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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNo, Trump Did Not Deny Reports That He Tried to Fire Mueller
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/01/no-trump-did-not-deny-reports-that-he-tried-to-fire-mueller/No, Trump Did Not Deny Reports That He Tried to Fire Mueller
Fake news.
Dan FriedmanJan. 26, 2018 4:31 PM
Donald Trump on Friday morning didnt really deny a blockbuster New York Times report that last June he had ordered the firing of Special Counsel Robert Mueller but had backed off when White House Counsel Donald McGahn threatened to resign in protest.
Fake news. Fake news. Typical New York Times. Fake stories, the president, who is in Davos, Switzerland, told reporters when asked about the story. Trump did not address the specific allegations in the report.
But that was good enough for the Associated Press to declare in a headline, Trump denies Times report that he ordered Mueller fired. CNN, ABC, and the Daily Caller all announced that Trump had denied the Times findings. (Mother Jones wrote that that Fox News hosts parroted Trumps denial of the report on Friday as fake news.)
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When Trump calls the Times report fake news, he might be saying he thinks it treated his concerns about Muellers alleged conflicts of interest too dismissively, or that he simply doesnt like the story. His response is a classic non-denial denial. Thats a term for when the subject of a story issues a dismissive statement to the media without actually denying the report.
Trump has also described as fake news articles that rely on unnamed sources, as the Times piece does. This is a common media criticism. The idea is that readers should be skeptical of stories with unnamed sources, since others cannot easily verify the accuracy of their claims. But a gripe that an article uses anonymous sources is not an assertion that the article is false.
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Trump may has avoided a direct denial of the story because an overt lie about an effort to fire the head of an investigation into him could be used by Mueller to demonstrate that Trump had intent to obstruct justice. Lying about the attempt could show that Trump was aware his actions were improper.
Yet Trump also obviously wanted to downplay the Times story. By labeling the scoop fake news, Trump obfuscated while giving his supporters something to rally behind. When publications describe Trumps non-denial as a denial, they are unwittingly assisting him in this effort.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)I really wish the media would get over their compulsion to explain away what Trump says. Trump was asked about whether or not he had contemplated firing Mueller, and his stuttering response was "Fake news." This response doesn't require cutting a chicken or a goat open and spreading its entrails on the ground to divine what Trump meant by that. He's presumably a big boy, and if he didn't mean what he said, he can say it some other way. "Fake news" is Trump's signature locution, and the context of its utterance here is clearly that the New York Times story is false, which is to say he denies it.
If that's not what Trump meant to say, let him clarify it himself. Or have one of his paid stooges clarify it. Or maybe that's precisely what's happening here.
marble falls
(57,204 posts)the point is that stuttering "fake news" is not a denial. Trump uses his proxys for that.
gratuitous
(82,849 posts)He doesn't need, and certainly I wish the popular media (liberal and conservative) would get over this obsession they have for trying to read Trump's mind. What Trump says is what he says, and he's a big boy. If he didn't mean his "fake news" parrot-squawk to be interpreted as a denial, then he can explain what he means. Friedman is indulging a media weakness by trying to explain to the rest of us simpletons what Trump "really" meant.
Friedman can stop anytime he likes.
Here's what a non-denial denial looks like:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wynn-resorts-ceo-calls-sexual-misconduct-accusations-preposterous/ar-AAvd3XB?li=BBnb7Kz
"The idea that I ever assaulted any woman is preposterous," Steve Wynn said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
As you can see, Wynn delivered his statement by e-mail, which indicates to me he sent it after careful consultation with a legal professional. He claims that the "idea" the he sexually assaulted any woman is "preposterous." That's a statement of opinion, not fact. As such, it doesn't go to the substance of the numerous allegations currently bruited, and doesn't rise to the level of a denial of those allegations. That is a non-denial denial.