For a brief moment Tuesday morning, CNN's New Day briefly took on the role of a tabloid magazine, with one guest speculating that Chief of Staff John Kelly is on his way out the door and comparing the West Wing to a "Hunger Game."
Nothing thrills the media more than the narrative of a White House in chaos. According to the latest rumor suggesting discord at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, General Kelly did not appreciate the fact that Ivanka Trump went to the closing ceremonies of the Olympics in Pyeongchang because he “might not have thought that she was qualified.” According to panelist A.B. Stoddard, “we have heard reports for weeks that General H.R. McMaster, the National Security Adviser and Chief of Staff General John Kelly are both perhaps leaving.”
The American people should take these “reports” with a grain of salt. Keep in mind that the media have also reported that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson planned to step down and floated CIA Director Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley as possible replacements. Months after these reports first surfaced, Tillerson still serves as Secretary of State. Based on the media’s abysmal track record with this kind of reporting, Kelly and McMaster will continue to serve in the Trump Administration for the foreseeable future.
Stoddard also suggested that Kelly has deliberately leaked this information so that he will end up losing his job and raised the possibility that “he’s being set up”, adding, “I would put nothing past this West Wing in terms of their Hunger Game.” She then went onto channel her inner Chris Matthews by bringing up the “three-some” that runs the government, consisting of the President, Ivanka, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. Stoddard suggested that Kelly’s dissatisfaction with the “three-some” indicates that “he’s going to leave.”
In one of his relentless efforts to paint President Trump as a dictator, Matthews compared the Trump family to the Romanovs, the family who ruled Russia for centuries before they were forcibly removed from power at the start of the Russian Revolution. Not surprisingly, Matthews hopes that the Trump family shares the same destiny as the Romanovs.
The media continue to humiliate themselves by completely abandoning the pretense of objectivity and employing the tactics of a gossip magazine. When they don't act as a tabloid, they act as a propaganda arm of the Democratic Party and the American left, doing everything they can to paint the Trump Administration and conservatives in an unfavorable light.
CNN New Day
02/27/18
07:12 AM
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Okay, let’s move on to something else that’s happening in Washington. As you know, Ivanka went to represent the U.S. and the White House to Korea for the closing ceremonies of the Olympics. And CNN’s reporting is that that has caused some tension inside the White House because, you know, General John Kelly might not have thought that she was qualified. She hasn’t been involved in any North Korean talks. She doesn’t know anything about diplomacy.
A.B. STODDARD: This is amazing because we have heard reports for weeks that General H.R. McMaster, the National Security Adviser and Chief of Staff General John Kelly are both perhaps leaving. So the idea that this would leak means he’s either trying to lose his job, John Kelly is so frustrated that he’s having these conversations with people that he knows will leak this or he’s being set up. And nothing...I would put nothing past this West Wing in terms of their Hunger Game. So that, that’s really dramatic that he would, and the news now is that he resisted it before she went and that this leaked out after she came home. And I think it’s very telling about that struggle. He was able for a while to deal with the fact that there is a three-some that runs this government, the President, the son-in-law and the daughter. It’s impenetrable. He depends on them entirely. And that the, I think the Chief of Staff was willing to put up with that for a while and apparently he can’t take it anymore and that means, probably, he’s going to leave.
JOHN AVLON: And then remember that this is the United States of America and we tend not to have sons-in-law and daughters running governments historically, which is why we have nepotism laws and should probably have them again. If Kelly is feeling frustration about Ivanka, he certainly feels it about Jared. But this is also, this isn’t simply the bunting around Olympics. This is also an Olympics that’s adjoining a country that we may well go to war with if they continue to have nuclear weapons. So this isn’t simply niceties. This is serious stuff and that’s why it matters. This is all happening after a weekend in which, you know, the President, premier of China just basically gave himself lifetime appointment. This is serious stuff and simply freelancing in a fur coat ain’t going to cut it.
