By Douglas J. Hagmann
I wrote this column nearly ten years ago in September 2013, six years before the COVID lockdowns, For verification purposes, the original report can be found here. Fast-forward to today with 20/20 hindsight, were the warnings on target? Consider the 2016 election and the disruption by Donald J. Trump as president. I contend that things would have turned out much differently had it been a Clinton presidency.
Please read the column and decide for yourself HERE,
By Peter Barry Chowka
The Mueller investigation should stop, he won’t let Pres. Trump testify, and the war for public opinion in advance of the 2018 elections is on.
Last Wednesday evening (May 30), in a crisp and crackling conversation with Sean Hannity on his Fox News program, President Trump’s lead attorney Rudy Giuliani made news in both what he said about the President Trump’s legal strategy and in how he delivered the news. If there was any doubt that Trump and his legal advisors were planning on cowering or capitulating in the face of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s never ending investigation into the president and his allies, it seemed to melt away during that interview.
It was reminiscent of Giuliani at his combative best when he served two terms as the Republican Mayor of New York City (1994-2002) and regularly had to contend with the famously aggressive take-no-prisoners local media that was always looking for material to make tabloid headlines.
Earlier on Wednesday, speaking with reporters on the White House South Lawn for Sports and Fitness Day, Giuliani, according to POLITICO, said:
President Donald Trump is unlikely to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions before the completion of the special counsel investigation. .
“There’s no doubt he’s complained about him, there’s no doubt he has some grievances,” Giuliani said. “He’s not going to fire him before this is over. . . Nor do I think he should.”
After the investigation concludes, [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions and others might want to leave of their own volition, Giuliani said.
He later added that he also does not think Trump will fire special counsel Robert Mueller or deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein.
Appearing live on Hannity later on Wednesday, Giuliani, who is frequently on TV representing his new client the president, provided additional new insights into the POTUS’ legal team’s plans to defend their client as the investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller grinds on slowly to its finish. Among the topics touched on with new clarity were the validity of the Mueller investigation itself, the disagreements about whether the FBI’s tactics in 2016 entailed spying, the perception that the Trump team is planning a major PR campaign as part of its defense, and the question of whether or not President Trump will testify under oath.
Along the way, Giuliani volunteered some zingers, including a certain to be controversial reference to Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), one of President Trump’s most vocal nemeses, as “sweetheart.” It was not a long interview, and the transcript below, provided by Fox News, with corrections and minor editing by the author, is an informative and entertaining read. A video of the Hannity-Giuliani interview segment can be watched here.
RUDY GIULIANI, PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ATTORNEY: Well, the fact is that this investigation [by Special Counsel Mueller] never should have taken place in the first place. If we consider the counterintelligence investigation, the spying, the spygate – all appropriate descriptions.
Here’s what I want to know. I want to see the documents which [Rep.] Trey Gowdy [R-SC] has never seen, which is outrageous. And I’m not going to let my client testify, the president of the United States, even if he wants to, without those documents being produced and [examined by] myself and Jay Sekulow and Jane and Marty [Raskin]. We’re going to go over it with a fine toothed comb.
Only if and when we find that this was handled appropriately – and there’s some evidence on which they can base this phony investigation – will we have him testify. But if there is no evidence, which I assume there is no evidence, then – I mean, he shouldn’t testify. The whole thing should be squashed. I mean, it should be ended immediately.
And we’ll challenge Mueller to write whatever you got, take your best punch with all your 13 Democrats there. You couldn’t find a Republican?
SEAN HANNITY, HOST OF HANNITY: Andrew Weissmann.
GIULIANI: How about an independent?
(LAUGHTER)
GIULIANI: How about guys with ethical issues at the Justice Department? I know that. Because I was a high-ranking official in the Justice Department.
So, you got a group there that’s a lynching mob, so let them do their job and, boy, we’re ready to knock the heck out of you with our report, which will be authoritative. It will be backed up. It will be backed up with law and facts. And we’ll let the American people decide this.
You know, some people have criticized my strategy, which is the president’s, of to some extent playing to the American people. If this were a regular case, I wouldn’t be doing it. But the people who will decide this are the people of the United States in the 2018 election.
And they – boy, they are switching fast and the Democrats are running for cover. You don’t hear them say the word “impeachment” anymore. I challenge Maxine Waters to say “impeachment.”
HANNITY: Say it.
GIULIANI: Say it. Say “impeachment,” sweetheart. Just say it!
HANNITY: Wow.
GIULIANI: And you know what’s going to happen? You’re going to go down. Not maybe you [Rep. Waters], because they vote for you, I don’t know why, but they vote for you.
But your colleagues are going to go down. And this is the change that we brought about by engaging and not letting them get away with the unethical behavior that has outraged Judge Ellis, Judge Wood. You know what she did, she threw Avenatti, the television star of the left wing CNN and MSNBC, she threw him out of court.
