The following article by Carl Hiaasen was posted on the National Memo website February 15, 2017:
Anonymously mass-mailed proposal for a blockbuster new book:
Dear [fill in name of editor],
As you devour the explosive details of this book manuscript, you’ll understand why I need to withhold my identity at this time. Continue reading “A ‘Spicy’ Memoir: How To Lie With A Straight Face”
The following article by Aaron Blake was posted on the Washington Post website February 9, 2017:
Donald Trump took on Sen. John McCain’s status as a war hero and won the GOP nomination anyway.
Sean Spicer took on John McCain’s expertise on military matters and got this:
John McCain vs. Sean Spicer. Watch.
Continue reading “John McCain’s brutal rejoinder to Sean Spicer”
The following article by Elahe Izadi was posted on the Washington Post website February 7, 2017:
No attempt to ridicule Donald Trump’s controversies — from his remarks about Mexicans to the “Access Hollywood” tape — could derail his successful road to the White House.
Trump acknowledged as much a year ago when he spoke about supporters so loyal that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters.”
But that was candidate Trump. Now Trump is running the government as a president who cares very deeply about appearances — so much so that a “Saturday Night Live” sketch could affect how he does it. Continue reading “Melissa McCarthy on SNL shows the power comedians have under a Trump presidency”
“Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning.”
— President Trump, tweet, Jan, 30, 2017
“Remember we’re talking about a universe of 109 people. There were 325,000 people that came into this country over a 24 hour period from another country. 109 of them were stopped for additional screening.”
— White House press secretary Sean Spicer, press briefing, Jan. 30, 2017
President Trump and his aides love to cite a small number and a big number in order to minimize the impact of the president’s executive order suspending the visas of citizens of seven countries.
But these figures are incredibly misleading, so let’s go through the math. Continue reading “The number of people affected by Trump’s travel ban: About 90,000”
The following article by Chris Cillizza was posted on the Washington Post website January 21, 2017:
White House press secretary Sean Spicer held a press briefing Saturday night. Except not really. Spicer delivered a statement blasting the media for allegedly underestimating the size of the crowds for President Trump’s inaugural ceremony. He took no questions. The full text of Spicer’s statement is below. Using Genius, I annotated it. You can too! Sign up for Genius and annotate alongside me! To see an annotation, click or tap the highlighted part of the transcript.
Good evening. Thank you guys for coming. I know our first official press briefing is going to be on Monday, but I wanted to give you a few updates on the President’s activities. But before I get to the news of the day, I think I’d like to discuss a little bit of the coverage of the last 24 hours. Continue reading “Sean Spicer held a press conference. He didn’t take questions. Or tell the whole truth.”
