Tweetizen Trump - 2017-07-10: "Health Care! G-20! Retweets! Comey!"

By the way, Donald, do you know that Twitter suggests, on-screen, that if I'm following you then I should follow @HillaryClinton, @CNN, and @NYTimes? Is that ironic, or what?

Anyway, on with today's show …

[Being a look at the @RealDonaldTrump Twitter account, a glance at the @POTUS account, rearranged topically.]

===

HEALTH INSURANCE REFORM

► For years, even as a "civilian," I listened as Republicans pushed the Repeal and Replace of ObamaCare. Now they finally have their chance! [1]

Yes. Yes they do. And they seem to be blowing it, because who knew health insurance reform is so complicated?

By the way, nice little framing there — this is the job of the Republicans (those ones you were listening to for years), the folk in Congress. Not, apparently, you.

I have no doubt if the AHCA (or some other bill) passes, you'll take the lion's share of the credit. And I have no doubt if it doesn't, you'll lay the blame on Mitch McConnell, et al.

That's what that tweet says to me, Donald. I wonder how your fellow party members over on the Hill feel.

This morning, you added to that message:

► I cannot imagine that Congress would dare to leave Washington without a beautiful new HealthCare bill fully approved and ready to go! [11]

I'm sure they're all thankful for your support, Donald.

===

THE G-20

► Syrian ceasefire seems to be holding. Many lives can be saved. Came out of meeting. Good! [2]

It does indeed, at least after full day [8]. I hope it continues. Also that you learn to make complete sentences.

► The fact that President Putin and I discussed a Cyber Security unit doesn't mean I think it can happen. It can't-but a ceasefire can,& did! [3]

Nice pivot, Donald! [18] Your message yesterday was a little different:

❝ Putin & I discussed forming an impenetrable Cyber Security unit so that election hacking, & many other negative things, will be guarded and // safe. ❞

Which then segued into your standard litany of discredited talking points against the DNC and Obama and intelligence agencies and "Fake News." That, in turn, led to derision and anger, not just from the "Fake News" but from both Dem and GOP lawmakers [25].

In response to that push-back, your supporters argued fiercely that this was actually a Really Cool Thing, e.g., Treasury Secretary Mnuchin, who was on the trip with you [10]:

❝ “This is a very important step forward. What we want to make sure is that we coordinate with Russia, that we're focused on cybersecurity together, that we make sure that they never interfere in any democratic elections […] This is like any other strategic alliance. Whether we're doing military exercises with our allies or anything else. This is about having capabilities to make sure that we both fight cyber together, which I think is a very significant accomplishment for President Trump.” ❞

And … now he's left holding the bag while you publicly back down from the idea (while claiming you never thought it was a good idea in the first place).

That's got to be embarrassing. You might want to send Mnuchin a fruit basket.

That, of course, it raises issues of whether anything your cabinet, publicity folk, advisors, etc., say in "clarification" of your statements and actions should be at all trusted [17]. I mean, Nikki Haley insists that you didn't just accept Putin's word on Russian interference in the election, and that you don't trust Russia and never will — but can we assume you won't come out today and say something that contradicts that?

Speaking of ruffled feathers, there was a minor kerfuffle at the G-20, when you stepped out for some other meetings, and had your daughter step into your place [20], instead of, oh, any of your cabinet secretaries who were along for the trip, as everyone else in the meeting would have done.

Your response:

► When I left Conference Room for short meetings with Japan and other countries, I asked Ivanka to hold seat. Very standard. Angela M agrees! [12]

Um, Chancellor Merkel didn't say it was "very standard". She said, “The delegations themselves decide, should the president not be present for a meeting, who will take the chair, and Ivanka Trump was part of the American delegation.”

It's just kind of goofy, Donald. It looks funny. And you know enough about the "art of the deal" to know how much looks and appearances count.

► If Chelsea Clinton were asked to hold the seat for her mother,as her mother gave our country away, the Fake News would say CHELSEA FOR PRES! [13]

And Fox News would be calling for impeachment.

I do like Chelsea's twitter response, though [23]: "Good morning Mr. President. It would never have occurred to my mother or my father to ask me. Were you giving our country away? Hoping not."

I am amused by how your media proxies are somehow claiming that criticism about this is sexist ("reigniting the war on women?") [22] given that nobody has suggested the problem is that Ivanka is your daughter, not your son, Donald, but that she's unelected, unappointed, a member of your family, and only marginally qualified (through interest in the topic that was going on) to sit in for you. The same critiques would have been made if Eric or Donald, Jr., or Jared had been pushed into the seat while you wandered off to do more interesting things.