He doesn’t belong in a New York court. He’s not ethical enough. You know why? He’s a big liar and he wanted to debate me. Like heck he’s going to debate me. He should go debate in some gin mill. (LAUGHS.)
HANNITY: You said it earlier and you’re confirming here tonight that if Mr. Mueller tries to subpoena the president, we will fight this all the way to the Supreme Court. Mark Levin has said the Constitution is on the president’s side. Judge Ellis’ comments – going back to a 2005 tax case with Ukraine and Paul Manafort to put the screws to the president so that Manafort sings or composes, suborning perjury, and the hopes that they can prosecute or impeach the president.
GIULIANI: Sean, I have no fear of it, nor does the president. The president has done nothing wrong. Read my lips: nothing wrong.
None of these people, Manafort, Cohen, they’re not going to lie. They [the prosecutors] can go pound sand. They’re not going to lie.
HANNITY: What about the spying and the FISA court abuse? You lie to a judge, wow, good luck to you.
GIULIANI: You’ve got to go to jail for that. I mean, it’s one thing to lie even in a criminal case, another thing to lie in a counterintelligence probe.
And also, the FISA judges really rely even more than a criminal court –
HANNITY: Rod Rosenstein signed the final FISA application. Sally Yates signed one.
GIULIANI: I mean, so what? So what? (LAUGHS.) It’s not worth the paper it’s written on.
HANNITY: The bulk of it was Hillary Clinton bought and paid for foreign intelligence-built Russian lies, and they never corroborated it.
GIULIANI: I’ll follow up on what Rush [Limbaugh] said. Of course, if it wasn’t spying, they should have come to the Trump campaign. They could have come to me. My goodness, I was the FBI man of the year that year. They could have come to me and they could have told me, and I could have briefed the president or they could have briefed the president.
HANNITY: And that would have been in the spring of 2016. The president never met Carter Page, ever – to this day he never met Carter Page.
GIULIANI: He hasn’t met most of these people. He hasn’t met most of those people that they alleged – and they haven’t alleged collusion on the part of anybody. Even those Russians, the phony indictment they have with the Russians who will never come here for trial, they colluded with each other, Russians colluding. Oh, wow, that’s big news. Russians have been colluding since the Soviet Union to interfere in our elections.
Thank you, Sean. Thank you for being a patriot.
HANNITY: Thank you.
GIULIANI: We really appreciate it. And the president appreciates it, if I may say.
HANNITY: It’s about the truth and it’s the biggest abuse of power, corruption scandal, everything we talk about with FISA, fixing the Hillary investigation, spying on a campaign.
GIULIANI: Don’t think that he [President Trump] has any reluctance to be interviewed. He’s ready and willing and able to be interviewed. And he’ll knock them out. It’s me and his lawyers that don’t want to see the president set up for perjury.
HANNITY: I wouldn’t allow, if I were the lawyer, this president to go anywhere near any special counsel that hires a guy like Andrew Weissmann ever.
(LAUGHTER)
HANNITY: My two cents.
GIULIANI: I hear you, I hear you.
HANNITY: All right, sir. Thank you.
Peter Barry Chowkais a veteran reporter and analyst of news on national politics, media, and popular culture. He is a frequent contributorto American Thinker. Follow Peter on Twitter at @pchowka.
By Peter Barry Chowka
On November 28, there was more evidence that Sean Hannity is the second most wanted man on the take down list of the anti-Trump Resistance. On that day, the New York Times – in earlier days the “newspaper of record” and still the most influential, and lately Deep State driven, agenda-setting newspaper in the U.S. – posted an 8,000 word cover story by Matthew Shaer that will be published in its next Sunday magazine (Dec. 3), along with a striking cover photo of the subject.
The subject? Sean Hannity. The cover title? “How Far Will Sean Hannity Go?” (in his defense of President Trump). The photo is a comical pose struck by Hannity taken during a half hour photo shoot during which, Hannity said, hundreds of pictures were snapped. The one that was selected by the Times editors, according to Hannity, is the worst one, showing him looking angry and scary, if not demonic. The Drudge Report described its link to it on Tuesday as “NYT goes for anger.”
The ultimate target in all of this is the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. The attempted take down of Hannity would be a significant step on the path to that final objective of regime change.
The campaign to take down Sean Hannity which began in earnest months ago is now expanding and intensifying. In addition to being the most prominent defender of President Trump, Hannity is the most prolific and consistent mainstream media figure to, night after night, expose the scandals and criminality of the Democrats and the Deep State – all of which go largely unreported by the rest of the MSM.
Hannity made light of the whole New York Times Sunday Magazine spread on his radio and Fox News televisionprograms later on Tuesday. A close read of the article, however, offers some alarming insights into the tactics of the Trump-hating MSM.
The Times story is correct in much of the information about Hannity that it presents. But it is never without a leftist anti-Trump spin. The Times reporter and a photographer also got Hannity, who cooperated fully with the reporter, to take them to his humble childhood home on Long Island, New York, where they knocked on the door and were given a tour of the house by the current residents.
