Corey Lewandowski came up with a ridiculous excuse for Donald Trump’s “loyalty” demands of James Comey – but Fox’s Tucker Carlson was there to help validate it. It was the kind of BS only a Fox News viewer could believe – and I’m not so sure even they’ll buy it.
Earlier Wednesday, former FBI-Director Comey released a lengthy statement to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to be included as part of his testimony on Thursday. In it, Comey related how Trump repeatedly asked for his loyalty. Trump also pressured Comey to drop an investigation into former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Trump’s comments about Flynn may well be grounds for impeachment, according to some legal experts.
Impeachable or not, Comey’s statement is certainly damning. And nothing says that more than the desperate attempts by Trump’s former campaign manager, Lewandowski, who now seems to be acting as a Trump surrogate, to spin it by claiming that Trump’s request for loyalty did not mean loyalty to him.
Here’s what Comey wrote about his January 27, 2017 dinner during which he told Trump that he wanted to stay on the job in the new administration (my emphases added):
"A few moments later, the President said, “I need loyalty, I expect loyalty.” I didn’t move, speak, or change my facial expression in any way during the awkward silence that followed. We simply looked at each other in silence. The conversation then moved on, but he returned to the subject near the end of our dinner.
[…]
Near the end of our dinner, the President…said, “I need loyalty.” I replied, “You will always get honesty from me.” He paused and then said, “That’s what I want, honest loyalty.” I paused, and then said, “You will get that from me.” As I wrote in the memo I created immediately after the dinner, it is possible we understood the phrase “honest loyalty” differently, but I decided it wouldn’t be productive to push it further. The term – honest loyalty – had helped end a very awkward conversation and my explanations had made clear what he should expect."
It’s hard to believe Carlson or Lewandowski really thought Trump was talking about loyalty to anyone other than himself. But with straight faces, those two pushed that baloney to Fox News viewers.
Carlson started by playing dumb but also handing Lewandowski the opportunity to propagandize on a silver platter: “Why would the president ask for loyalty from an FBI director? What does that mean?” Carlson asked, as if he had no idea.
LEWANDOWSKI: Look, what the president asked for was loyalty to the country and loyalty to make sure that the American people have the justice system that they want. That’s not unheard of, that’s not uncalled for. And what the president asked for, as a president-elect, was to develop a rapport with the incoming FBI director.
This is such obvious hogwash. But Carlson did not challenge a word.
Perhaps even worse was how Carlson allowed Lewandowski to pretend that Comey had exonerated Trump.
LEWANDOWSKI: What’s important, Tucker, as you know, is when Director Comey appeared in Trump Tower in January, prior to the president even being inaugurated, he informed the president that he was not under investigation in any way, shape or form.
But what Lewandowski “forgot” was that later in Comey’s statement, he made it clear he thought it quite possible Trump would later come under investigation:
"I did not tell the President that the FBI and the Department of Justice had been reluctant to make public statements that we did not have an open case on President Trump for a number of reasons, most importantly because it would create a duty to correct, should that change."
Instead of pointing out the truth, Carlson nodded in agreement as Lewandowski spoke. “That’s definitely one of the headlines here,” Carlson said.
Watch the propaganda below, from the June 7, 2017 Tucker Carlson Tonight.
It takes some lack of character to let Lewandowski sit there, spew out that incredible garbage, and not challenge one word of it. I love how Ellen wrote “with straight faces”. What I would have given to be in studio and listen to the two of them banter after the segment ended. And record it. And then put it right on the Net.
Fox is hitched to the Trump wagon and as he erodes, they erode. However…
I’ve bought the news narrative that his deplorable base is actually the sympathetic little guys beaten down by globalization they’re incompetent at competing with. Desperate for a return of the good old days when they could earn a good living in factories putting lug nuts on widgets.
However, I’m starting to see election analysis they’re not blue collar, but mostly small businessmen and their supporters with above average family income (ballpark $100,000) but poorly educated.
If true, it’ll be harder to trim Trump’s support because his inevitable failure to lift working class wages won’t matter to this crowd. They’re more into the abstraction of laissez-faire capitalism or personally benefit from worker wages getting crushed.