On yet another of CNN's interminable panels pitting liberals against conservatives this morning, Angela Rye dropped a truth bomb on the table just as former RNC director Doug Heye was working really hard to spin the Kentucky Ford plant lie Donald Trump tweeted last night.
When Ford made their announcement about how they were going to retool their Michigan plant for SUVs and move manufacture of the Ford Escape to Mexico, I wrote about it. At the time, I noted that UAW had been involved in the negotiations to keep the larger, more profitable vehicle production in the United States while moving the less profitable division to Mexico. It was no secret.
But Doug Heye actually tried to make it one in order to spin away from the clear reality that Donald Trump lied about having anything to do with saving auto manufacturing jobs.
"Now the Lincoln MKZ will be made [in Kentucky]," Hey crowed. That is a small victory. [Trump]'s not taking credit for the victory, per se, he's saying the President of Ford called him to say we are happy to work with you in a future administration at keeping jobs here."
Which is, of course, a formality many large corporations exercise when a new President is about to take office. I'm sure President Obama received similar telephone calls.
Heye gabbled on, "That is sort of a moral victory. I don't think it's a specifically related to something he did but i think it shows the new direction the President wants to go in to keep jobs in America and i think it is something to be a little pat on the back for."
Why? He had literally nothing to do with it. It's no moral victory at all, which Angela Rye was quick to point out.
"The biggest question is this is a decision they made some time ago and [Trump] shared this information on his Twitter feed like it was something that resulted from the call," Rye corrected.
Then she warned, "I think it's very very important because just how when we had Barack Obama, it was all of oh, we're post-racial. Now. we are post-truth. The President-elect represents post-truth."
This is exactly what Steve Bannon wants. It is, in fact, what he's created. In an exclusive interview with Hollywood Reporter, Bannon in fact elaborated on that.
“Darkness is good,” says Bannon, who amid the suits surrounding him at Trump Tower, looks like a graduate student in his T-shirt, open button-down and tatty blue blazer — albeit a 62-year-old graduate student. “Dick Cheney. Darth Vader. Satan. That’s power. It only helps us when they—“ I believe by “they” he means liberals and the media, already promoting calls for his ouster “—get it wrong. When they’re blind to who we are and what we’re doing.”
This is also why there has been so much noise and deflection over the past week about whom were being considered for Cabinet nominations and whom were not. I insisted all week that all of it was just a smokescreen so they make fools out of the press who hang on every leak whether or not confirmed while going about their business.
Earlier this week, they leaked that Jeff Sessions was out of contention. I didn't believe that for a hot minute, because Jeff Sessions has always been inextricably linked with the cabal that put Trump in power -- from funders to bloggers.
And lo! Today Jeff Sessions was named as the nominee for Attorney General.
It will be more important than ever to stay tethered to the truth. We cannot count on cable news or any one single source to do that. I can't stress enough how important it will be to be discerning and careful in the days to come.
