Given the constant barrage of deplorable Trump controversies, he is somehow able to mask how awful a human he is by simply having so many controversies. Trump’s tactic is to just have the media move-on by quickly doing something equally or even more outrageous. There’s just too much material for the media to cover and they are forced to keep up with Trump — taking the bait every single time.
Feel free to skim this list of deplorable Trump behavior — I’m sure I’m missing several examples:
~Banning an entire religion from the United States ~Mocking a reporter with a disability ~Propelling the racist “birther” movement ~Wanting to commit war crimes against the families of terrorists ~Praising Putin ~Engaging in housing discrimination against African Americans ~Making products in China rather than the USA ~Saying John McCain isn’t a “war hero” because he was captured ~Calling Mexican immigrants rapists and criminals ~Proposing an unfeasible wall between the USA and Mexico ~Paying Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi $25,000 to not investigate Trump University ~Saying there were Muslims cheering in New Jersey on 9/11 ~Attacking a Gold Star family ~Removing the United States from NATO ~Saying he knows more about ISIS than the generals do ~Wanting to go to war with Iran over hand gestures ~Inciting violence at his rallies ~Re-tweeting white supremacists ~Bankrupting 4 companies ~Saying Megyn Kelly had “blood coming out of her wherever” ~Cheating hardworking Americans out of legal contracts ~The fraudulent Trump University ~Proposing a deportation force similar to Nazi Germany ~Courting support and playing coy with white supremacists ~Saying women should be punished for having an abortion ~Endorsing the use of torture ~Saying a federal judge can’t do his job due to his “Mexican heritage” ~Banning certain members of the press from covering his campaign ~Praising Kim Jong-un ~Advocating stealing oil from sovereign nations ~Calling for the death penalty of the Central Park Five, five teenagers later exonerated of rape and assault ~Advocating for Russia to interfere in our election
Trump has become cat-nip for the American media, and the relentless coverage saturates and minimizes just how bad each and every single thing Trump does truly is. It also causes the media to endlessly harp on Hillary’s e-mails until the very end of time, beating a dead horse until it looks deformed [Thanks Matt Lauer!!].
Not only does the media want a horse-race for ratings, but they also want to appear “objective.” This quest to appear “objective” is the root of why the media continues to obsess over Hillary’s e-mails.
However, and rather ironically, the “objective” thing would be to say nothing Hillary has ever done or said [e-mails included] is anywhere near the level of corruption and deplorable behavior Trump is guilty of. By attempting to say Hillary’s e-mails are equivalent to even a fraction of what Trump has done is journalistic malpractice and doing a grave disservice to the American public.
The media’s growing double standard in regards to Clinton and Trump may be the very reason a Trump Presidency is even a possibility.
We have now become desensitized to Trump and hyper-sensitive to Hillary:
Trump is the least vetted U.S. Presidential candidate ever.
So why is Hillary the corrupt and non-transparent one?
To further explore this double standard, let’s take, for example, the Clinton Foundation and the Trump Foundation. The Clinton Foundation provides HIV/AIDS medicine to over 11 million people worldwide. All donations are public.
How many benefit from the Trump Foundation?
Meanwhile, the Trump Foundation is yet another fraud that was directly involved in “pay-to-play” corruption:
Ironically, the Associated Press released a report on the Clinton Foundation which insinuated that “pay-to-play” could have theoretically occurred. Later, the AP had to retract many portions of their reporting.
But why wasn’t the same level of scrutiny applied to the Trump Foundation giving $25,000 dollars to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in order to sway her not to investigate the fraudulent Trump University? That is an actual example of “pay-to-play.” An actual example of corruption. Yet the Clinton Foundation is deemed guilty by the press even though there is no example even remotely close to Pam Bondi. Actually, there’s literally no evidence what-so-ever that the Clinton Foundation has been involved in any sort of corruption.
But what Trump does is accuse the other side of doing exactly what he is guilty of. He muddies the waters by projecting his guilt on others. And it is the media’s job to not let Trump get away with this. Yet the media seems to consistently declare that Hillary is equally as guilty as Trump [even though the facts point to the exact opposite conclusion]. That isn’t objective reporting — it is reporting to create a close election and drive up ratings. It is reporting that has bought into the “Bill and Hillary Clinton are evil and corrupt to the core” storyline GOP operatives have been peddling since the early 1990s.
Objective reporting isn’t saying the Clinton Foundation is guilty by default — it is saying the Clinton Foundation has been given a higher rating than the Red Cross, and that the Trump Foundation is guilty of actual “pay-to-play” corruption in Florida.
If the media won’t do it, regular Americans need to start defending the Clintons from baseless attacks and smears. It is either the Clintons or Donald Trump. And you will regret not doing everything you can to stop Trump from becoming President of the United States. We simply cannot afford to normalize Donald Trump. He isn’t a normal candidate and has done countless things that disqualify him from the Presidency.
But, like I said, due to the sheer number of things Trump has done, everything seems to be lost in the fog of war and nothing “sticks.” Meanwhile, the e-mail story has been beaten to death and is currently sticking to Hillary, severely driving down her poll numbers.
