Liars, Leakers, and Liberals_The Case Against the Anti-Trump Conspiracy
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I don’t.
Wolff claims to have conducted more than two hundred interviews for his fictional opus, but it’s obvious he relied mostly on one dubious source. Fire and Fury reads as though it was ghostwritten by none other than Sloppy Steve Bannon.
Like many of those close to the president during the last few months of the campaign, I thought Bannon had his head on straight and his priorities in order. But after the election all that changed. Proximity to power can do that to people.
“In business you form relationships over a decade or more,” said Eric Trump. “Employees become family members. You would do anything for them, and they would do anything for you. You are there for one common objective. Call that capitalism. You are there to run a successful business, to create a great widget, to run a great hotel or build a successful enterprise. And if you’re successful in that, it rises all boats for everyone involved. You have a very different class in politics. Politicians, other than the corrupt ones, are not motivated by money. They’re motivated by power and that power can often lead to vicious and unethical behavior.”
Trash such as Joshua Green’s Devil’s Bargain would have you believe Bannon was a mighty intellect with a grand, master plan, surrounded by fools. As Kellyanne Conway put it, “I guess Steve thought it would be bankable if the whole world—especially on a foreign stage—thought he was the brains behind the whole operation.” In truth, Bannon was just trying to cover his incompetence by calling everyone else incompetent. I’m told he would sit with his P.R. team in one room trying to figure out how to take credit for policies being made in another—policies he had nothing to do with making. Bannon rose to the position he did by being lucky, nothing more. He hitched his wagon to the brightest star the political universe has ever seen—Donald J. Trump—and then tried to convince everyone he was the light in the sky.
Bannon, the “brain,” was just an opportunist, and not a very smart one at that. He’d ride a wave for as long as it benefited him and got him attention. Along the way, he leaked information, turned people against each other, and fancied himself a political genius. But all he really had was five or six canned lines in his head. His “mighty intellect” amounted to a couple of cheap tricks—and leaks. As Don Jr. put it, “You think that there’s anyone on earth that could change DJT? Ask yourself, was there any change in DJT or his demeanor during that time? None whatsoever. It was all Donald J. Trump. He was his own messenger.”
Sloppy Steve wasn’t always nice about trying to elevate himself at the expense of the president’s mission. My sources in the White House tell me there was a dark side to Bannon’s self-aggrandizing agenda, including threatening anyone who got in his way. “I’ll cut you up in the press. That’s what I do for a living,” he told one such person. He’d say things like, “I’ll break you,” and “I’m crazier than you.” This was clearly a man whose ambition overcame his reason.
Bannon might still be getting away with his threatening, leaking, and lying if he hadn’t told Michael Wolff the biggest whopper of them all. Bannon’s attack on Don Jr. was malicious, personal, and false. As I’ve said, I’ve known Don Jr. since he was a little kid. To call him treasonous and unpatriotic is ridiculous.
Give the Devil his due. LIAR Wolff played Bannon like a radio. Wolffie must have been licking his chops as LEAKER Steve spewed his inane bile. Wolff knew the damage Bannon’s statements would do. He used them like knives stuck in the backs of those to whom he’d ingratiated himself, using that sleazy, false smile we saw plastered across every network and website last January.
They deserve each other, LEAKER Steve and LIAR Wolff. Like Abbott and Costello, they’re the perfect comedy team. One has no sense of style and the other no integrity.
For a while, everywhere I looked, I saw this hack blathering about what a brilliant job he’d done reporting on the Trump administration. But he and his book are as phony as a hundred-dollar Chanel bag. Like a failed novelist who teaches a writing class filled with lonely hearts, Wolff tries to impress with French terms such as bête noir, outré, and joie de guerre and words nobody else ever uses such as myrmidons, but he doesn’t impress me. I’ve seen his type countless times in the courtroom—all smoke and mirrors, doubletalk and nothing of substance.
Lest I waste too many words on this loser, I’ll leave it there. Suffice it to say his attempt to seriously damage the Trump administration was about as successful as his internet blog.
