| | | | Sarah Sanders can't name a single 'fake news' outlet | | On Monday morning, President Donald Trump tweeted this:
"There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly."
Given that the President of the United States was blaming the media for creating the "great anger in our Country" and arguing that the mainstream media was the "true Enemy of the People," it didn't seem like much of a stretch to ask the White House to name names. Who, exactly, is the fake news? What outlets are the enemy of the people?
CNN's Jim Acosta did just that during a press briefing Monday with White House press secretary Sarah Sanders. Here's the exchange:
ACOSTA: "The President said this morning the fake news media, the true enemy of the people, must stop. They have a responsibility to report the news accurately and fairly. Can you state for the record which outlets you and the President regard as the enemy of the people?"
SANDERS: "I'm not going to walk through a list but I think those individuals probably know who they are."
COSTA: "Would that include my outlet, which received pipe bombs last week?"
SANDERS: "I don't think it's necessarily specific to a broad generalization of a full outlet, at times, I think there's individuals that the President would be referencing."
So, no names named. Which should surprise exactly no one.
The little secret of Trump's "fake news" attack is that he doesn't hate the media at all. He LOVES the media. He cares deeply about what they say and write about him. He likes to banter with reporters. He consumes more media -- primarily by watching cable TV -- than any president ever. And it's not close.
All of Trump's attacks on "fake news" and his labeling of the media as the "enemy of the people" are purely a political strategy. The President knows his base hates and distrusts the media. What better way to motivate them eight days before the midterm election than to cast the media as the real bad guy at the root of the violent rhetoric and actions we have seen over the past week?
Sanders can't name specific outlets or specific people who are enemies of the people or purveyors of fake news because the whole thing is just empty rhetoric solely designed to motivate base voters. There's no "there" there. Which becomes readily apparent when a reporter calls out the White House on its dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric.
The Point: Trump's voters won't care a whit about Sanders' inability to name an actual "fake news" organization. ALL of them are fake, they will insist. Which, while wrong and unprovable, will probably be enough for many people. Ugh.
-- Chris | | "I can't get into specifics that will impact the election, but I can tell you that the President wants to see more people that support his policies elected than not."
-- White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, at today's press briefing, on whether the midterm elections are a referendum on President Trump. | | | MIXED INTEREST IN PRESIDENTIAL TRAVEL | | President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump are headed to Pittsburgh tomorrow.
The President plans to show support for the surrounding community after a deadly mass shooting that left 11 of the congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue dead, according to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.
Sanders noted that Tree of Life's rabbi said the President is welcome there. Though a former president of the congregation says Trump is not welcome, calling the President a "purveyor of hate speech." | | | Thom Yorke -- with or without Radiohead -- is a genius. And he has new music! | | | Today's topic: President Trump needs to realize that his megaphone is loudest and his words matter. | | Democratic Former President (and Georgia native) Jimmy Carter has waded into the Georgia gubernatorial race.
He's also called on the secretary of state (and Republican candidate for governor) Brian Kemp to step down from his post as chief overseer of the state's elections in the midst of the campaign.
"In Georgia's upcoming gubernatorial election, popular confidence is threatened not only by the undeniable racial discrimination of the past and the serious questions that the federal courts have raised about the security of Georgia's voting machines, but also because you are now overseeing the election in which you are a candidate," Carter wrote in a letter to Kemp dated October 22.
This comes as concerns with voter registration and voter suppression swirl around the Peach State. | | Our colleague Marshall Cohen undertook the Herculean task of fact-checking everything President Trump said over 48 hours last week, and the result was -- as you'd expect.
The President, it turns out, has a complicated relationship with facts.
As Marshall writes: "What's clear is that Trump is most accurate during prepared remarks and when touting his strong economic record. But he strays from the truth when improvising with reporters or attacking his opponents.
"Some of his claims simply aren't supported by any evidence. Others are generally true, but wildly exaggerated for no apparent reason. Even with the facts on his side, the President still at times stretches the truth."
Read their review of dozens of statements over two days. | | WONKING OUT WITH HARRY AND ERIC | | Voters are turning out early in a handful of key contests across the country. While the early vote counts are followed breathlessly by some, opinions are split as to whether those early numbers about who is voting and where actually tell a bigger story -- including in the CNN newsroom.
How much does that data actually tell us about who's winning and who's losing? Harry Enten is a skeptic in the early vote trends. Eric Bradner is a believer. So they decided to put their conversation about it online.
Plus, a plug (and the one thing the two of them do agree on): The Nevada Independent's Jon Ralston and Florida Democratic strategist Steve Schale are running blogs with some of the most useful early voting coverage you'll find, Harry and Eric write. | | | | | | |
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