In-fact, the narrative of Clinton “scandals” has been manufactured by Republicans ever since the early 1990s. Yet Hillary Clinton has never been found guilty of anything. Ever. But accusing someone of scandal after scandal still sticks, as shown by Hillary’s poll numbers on “trustworthiness.” This is exactly why you can sue someone for defamation of character — even if the charges are false, a cloud of doubt is still cast over your character. Republicans know this, which is why they created the special Benghazi committee:
Now, if one remembers history chronologically, Benghazi is what led to the e-mail scandal. But when one looks at the e-mail scandal, there isn’t really much of a scandal. Hillary was legally allowed to use a private e-mail account, just as fellow Secretary of State Colin Powell did. Granted, Hillary also used a private server. But let’s take a step back and look at this OBJECTIVELY.
President Clinton already had a private server set up and Hillary simply chose to use his pre-existing server. It isn’t as though Hillary set up a secret server once she became Secretary of State to hide her e-mails. She used a pre-existing server set up for a former President. Shocking!
Granted, Hillary now agrees in hindsight that she should have used a government e-mail and a government server to conduct official government business. However, there was no laws against what Hillary did and other Secretary of State’s also used private e-mail. Plus, there’s zero evidence the Clinton server was hacked. Ironically, though, there is confirmed evidence that the government servers were hacked.
But —again— Hillary openly admits that in hindsight, all government business should always be conducted on government accounts and servers. To me, it is the sign of a great leader when they can learn and grow from mistakes [unlike Trump]. Humans are, after-all, living, learning organisms. But Hillary is expected to be perfect, right?
Though the real question has become:was our national security jeopardized due to what Hillary did with her e-mails?
As I said before — there is no evidence the Clinton server was hacked [unlike the government servers]. But Politifact did rate this statement by Hillary as “mostly true”:
"Classified material has a header which says ‘top-secret, secret, confidential.’
Nothing, and I will repeat this and this is verified in the report by the Department of Justice, none of the emails sent or received by me had such a header."~Hillary Clinton
Politifact:
“Information isn’t classified until a designated authority within the government declares it classified. The way that person shows their determination is by adding a header and footer to the relevant document, often tacking on a cover sheet, too — all to make it clear that the document contains classified information.
Clinton is correct that the FBI did not find any such labels in her emails.”
When Hillary received designated classified information, she took all the necessary security steps required when viewing it, sometimes setting up special tents to shield photos from being taken from outer-space.
Point is — nothing in Hillary’s e-mail was marked classified with a header and footer at the time it was sent or received. And the simple fact remains that numerous government officials have also suffered from what is known as “retroactive classification.” Hillary isn’t the first and won’t be the last government official to send or receive something that later becomes retroactively classified.
The bottom line is: Hillary has already conceded she should have used a government e-mail and a government server when conducing government business. But given the fact she broke no laws, other Secretary of State’s also used private e-mail, her server has no evidence of hacking, and nothing was marked classified at the time it was sent or received, it seems the media is making a mountain out of a mole hill in order to give the appearance of “objectivity.” No charges were recommended by the FBI and we now have every single one of Hillary’s business-related e-mails in the public arena. Can we finally put this issues to bed?
And seriously — ask yourself: does the e-mail issue even compare to a fraction of the things Donald Trump has done or said? The e-mail “scandal” is all the media has against Hillary, and we shouldn’t let them continue to beat a dead horse.
Let us also remember when George Bush deleted 20+ million e-mails:
Let us also remember how many “Benghazi’s” occurred under Bush:
What about 9/11/2001?
Or Beirut in 1983?
Given historical context, I’d feel much safer under Hillary than any Republican.
The Clintons are consistently held to a different standard than their opponents. George Bush had 9/11, dozens of Benghazi’s, Iraq, and deleted 20+ million e-mails. Yet Hillary is the one portrayed by the media as being equally corrupt as Trump. Probably because everyone in the media wants to be the first to finally validate the “Clintons are corrupt” myth that has been propelled since the early 1990s.
Ironically, though, the Clintons have never been found guilty of anything but being the victims of countless tax-payer funded witch-hunts and a foolish media that has been played for a fool by the GOP. The faux-outrage over Benghazi and Hillary’s e-mail is politically motivated and meant to drive down her poll numbers. Yet the media has fallen for it. Will you?
The truth, according to all fact-checking sites, is that Donald Trump constantly and pathologically lies while Hillary Clinton tells the truth the vast majority of the time:
Recently, Trump said Hillary doesn’t have a childcare plan. That’s a lie. Trump also said Hillary wants to abolish the second amendment and that he was always against the war in Iraq. Both of those are lies, too.
I know it’s exhausting and overwhelming to continue to call Donald Trump out on his countless lies and BS. He is, after-all, a professional propaganda artist. A con-man. A snake-oil-salesman. But as President Obama said, we shouldn’t be grading the Presidency on a curve. We must hold Trump accountable and to the same standard Hillary is held to. He’s running to be the President of the strongest nation on Earth — the United States of America.
Trump’s foundation, unlike the Clinton Foundation, is guilty of actual pay-to-play in Florida. Yet Trump is given a free pass by the media and Hillary is deemed guilty by default. Disgusting. The media simply isn’t doing its job.
Saying Hillary is “just as bad as Trump” in order to give the appearance of “objectivity” is doing us a grave disservice. A false equivalency. An insult to the truth. The objective thing would be to say nothing Hillary has ever done is anywhere close to what Donald Trump has done. That’s the actual truth.
Hillary’s e-mails are nothing compared to the level of corruption we would find in Trump’s tax returns and the deplorable things he has advocated for during the course of this campaign. We all need to start holding Trump to the same standard as Hillary. If we continue to be desensitized by Trump and hyper-sensitive to every little thing Hillary does, we could end up with a Trump Presidency. And that’s a scary thought.