Meanwhile, speaking of Donald, Jr., kind of weird that you didn't have anything to say this morning about the meeting last year between the lad (and Kushner and Manafort) with a Russian lawyer with links to the Kremlin who was offering up dirt on Clinton [26]. Though I did like the Daily News headline: "KID PRO QUO" [24].

===

RETWEETS APLENTY!

You retweeted James Woods fawning …

► Only now with a #RealPresident do we see the scope of destruction engineered by #Obama and the #Democrat cabal. @realDonaldTrump #America* [4]

Well, that's a presidential thing to add to your Twitter stream, Donald. If you're president of a North Korea or something.

You retweeted Fox & Friends (!):

► .@carriesheffield: The mainstream media is neglecting their duty to represent the public. They've failed to represent half of the country. [5]

And Fox (which, oddly, doesn't seem to consider itself "mainstream") seems to be trying to represent that other … well, what, half?

You retweeted Sean Hannity (!):

► HRC mishandles and destroys classified info-NO PROBLEM! Pay/play on Uranium one NO PROBLEM! Lynch BC tarmac: it's a "matter" NO PROBLEM [14]

Not sure why you thought relitigating items about Hillary Clinton was critical on this Monday morning, but, hey, must be distracting from something (Donald, Jr!).

And, finally, yet another retweet of Fox & Friends (!) (Do you own stock in them or something, Donald?):

► Head of the NYPD union slams Mayor de Blasio for skipping vigil for assassinated cop Miosotis Familia [16]

So it's not clear why something going on in NYC is fodder for your Twitter stream, Donald, except that (a) it perhaps distracts from other stories (Donald, Jr!), and (b) de Blasio has been trying to get all up in your face about stuff, and we know how you operate regarding people who do such things.

While de Blasio's jaunt to join the protests (the peaceful ones) against you at the Hamburg G-20 seems a bit of grandstanding [19], it's not clear to me that his number one job actually is sitting in NYC and telling people that shooting cops is bad. The trip does seem to have taken into consideration when the actual funeral for Officer Familia will be. That the city's conservative newspapers and the head of the NYPD union [20] think that de Blasio — who they don't like anyway — should be doing something (handwave) about mentally disturbed ex-cons killing cops (perhaps by giving a speech that would then be pooh-poohed by the same sources) says more about their relationship than about actual governance or leadership.

===

COMEY!

And again with Fox & Friends (!):

► Report accuses material James Comey leaked to a friend contained top secret information [6]

Which you then followed with:

► James Comey leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION to the media. That is so illegal! [7]

If he "vehemently denies it," will you believe him and "move forward"?

There's just one problem, Donald: Fox's tweet is simply wrong [27] on at least two counts: the memos that Comey wrote up on his conversations with you contain in part classified material; and the that material wasn't "top secret."

And, as a further problem, your tweet is an even greater exaggeration — and even more wrong.

The original story [28] that Fox reported on, further summarized with a tweet that you retweeted, says:

❝ More than half of the memos former FBI Director James Comey wrote as personal recollections of his conversations with President Trump about the Russia investigation have been determined to contain classified information, according to interviews with officials familiar with the documents. ❞

Wait, you're depending on a story cited to ~~anonymous officials~~ leakers?

As the story goes on to say, of the seven memos Comey produced, four are now marked as "secret" or "confidential" (not "top secret"). The story does not say that the memo that he passed on to a friend to describe to the media was one of those classified documents, and Comey explicitly referred to it multiple times in testimony as "unclassified."

Now, if the one memo in question, the one from February 14, was in fact classified beforehand, then Comey is in trouble for passing it to another person. If the other memos had been classified and in some other way mishandled by Comey, he might be in trouble.

But it's a huge leap, Donald, from "Comey sent a presumably unclassified memo to a friend" to "material James Comey leaked to a friend contained top secret information," let alone that he "leaked CLASSIFIED INFORMATION."

I presume you either know that and are simply trying to score rhetorical points against someone you consider to be a dire political threat or annoying enemy, or else you don't know that and need to be informed of the difference (and further need to have someone fact-check the info you're getting from Fox & Friends — which is true regardless).

You then retweeted Fox & Friends (!) again, quoting Jason Chaffetz (with video):

► .@jasoninthehouse: Comey went silent when I asked him about his memos, which raised a lot of eyebrows. [15]

So a (now-retired and Fox News commentator) GOP congressman who was trying to slow down the probe and was reporting material to you before he reported it to the rest of his investigative committee was surprised that Comey didn't want to talk about the memos with him? Color me shocked, Donald.

Regardless, Donald, we shouldn't lose sight of one thing: while the nature of the material Comey leaked remains under debate, and regardless of its final disposition, that doesn't affect what it said: that after you dismissed everyone else from a meeting except Comey, you privately asked Comey to back off of investigating the just-fired Michael Flynn. [29]

We should all remember that, Donald, regardless of how that material became public.

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