CHAPTER THREE
Lying, Liberal Hollywood Hypocrites
What gets my goat is LIBERAL righteous indignation, especially when columnists and pundits on the left act intellectually superior. These liberals think they are smarter and better than us, know what’s good for us, how we should live and even how we should think. Don’t you love when those so-called social justice warriors, the ones who claim moral and ethical superiority over the rest of us, the ones who chastise us “deplorables” because of our core American values, are hoisted by their own petard?
Even worse than the smug Fake Press is Hypocritical Hollywood. It’s so bad at this point that we probably need a new awards show for them, too. Maybe we can follow President Trump’s lead and create the Hollywood Hypocrites Awards.
If you watched the Oscars this past year, you would think the only person who did anything wrong in Hollywood was Harvey Weinstein. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying Horrible Harvey doesn’t deserve to get the book thrown at him. He does. In fact, I’d like to throw a lot more than the book at him.
I already missed my chance to dump a bowl of soup on him. In 2001, when I was district attorney in Westchester County, my office investigated and prosecuted a crew that stole luxury cars. Those guys were pros. They stole only the best: Audis, BMWs, Lexuses, and Mercedes-Benzes straight out of garages in the tony parts of Westchester. They used burner phones, switched warehouses regularly, and spoke to one another only in Mandarin.
They were part of an international operation. The gang would drive the cars to New Jersey and put them into shipping containers and then onto trains to the West Coast. There they drove the cars onto freighters bound for China. Back then there was a huge market for high-end cars in China, so those guys were making a killing.
How good were they? Well, after my investigators arrested one of them, they impounded his stolen car. A few hours later, a judge allowed him out on bail. He stole the same car straight out of the police impound lot!
That was a guy I wanted to meet!
At the time, Tina Brown was the editor in chief of Talk magazine. She invited a group of movers and shakers out to Santa Barbara, California, for what she called the “Innovators and Navigators” conference. It was a very fancy and beautiful event, held in a resort on a bluff overlooking the ocean. A cross section of media types, politicos, movie industry honchos, and others attended. Rudy Giuliani was one of the speakers, so I didn’t feel totally out of place.
At the get-to-know-one-another dinner, Tina assigned me a seat right next to, of all people, Harvey Weinstein. I’m sure you’ve seen photos of Harvey. In person he’s not exactly Paul Newman.
Tina introduced us and brought up my car theft case. At some point during the conversation, she mentioned that it might make a good movie. It was the same year the first of the Fast and the Furious movies had come out. Not that I cared much one way or the other, but I began to tell Weinstein a little about the case, mostly what was already in the public domain—the criminal syndicate, the walkie-talkies and the freighters, stuff like that.
“Are you into politics?” he asked me out of nowhere.
I said politics was the mechanism that allowed me to attain jobs I loved—as an elected County Judge and elected District Attorney.
“What do you think of the Clintons?”
I paused for a second, knowing I could not make small talk with him. Nope, no political correctness here.
“I think they’re both crooks,” I said with a smile, staring at him. That was the end of our dinner conversation.
For years women had complained about Harvey Weinstein, but were ignored by LIBERAL Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance. Finally, after huge public outcry, Weinstein was indicted for rape. Another LIBERAL in New York law enforcement, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman had to resign in shame after four women accused him of assault.
Horrible Harvey and Hillary
The Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse and harassment scandal is a perfect example of Hollywood hypocrisy. During the Kennedy and Clinton presidencies, their womanizing was well known. When women came forward with accusations of sexual abuse, harassment, and even rape against Bill Clinton, reporters were silent. Hillary, showing her true cold, calculating colors, attacked and threatened victims. Not one liberal woman in Congress attacked President Clinton. Mum was the word. The Hollywood elite was not only silent on the subject, they continued to support both Clintons, raising funds and placing them on LIBERAL pedestals.
Weinstein, once a famous, now infamous, moviemaker was accused of at least three rapes and continuing sexual assault, and harassment of dozens of young women on two continents. He silenced those around him with his ability to intimidate victims, pressure business associates, buy powerful Democrats, and leverage hungry Hollywood actors.
