Mr. Trump personally contributed $1 million dollars to the cause and raised an additional $5 million before the one-hour event concluded, totaling more than $6 million dollars.

As Geraghty says:

We now know Trump didn’t write a check that night. Or the next night. Or the night after that. No money went from him, personally, to veterans groups for the next five months, until after reporters started asking Trump about the donation in interviews.

A Washington Post reporter interviewed Trump about this on May 24. And guess what? That’s the day he wrote his check.

The largest donation, a $1 million check dated May 24 and drawn from Donald J. Trump’s personal account, was addressed to a small Tuckahoe, N.Y., group that provides scholarships to the children of fallen Marines.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/436078/trump-and-long-delayed-1-million-donations-veterans

And he wasn’t the only one:

The Associated Press spoke or left messages with each of the organizations Trump named. Of the 30 groups that responded by Tuesday, about half said they had received checks from Trump just last week. Several said the checks were dated on or about May 24 — the date as Trump’s interview with the Post — and shipped out overnight.

He was never going to contribute the money until he was pressed to do so — by a “nasty” reporter.

We can’t elect someone this dishonest.

P.S. Trump has won the Kim Jong Un endorsement. DPRK Today called him a “wise politician.” That’s for real (I think). This is not (but probably good enough to fool 5 media outlets out of 10):


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