Attorney General Jeff “beleaguered” Sessions, now secure in his job, has moved to the real problem festering like an infected wart on Donald Trump’s ugly presidency. “This nation must end the culture of leaks,” Sessions said.
Amen.
The AG announced that the FBI had created a new counterintelligence unit to deal with a “staggering number of leaks.” The DOJ is pursuing three times as many leak investigations as the Obama administration, the announcement said, according to the New York Times.
“I strongly agree with the president and condemn in the strongest terms the staggering number of leaks,” he said. The announcement by Mr. Sessions comes 10 days after President Trump publicly accused him of being “very” weak on pursuing these investigations in a post on Twitter.
A lightheaded sense of irony swept over me as I read about how Trump “has been bedeviled by leaks” from one of the chief newspapers specializing in obtaining and printing those leaks. It’s really astounding that the NYT can, with a straight face, report this.
Before the investigation gets too far, the NYT and its consigliere in leaking, the Washington Post, will surely empty their grab bag of (not necessarily illicit, as NYT was careful to note) carefully curated dirt and mud on every embarrassing, compromising, and damaging word spoken at the Dump White House.
The NYT is worried they might end up on the other side of the leaky pipe, warning employees of possible infiltrators.
In the end, the press will take the very low road, claiming that leaks are ethical for me, but not for thee. Watch them lawyer up about First Amendment protections, the sacrosanct immunity for safeguarding source identities, and all that “we’re the press!” stuff. Yes, it’s important to have a free press.
But it’s also important to rid the government of a true Fifth Column that is working to dismantle and damage the executive branch, and its head, the President of the United States. It doesn’t matter whether you love or hate Donald Trump the man. The office is not to be made into a sieve of leaks and rumors.
Leaking–especially classified–information damages more than just Trump. It damages America.
It’s good to hear Sessions finally crack down on the leakers.
I’m kind of flabbergasted. That “first amendment stuff”? Really? Guess how Hitler started? He censored the Press. If a respected newspaper wants to turn itself into a tabloid, it’s their business. No newspaper or any other media outlet is obligated to make the president look good. The reason Trump gets bad press is because Trump is a filthy individual who spews garbage, lies and assorted incoherent ramblings and guess what…it WILL make it into the news. When people act as if the press has an obligation to protect the president from ridicule, we have lost as a nation and are headed toward tyranny. This has left a REALLY bad taste in my mouth for the Federalist Party. Other than leaking classified secrets, reporters are free to report on anything they choose without government interference. If Trump wants bad press to stop, he should stop acting like an idiot. Then they’d have nothing to report, would they?
First, you misquoted me. Second, you misquoted me out of context. Third, you attributed a pretext to my words that I never meant. Here’s what I actually wrote:
I take the First Amendment and press protections very seriously. But they should not be used to protect people who committed actual felonies with a political purpose. These leakers are not hero patriots, they are political assassins. The press has plenty of stuff to publish about Trump (for whom I could never be accused of cheerleading), without resorting to these kinds of tactics.
As for the Federalist Party, I do not speak for it. Although I feel fairly confident many in the party would agree with my sentiments, there is room for differing opinion. I can’t even call it “dissent” because the ethos of the Federalist Party is that everyone (including the press) is entitled to an unrestricted voice. But the rule of law and the proper functions of the executive branch should not be impeded or permanently damaged by an organized effort to use the press as a political weapon.
Ok. I was not trying to “attribute” anything. The way it was written it was just hard to understand what you meant. Shoot me.
No worries. I simply want to be careful not to attribute anything to the Federalist Party that may not fly well. We are small and news travels like laser dots chased by catnip-enhanced felines.