As Twitchy told you yesterday, CNN’s Jake Tapper went after Donald Trump and his team’s “unprecedented smear campaign against rivals”:
President Trump and his team are launching an unprecedented smear campaign against rivals, leveling wild and false allegations against critics in the media and politics, ranging from bizarre conspiracy theories to spreading lies about pedophilia and even murder. 1/
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 17, 2020
2/ These smear campaigns are unmoored from reality. They're deranged and indecent and seem designed at least in part to distract us from the horrific death, health, and economic crisis caused by the pandemic. The pandemic, which impacts you, is what we will continue to focus on.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) May 17, 2020
Team Trump has absolutely gone low to take out political opponents. Which makes him … a lot like his own political — and media — opponents.
You have lost your mind. pic.twitter.com/BtG7BLShLS
— China is lying (@jtLOL) May 17, 2020
Yes, smear campaigns are bad. I can think of a couple that comes to mind just this week and going back to last year. Would you like to hear them?
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) May 17, 2020
So, ackshually, this “unprecedented smear campaign” isn’t all that unprecedented. Moreover, unlike with Trump’s political rivals, Trump doesn’t have the media on his side this time around.
D.C. comms strategist Drew Holden — who’s been killing it with his threads exposing double standards on the Left and in the media — put together yet another damning thread reminding Tapper and the rest of us that the media have been not only participating in, but actively launching, smear campaigns of their own for some time now:
Hard to call this “unprecedented” when we just had a year-plus window where the media & other blue checks coalesced around the idea that the President of the United States might legitimately have been a Russian asset since 1987.
Don’t remember? Well, thread below. https://t.co/ghAmvBNZ34
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Recommended
Buckle up:
To start off, the seminal piece. @NYMag gave @jonathanchait a cover story to lay out the case that, again, the POTUS might have been a Russian asset since 1987.
This is full moon-landing-level stuff. On the cover of a respected magazine. pic.twitter.com/WvXromL2Dl
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Rather than greet this absurd theory with skepticism, lots of people bought the idea hook, line, and sinker.
Here’s Chait on @MSNBC to talk about it with @chrislhayes. https://t.co/Wzp1mG1id8 pic.twitter.com/voUmcTuBF6
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
@politico reported a similar narrative. pic.twitter.com/Ubgte5Gx4C
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Ditto @businessinsider pic.twitter.com/L6xkvVNVJz
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
And @abigailtracy for @VanityFair pic.twitter.com/xRTDTRccVE
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
@vermontgmg managed to jump the shark on the conspiracy theory, for @WIRED, suggesting this idea was a best-case-scenario. pic.twitter.com/zy1mZLyVvN
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
And also @craigunger for @newrepublic. pic.twitter.com/UO8jPjf2Kd
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
and here’s David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize winner, for @Salon, accusing the POTUS of being a “traitor” pic.twitter.com/kFBbQ5RXvY
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Plus @JohnJHarwood, marking the one year anniversary of Chait’s original reporting (which Chait thought was vindicated a year after) pic.twitter.com/HuZ60kHNbX
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Also @Newsweek got into the act. Here’s @JessicaGKwong. pic.twitter.com/rilG5WvY5e
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Of everyone, @maddow was really the most shameless and consistent on this one. Here’s a brief excerpt. pic.twitter.com/dmSjmBcAA1
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
And it wouldn’t be a list of media miscues without @CNN.
Here they are interviewing disgraced former FBI acting director Andrew McCabe, who suggested Trump may be an asset. pic.twitter.com/XWybgYivYw
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Don’t forget about media darlings James Clapper:
Now, a former leader from the intel community saying something this outlandish would surely be a unique and bizarre occurrence, right?
Wrong. Here’s former DNI James Clapper, not exactly covering himself in glory. pic.twitter.com/rShvVjmqGr
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
And John Brennan:
And former CIA Director @JohnBrennan, pushing some serious conspiracy theories.
Again. These are the supposed elder statesmen of the intel community playing the role of partisan hacks. pic.twitter.com/Q6tywUQB66
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
The roles they were born to play.
And speaking of partisan hacks, it should come as no surprise that, where failed predictions and bad ideas go, the NeverTrump crowd is sure to follow.
Here’s @JRubinBlogger. pic.twitter.com/eRWLcZudWI
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
And human volcano @TheRickWilson pic.twitter.com/iVpZEJcQX7
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Unsurprisingly, @MaxBoot is the one who goes fully overboard on this one. He had 18 different reasons, including “Trump doesn’t like NATO and the FBI” and, a cardinal sin in the Bootian view, “Trump wants to end a forever war” pic.twitter.com/mGosdeZnIz
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
But wait! There’s more:
We’ve also got elected officials. Hillary Clinton floated this idea in her campaign. pic.twitter.com/LSeQYuuQE0
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
@RepJeffries said all of the quiet parts out loud here. Full video: https://t.co/batErOJK7L
Again, this is a member of House leadership suggesting the POTUS is potentially an illegitimate president or an intel asset for our geopolitical enemy. pic.twitter.com/FAEwiXr5Op
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
And disgraced former rep @alfranken gets involved too. I think the title says it all. @MalcolmNance pushed this idea a lot. pic.twitter.com/0RnJuJ2fNL
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
And of course the usual blue checks chimed in. Here’s @tribelaw, a former sage legal mind. pic.twitter.com/1v7my81AGk
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
And recent fan favorite @CheriJacobus pic.twitter.com/zI43gxjmmb
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
And it wouldn’t be a conspiracy if @SethAbramson didn’t buy into at least some version of it. pic.twitter.com/YMeKFa1tFo
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Of course.
So, yes. I’m all for a conversation about the risk of conspiracy theories being amplified & fomented in the digital age. That’s enormously dangerous.
But if that conversation doesn’t touch on the ones that folks in the media/on the left pushed, I think I’ll pass.
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020
Seems more than fair.
Well done Drew. Well done. pic.twitter.com/EPjmeXJYF9
— Erik Brooks (@ChipBrooks17) May 18, 2020
This is one for the history books. They ought to take a long hard look at your thread bc they wouldn't stop, they didn't care, and it was wrong.
— arlene billson (@juneslili) May 18, 2020
This is outstanding work, Drew. Never let them forget.
— rodney keith (@TheChairmanRKS) May 18, 2020
Something tells us that Drew Holden won’t be letting them off the hook anytime soon.
Anyway, I don’t have a book or a Patreon or anything that I’m selling, but I am, in my humble opinion, worth a follow.
But if you’re in the giving spirit, there are plenty of worthy causes. I recommend this one: https://t.co/fIUFMqprQr
— Drew Holden (@DrewHolden360) May 17, 2020