Where are they? Where is the Russian sleaze and lies?
Maybe the Atlantic article took those sneaky Russkies by surprise. Were they unprepared to respond as quickly as they did in 2016 after the release of the Hollywood Access tape?
Remember that? Trump boasted of grabbing them by the pussy because they liked it. Within a couple of hours, the Russians dumped a pile of stolen democratic emails to distract public attention from Trump's crude vulgarity and admission of sexual assaults.
Hand-to-hand combat today
Today, I spent about three hours engaging with Trump supporters. All of them believe the Atlantic article is just a pack of liberal lies and slanders. There were no exceptions among anyone I engaged with. One Trumpster referred to the author, Jeffery Goldberg, as a lying Jew. I gently but effectively defused that viciousness before it got out of hand. Well, defused it today. Tomorrow is a different day. Maybe it isn't as defused as I think at present.Trump's supporters raised various reasons to reject the Atlantic article as a pack of lies, or something worse. One was based on John Bolton who was present. But he did not hear the president dump his sleazy contempt on US military personnel. Bolton said this: "I didn't hear that. I'm not saying he didn't say them later in the day or another time, but I was there for that discussion."
It took multiple attempts to explain why Bolton's comments meant that he could not debunk Goldberg's reporting. I think I finally got that across. Maybe. Then Sarah Sanders came out and said the reporting wasn't true because she was there. I pointed out that she, like her boss, is a chronic liar.
A few hours later came a blast from Trump's liar press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's assertion that she had 10 people who all claimed they never heard Trump say what he said. Then Fox News reported that and said those 10 people constituted proof that Goldberg's reporting was all lies. Then Fox News reported it had confirmed Goldberg's reporting. Then Rachael Maddow at MSNBC reported more confirmations of Goldberg's reporting, after NPR reported more confirmations of the original Goldberg reporting.
From what I can tell about how the media and former military personnel or their families have erupted, this bitterly disputed reporting just might cause a few folks to withdraw support for the president. That is not to say most or any will vote for Biden. They just will not vote out of disgust of the president.
It was a real poop storm of battling narratives out there today. The fragility of truth was so painfully obvious it sort of hurt.
The upshot
The Russians seem to have been caught flat-footed here. I did not expect that after how well they performed for the president in 2016. They saved his butt just a few hours after the Access Hollywood tape was released. Maybe this time, the Russians will not be able to put the president into the White House again. Maybe.Where are those October surprises from the Russians? Or, has the US media actually learned a few lessons since their catastrophic failure in 2016 and decided to keep focus on what is important and real news? Maybe there is good reason for some hope after all.
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