It was an intersection of crime, money, power, and the Democrat Party. Reports are that Weinstein has given $1.5 million since 2000 to peddle influence: hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democrat Party, nonstop donations to Hillary Clinton, hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Clinton Foundation.
After Weinstein’s façade finally came tumbling down, hypocrite Hillary, the woman who created her own war room to destroy the women who credibly accused hubby Bill of rape and sexual assault, hid for five days. The woman who said women should be believed in the #MeToo movement—waited five days before saying she’s shocked. Shocked. Think of it, Hillary, were you elected president, you could have done for your friend Harvey what your husband Bill did for his friend Jeffrey Epstein, the Palm Beach billionaire and convicted serial pedophile predator. Bill got the Department of Justice and the feds to intercede in a local prosecution to take child rape cases from the DA’s office in Florida where Epstein was facing hard state time, to federal easy street where he quickly got home monitoring.
Hillary, could it be you said nothing because you have experience with pedophiles. As a practicing attorney you represented a child rapist, one of two men who destroyed a twelve-year-old girl by raping her so severely that she was in a coma for days, leaving her unable to have children for the rest of her life. There are recordings of you discussing the case in which you are heard laughing and giggling.
You know, Hillary, both you and Harvey are a lot alike. Both of you are addicted to power, money, and domination. Weinstein wanted to dominate Hollywood and you wanted to dominate politics. You still do.
Weinstein spread his wealth among Democrats, delivering $700,000 to another condescending liberal, Barack Obama, who also took days to condemn Hollywood’s open secret. It seems strange that not one of them knew. Obama had the FBI and IRS at his fingertips. I guess they were a little too busy going after conservatives, covering up Hillary’s email scandal, and setting up Donald Trump for a Russian collusion investigation to find a predator in their midst.
Michelle Obama also was a fan of Hollywood’s hypocrisy. After Hillary lost, Michelle said “Any woman who voted against Hillary Clinton voted against their own voice.”1 Michelle, does that mean you listened to your voice and voted for Hillary and against your husband when Hillary ran against him in the primary? Where was your voice on the day your daughter got a job with Harvey?
Meryl Streep—another paragon of virtue says she didn’t know a thing about Harvey, while she preached to us at the Golden Globes condemning our president.
Meryl, you say you didn’t know anything about Harvey’s predatory behavior. Really? How much has your best bud Harvey added to your bank account while you stood oblivious to the victimization of young women who want to be you? How many of those young women came to you for advice? You arrogantly condescend to lecture the rest of us about our politics. It’s no surprise. Your morals are not in line with ours. You openly rise to applaud Roman Polanski, a child rapist as Hollywood awards him when everyone knew he was a fugitive from justice.
Even comedian John Oliver gets the hypocrisy. On a recent show he had this to say about the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ treatment of Harvey Weinstein. “Yes, finally! The group that counts among its current members Roman Polanski, Bill Cosby, and Mel Gibson has found the one guy who treated women badly and kicked him out. So, congratulations, Hollywood!
Phony Tough Guys
Now, as if Hollywood’s hypocrisy and preaching aren’t bad enough, since Donald Trump was elected their lectures and condescending speeches have turned into threats. Actor Robert De Niro, the movie wise guy, tells an audience from behind a lectern that he’s going to punch the president in the face and curses him out. So Bobby doesn’t like Donald Trump and his politics. He calls the president every name in the book while this Hollywood hypocrite is steeped knee deep in the dirty money of Harvey Weinstein. How many of Weinstein’s productions have swelled DeNiro’s bank account as he calls our president a punk, a pig, a thug.
Bobby, I think you’re taking your roles too seriously and your punching days are behind you. Instead of throwing punches, you might want to work on your public speaking skills. When you struggle to deliver political speeches, the only time you look up from the script is to curse. You’re like the street thug in a remedial reading class who got held back when the rest of the thugs graduated. Yeah, I’m talking to you. In fact—you never graduated from high school.
