Moments after President Trump’s Wednesday press conference before a hostile press itching for his impeachment, CNN’s The Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer and chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta preyed on the fact that most people had not read the transcript of the phone call between Trump and the president of Ukraine and blatantly lied about the “favor” Trump asked for.
After getting some ridiculous analysis from their left-wing panel of journalists, Blitzer wanted to go to Acosta, who was on location at the Intercontinental Hotel. “And let's not forget, in the -- this summary that was released by the White House, the President specifically quoted as saying to the Ukrainian president, ‘I would like you to do us a favor’ and then goes into an investigation into the Bidens and the Democrats,” he lied.
Instead of telling the truth, Acosta backed up his colleague’s falsehood: “That is right, Wolf. And the President never really asked -- or answered the question. I tried to ask the question as he was walking out of the room, what did he mean by ‘could you do us a favor.’ He never really explained what he was talking about with respect to that question.”
In reality, any honest person who actually read the transcript knew the “favor” had nothing to with Biden:
For those who don’t know, Crowdstrike was the group that investigated the hack into the Democratic National Committee e-mails during the 2016 election, and had nothing to do with the accusations against Joe and Hunter Biden. Blitzer and Acosta undoubtablely knew exactly what Crowdstrike was and it was absolutely clear in the transcript that that was what the two Presidents were talking about.
Shortly before Blitzer and Acosta spread their lies, Inside Politics host John King took a victory lap of sorts and gleeful touted how Trump was “sulking” during his address to the press (click “expand”):
Yes, he did, about Joe Biden about Hunter Biden about other facts around these investigations. To the most interesting part to me, Wolf, is how he did it. This President can be, whether you agree or disagree with him, could be passionate can be a good communicator, can be quite defiant. That was a somber sulking President and if you need any proof that the last 24 hours in Washington, D.C. have the President attention and affecting the President's mood, watch that press conference.
Yes, he went after Adam Schiff. Yes, he went after the Democrats. Yes, he said the leftists, the socialists and worse have taken over the Democratic Party, but the way he said it with no energy and very little passion sulking, sulking through it. It’s proof we've had some giant changes. Just consider what happened in the last 24 hours.
After that boasting, chief political analyst Gloria Borger chimed in to suggest the accusations against the Bidens were nothing more than a conspiracy theory akin to “birtherism.” “Number one, he continued to peddle conspiracy theories which we've seen him do throughout his entire presidency,” she huffed, missing the irony they CNN had pushed anti-Trump conspiracy theories his entire presidency.
She then decried how President Trump had talked about the whistleblower:
And then he tried to discredit the whistleblower. We don't know who the whistleblower is. He said at one point he didn't know who the whistleblower is. I don't know if he knows now. But he said certain things have come out about the whistleblower that are interesting. And kind of leaves it. Kind of leaves it there.
Again, back in reality, we know that the whistleblower was being represented by a group called Whistleblower Aid, which was set up in the wake of Trump’s inauguration. As reported by the Washington Examiner, the group announced their founding “with an advertising blitz that involved mobile billboards being driven close to the White House, Congress, outside the Pentagon, and around the headquarters of the CIA and National Security Agency.”
This is CNN.
The transcription of CNN is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN’s The Situation Room
September 25, 2019
5:11:28 p.m. EasternWOLF BLITZER: John, you know, the President, I guess, he leveled several distortions, falsehoods in the course of that 40, 45 minutes.
JOHN KING: Yes, he did, about Joe Biden about Hunter Biden about other facts around these investigations. To the most interesting part to me, Wolf, is how he did it. This President can be, whether you agree or disagree with him, could be passionate can be a good communicator, can be quite defiant. That was a somber sulking President and if you need any proof that the last 24 hours in Washington, D.C. have the President attention and affecting the President's mood, watch that press conference.
Yes, he went after Adam Schiff. Yes, he went after the Democrats. Yes, he said the leftists, the socialists and worse have taken over the Democratic Party, but the way he said it with no energy and very little passion sulking, sulking through it. It’s proof we've had some giant changes. Just consider what happened in the last 24 hours.
(…)
5:12:54 p.m. Eastern
BLITZER: It was a very rambling news conference. He opened with a lengthy statement but went from a whole bunch of subjects to a lot of domestic political issues.
GLORIA BORGER: Right. But always coming back to himself and always coming back to what’s going on with impeachment. And you know, a couple of things were interesting to me.
Number one, he continued to peddle conspiracy theories which we've seen him do throughout his entire presidency. He throws them out there like birtherism, he lets them, you know, he let’s them stew, stirs the pot, and lets it boil over and that is what he's doing with Joe Biden.
And then he tried to discredit the whistleblower. We don't know who the whistleblower is. He said at one point he didn't know who the whistleblower is. I don't know if he knows now. But he said certain things have come out about the whistleblower that are interesting. And kind of leaves it. Kind of leaves it there.
So he said I support transparency, I'm going to give you the first phone call, okay. That is -- that's good and then he went on and on complaining how could it be that the children of an elected official could use their parent’s stature to do business. How can a Trump possibly say that? I have no idea. But it was sort of stunning to me in a way that it all came back to him and that conspiracy for him was the Democrats planned to do this during the U.N. meeting just to discredit him in front of all of his cohorts in foreign countries and that he was incredibly insulted by that.
BLITZER: Jim Acosta is there at the news conference. Jim, you’re there in New York. And let's not forget, in the -- this summary that was released by the White House, the President specifically quoted as saying to the Ukrainian president, “I would like you to do us a favor” and then goes into an investigation into the Bidens and the Democrats.
JIM ACOSTA: That is right, Wolf. And the President never really asked -- or answered the question. I tried to ask the question as he was walking out of the room, what did he mean by “could you do us a favor.” He never really explained what he was talking about with respect to that question.
And I think what you saw during this press conference is the President is really just stewing with anger over all of this. He feels frustrated that the press largely overlooked what he did at the United Nations general assembly but once again I think that responsibility lays at the President's feet.
I mean, this was something that they were stonewalling congress on a week ago and then as soon as the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi through down the gauntlet and threatened impeachment, all of a sudden, transcripts are being offered and now the whistleblower complaint.
(…)