Early on, the article describes Hannity as hosting a “fact free” program. Really? Hannity’s broadcasts on Fox News for at least the past six months have been filled not only with probing and verifiable facts but the input of some of the most credible and accomplished investigative journalists from mainstream publications. These include John Solomon from The Hill, Sara Carter from Circa News, and Fox News’s own stable of reporters, including attorney and anchor Gregg Jarrett, that advance the stories that Hannity is reporting. Sean Hannity is not a solo act or a one-man band making up stories. To call Hannity’s and his contributors’ work “fact free” is ridiculous – and it’s a lie.
The Times author also links Hannity to Alex Jones of Infowars. Based on sources that I have, I doubt that Hannity and his staff are closely following what Infowars is doing, and they certainly aren’t taking their talking points or information from Alex Jones.
The role of Vox
It turns out that the Times article on Hannity incorporates attack journalism that originated with Vox, the far-left website co-founded in 2014 by leftist blogger and writer Ezra Klein, a darling of the trendy, punk ethos-worshipping commentariat. Klein was one of the first to catch an early wave of social media, in this case narcissistic self-obsessed political blogging, while he was still a student at USC in the early 2000s.
Later, Klein went on to write articles and blog for the Washington Post. He has appeared for years as a frequent guest on the partisan prime time leftist echo chamber programs pushed out by MSNBC. Among his other claims to fame, Klein is responsible for starting a super-secret off-the-record online chat forum in Washington, D.C. in 2007 called JournoList, involving the active participation of many of the top journalists in the country, all of them left leaning. The effort was exposed in a 2009 article in Politico, of all places, titled “JournoList: Inside the Echo Chamber:”
For the past two years, several hundred left-leaning bloggers, political reporters, magazine writers, policy wonks and academics have talked stories and compared notes in an off-the-record online meeting space called JournoList.
Proof of a vast liberal media conspiracy?
Not at all, says Ezra Klein, the 24-year-old American Prospect blogging wunderkind who formed JournoList in February 2007. “Basically,” he says, “it’s just a list where journalists and policy wonks can discuss issues freely.”
But some of the journalists who participate in the online discussion say — off the record, of course — that it has been a great help in their work. On the record, The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin acknowledged that a Talk of the Town piece — he won’t say which one — got its start in part via a conversation on JournoList. And JLister Eric Alterman, The Nation writer and CUNY professor, said he’s seen discussions that start on the list seep into the world beyond.
Imagine, for a moment, if an identical group of right leaning mainstream media journalists had participated in a similar super-secret chat forum, for the purpose of exchanging and floating ideas and brainstorming conservative stories that would later make it into the mainstream press. Well, you couldn’t imagine it because it would never happen – there are virtually no major mainstream journalists anymore who lean right.
The writer at Vox whose recent writings on Hannity apparently served as a fundamental basis for the Times article is Alvin Chang. On Nov. 14, Vox published Chang’s attack article “Sean Hannity has become the media’s top conspiracy theorist.” In the Times article, which in many ways mimics and cribs the details and spin from the Vox article from two weeks earlier, Times author Shaer writes that Hannity:
…is also a figure prone to barreling headfirst into the murky territory between opinion and out-and-out conspiracy theorism [sic]. (snip)
In November, Alvin Chang, a writer for Vox, crunched data from two years of Hannity TV transcripts and concluded that Hannity was, in his mentions of topics like “the deep state” and the uranium deal, the media’s “top conspiracy theorist.”
On November 22, another Vox employee, Video Producer, Strikethrough at Vox.com, Carlos Maza, who describes himself as the “gay wonk,” posted an 8-minute Vox video “How Trump turned Sean Hannity into a conspiracy theorist.” The professionally-produced, incredibly slick and detailed video creatively presents Hannity as a conspiracy monger parroting the rantings of Infowars founder Alex Jones (“the most hated man in American media,” as I described him in an article on June 18, 2017). On November 29, 2017, after five days online at YouTube, Maza’s anti-Hannity video had racked up over 650,000 views.
On the same day as his video appeared, Maza is credited with writing another attack article on Hannity for Vox, this one titled “How Trump turned Sean Hannity into a conspiracy theorist – The Fox News host is sounding a lot like Alex Jones.” The article features a still frame grabbed from the video depicting Hannity as wearing a tin foil hat.
So here we have it: The New York Times, the previously respected “newspaper of record,” is now little more than a conduit and a mouthpiece for the über left wing rag Vox and two of its chief propagandists, Chang and the self-described “gay nerd” Maza – doing the bidding of the anti-Trump Resistance. Oh, it should not be overlooked that the only other job that Maza has ever had, before he joined Vox last January, was to work at Media Matters for America from 2011 until his job with Vox started.
Sean Hannity was prescient and right on when he has said of the MSM starting several years back that “journalism is dead in America.”
Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran reporter and analyst of news on national politics, media, and popular culture. Follow Peter on Twitter @pchowka.