Folks, Hollywood’s been steeped in hypocrisy for decades. As the curtain goes up on the casting couch, the town that glorifies violence, murder, and rape is the same town where the centuries-old practice of pressuring women to trade sex for a job is kept quiet.
Actors who simply repeat other people’s words for a living, convince themselves they have the moral turpitude to pontificate to the rest of us on how we should act.
By the way, it’s not over yet. There’s more coming. It’s not just adult women. It’s human trafficking. It’s child sex trafficking. It’s real pedophilia in a town where there are no rules; where the truth is stranger than fiction and where fiction is based on reality.
Why doesn’t the Department of Justice get its act together and start a federal criminal investigation into Harvey Weinstein, and his ongoing criminal activity that, no doubt, crossed state lines? I guess the DOJ is too busy redacting and hiding documents from Congress.
DeNiro isn’t the only actor playing the political tough guy act. There’s also Sean Penn. Remember him? Barely, right? Not too long ago he called President Trump an enemy of the state and an enemy of mankind. Just how hypocritical was that statement? Since it came out of the mouth of the guy who also said he was “blessed” to have been friends with Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan dictator, accused of so many human rights violations, I’d say it was pretty hypocritical.
Hey, Sean, I have a question for you, too: When did you stop beating your wife?
That’s a purely rhetorical question, of course.
Then there is Chelsea Handler, who led the women’s march after the inauguration. Handler actually had the balls to try to embarrass Melania Trump, claiming Melania can barely speak! Right! Melania speaks five languages and the only language you speak is anti-American! And you really advocated that the military overthrow the president? Maybe you and Madonna, who pondered blowing up the White House, might ask a lawyer about 18 US Code Section 2385. It criminalizes sedition.
&nbs
p; Kathy Griffin posed with a bloody, severed head of our president for a TMZ photographer. A Shakespeare in the Park production featured a modern-day Julius Caesar modeled on Donald Trump getting stabbed to death onstage. Johnny Depp opined that “maybe it is time” to assassinate a president. Mickey “when-was-the-last-time-he-had-a-job” Rourke said he wanted to beat then-candidate Trump with a baseball bat.
Believe me, we’re in a fight for our lives.
Back in June 2017, the liberal director Rob Reiner called for “all-out war” against the Right. His tweet was particularly insensitive considering that it came just a few weeks after a gunman’s attack on Republicans playing baseball on a Virginia field that left Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA) in critical condition, and injured four others including a US Capitol police officer who was shot. Though heartless, his words capture the true sentiment of the Left: it is at war with America, and violence is by no means off the table.
Just a few months after President Trump took office, Chelsea Handler tweeted that she’d be giving up showbiz for a while to focus “full-time on activism.” Soon afterward, Sarah Silverman said she’d be doing pretty much the same thing.
Full of righteous indignation and selfishness, these celebrities hate Donald Trump so badly they would rather our nation fail than see him succeed as president. I don’t know about you, but I’ve had it with all of them.
Where was Hollywood’s outrage when Barack Obama was sending millions of dollars in cash to Iran on unmarked pallets in unmarked planes for the release of terrorists, some of whom returned to the battlefield? Where were the speeches and pussy hats when on his way out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue he gave $221 million to the PLO, which looks the other way as women are murdered in “honor killings” and sexually assaulted with relative impunity? Nowhere.
I like activism. In fact, I applaud it. But, the same celebrities who spent the first years of the new millennium screaming from the rooftops of their luxury high-rises and Hollywood Hills mansions about the injustice of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars—before the rubble from 9/11 was even cleared, in some cases—suddenly changed their tune when Obama took office. They wouldn’t be seen within a few hundred feet of President George W. Bush, but a couple of years later they were just fine spending their Friday nights rubbing shoulders with and writing checks for a president who had likely ordered up a few dozen killer drone strikes that very week. In one he killed an American citizen in Yemen, Anwar al-Awlaki, an Islamic militant, without any due process. Two weeks later al-Awlaki’s sixteen-year-old son was killed while eating dinner in an outdoor restaurant in a separate drone strike targeting someone else. Just kill ’em and to hell with the collateral damage.