The Patriot Post® · Anatomy of a Media Smear

Gov. Mike Pence was on CNN Monday discussing Hillary Clinton’s comment that half of Trump’s supporters are a “basket of deplorables.” During the interview, Wolf Blitzer asked Pence about David Duke. The governor responded:

“I’m not really sure why the media keeps dropping David Duke’s name. Donald Trump has denounced David Duke repeatedly. We don’t want his support and we don’t want the support of people who think like him.”

(Duke hasn’t been in the news for years. But all of a sudden he is useful to big media and Hillary Clinton, so he is getting lots of press.)

Given Pence’s clear rejection of Duke and the campaign’s past condemnations, a reasonable person would say, “No news, move on.”

But the interview was a setup. Blitzer and the Clinton News Network wanted a “gotcha moment.”

So Blitzer asked this follow-up question, “You would call [Duke] a ‘deplorable’?”

Gov. Pence responded, “No, I’m not in the name-calling business, Wolf. You know me better than that. What Hillary Clinton did Friday night is shocking.”

Again, a reasonable person watching the exchange could have summarized the interview this way: “Gov. Pence Again Denounces David Duke.”

Instead, CNN and other left-wing outlets ran with headlines like this one: “Mike Pence Refuses To Call Former KKK Leader David Duke ‘Deplorable.’”

In what world is that the “news” from this exchange? The headlines lack all context.

But they clearly expose the media’s left-wing bias and their eagerness to be propaganda mouthpieces for the Democrat Party and the Clinton campaign.

I’m sure in the interests of fairness, the next time Blitzer has Hillary’s running mate, Tim Kaine, on for an interview, he will ask Senator Kaine, “Don’t you think Planned Parenthood is deplorable since it is now well known that it tried to profit from the sale of aborted baby parts?”

Or how about this: “Polling shows Muslims overwhelmingly support the Clinton/Kaine ticket. But aren’t you worried about deplorable extremists who support the Clinton/Kaine ticket such as Seddique Mateen, a Taliban supporter and father of the Orlando shooter, who attended Clinton’s rally in Orlando?”

I won’t hold my breath.

Clinton’s Smear Strategy

Again, my friends, don’t miss the big picture. Clinton’s “deplorable” attack was not a gaffe. The crowd loved it and laughed at her vicious smear of hard-working Americans who support Trump/Pence.

This smear that Donald Trump is beyond-the-pale and a bigoted extremist is going to be her main theme for the rest of the campaign. And she is counting on a sympathetic media — really a pathetic media — to make it work.

(By the way, didn’t Bill and Hillary go to Trump’s wedding? Now she wants us to believe he’s a bigot. Sounds like another Clinton lie to me.)

Why is Clinton going nuclear now? She is desperate to stop any erosion of minority support. In addition, she is trying to make the Trump/Pence ticket radioactive among suburban women and Millennials. (The latter group is lagging in its support for Clinton.) She can’t do it on the issues, so she’s waging a disgusting smear campaign.

The Trump/Pence campaign has wisely gone on the attack, and it needs to keep hitting back. But we should not think this is a slam dunk win for us.

Far from pandering to “low-information” voters, Clinton is attempting to convince college-educated suburban voters who do pay attention to the mainstream media and read their local newspaper editorials that Trump and his supporters are deplorable bigots. And who, after all, wants to be thought of as a bigot?

This is why it is so important for you to share these reports with friends and family members. And start with your family members first. It is especially important for you to reach out to your college-aged children and grandchildren. Help them to see through the lies of the left!

And help us fight back!

Powell’s Emails

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s email account was hacked and some very interesting messages have been posted online. The morning shows [yesterday] were hyping Powell’s disdain for Donald Trump, whom he called “a national disgrace.”

It’s not terribly surprising that Powell is a NeverTrumper. He was also NeverMcCain and NeverRomney. Powell has in the past expressed contempt for Republican voters even though he was repeatedly promoted by Republican presidents.

But here are some other revelations in Powell’s emails.

Powell is furious that Clinton’s staff constantly tried to blame him for her private email server. After complaining about her botched cover-up, Powell wrote, “Everything HRC touches she kind of screws up with hubris.”

Powell is not a big fan of Hillary’s. In one exchange with a liberal mega-donor, Powell writes: “I would rather not have to vote for her…” He then goes on to describe her as “A 70-year-old person with a long track record, unbridled ambition, greedy, not transformational…” Powell then offered some thoughts on Bill Clinton’s predatory interaction with women that I cannot reprint here.

In another exchange in 2015, Powell and the same donor discussed Clinton’s health. Powell wrote that Clinton did not look good and the donor responded: “[Senator] Sheldon Whitehouse, who is a huge Clinton supporter, said they were both giving speeches at the same event a few months back and she could barely climb the podium steps.”