Jake Tapper on Twitter: "Trump and his team are launching an unprecedented smear campaign"

[CBHagman]

"...Trump and his team are launching an unprecedented smear campaign against rivals, leveling wild and false allegations against critics in the media and politics, ranging from bizarre conspiracy theories to spreading lies about pedophilia and even murder."

"Smear campaign."

"Lies."

"False allegations."

"Bizarre conspiracy theories."

Link to tweet

?s=20

[Miguelito Loveless]

1. Jake Tapper

He didn’t create the Monster, but he did help make sure Dr. Frankenstein’s lab was wired up properly to the electrical grid. He even provided the electricity for free.

[Bev54]

8. And he continued today

He has Azur on and allowed him to kiss Trump's ass and spew lie after lie, never asked him one question about the whistle blower's allegations on the incompetence and ignoring the scientists in their pleas to procure supplies to handle the pandemic. It was pathetic.

[malaise]

14. And he and the rest of hacks will continue to spread the fucking made up smears

as they never fail to do.

[WVreaper]

2. They can't tell the truth,

so what else is left.

[Brainfodder]

3. All they know or that it worked before?

[certainot]

21. it's been working much better the last 30 years with llimbaugh leading messaging on

1500 coordinated unchallenged radio stations.

it's worked great because democrats and the left ignore it

all we have to do is stop ignoring it, just start boycotting any rw radio advertisers and complaining to the 87 unis that broadcast sports on it, and before long the advertising industry will break up the monopoly instead of losing thousands of advertisers permanently

[calimary]

39. Yep. We have to start making noise about it.

It's WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY late. But I guess better late than never. Certainly better making a stink about it than remaining silent, or worse, apathetic about it.

[UpInArms]

4. Goodness!

After years of allowing the birther conspiracy to flourish, this surprises who?

I hate what has been called “reporting” ...

Feeding their monsters and, then, waking up, Rip Van Winkle-style, just isn’t working for me.

[Indykatie]

5. The Smears Won't Matter - No Matter What They Say Biden Will Still Be Better Than Trump n/t

[hurple]

6. Hate to break it to you

They are working.

Already.

Very much working.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

13. Saying that they're working could be...

...helping them work.

[hurple]

35. Not really

But my FB feed is covered with RW friends and family going on and on and on and on about "Obamagate" and how bad it is, without ever saying what "it" is. Just that Obama will go down as the most corrupt politician in history because he tried to ruin trump...

It goes something russia, something, something... ukraine, someting toaster, something something.

But so many people saw through it that trump still got elected by beating killary like a dog at the polls.

And when I do feel adventerous enough to try to refute some of the claims in the comments, they start bleating on about sheep for about 10 paragraphs.

It would be comical if these people weren't showing up with guns at state capitals.

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

37. My point is...

...that the true enemy is complacency. There are folks out there who adopt their politics by belief rather than reason. It's a waste of time to argue with belief. Addressing believers with logic has only a small chance of producing any result other than their becoming defensive and you becoming frustrated.

My recommendation is to vote against the GOP (great orange plague) and encourage reasonable folks to do the same.
If you come across a Republican who isn't a trump fan and seems reasonable, they're probably the only Republicans worth talking to.

If you just want to poke a trump fan with a stick, you could ask, "How much has Mexico paid so far toward the wall?"

[Tarc]

18. Your concern is noted

[certainot]

23. democrats never notice until it's too late and the lies have gone from the kremlin to limbaugh and

been pounded into the earholes of 50 mil every week.

yeah it works, and it's been working well for 30 years like that with who knows who feeding those stations, and democrats blame symptoms of ignoring it, like money in politics, voter suppression, corporate media, fox, spineless politicians, etc

so now we're letting suicidal dying mega-liar limbauagh spew up on the obamas, enabling trump and all the dittohead/teabag fascists, inciting them to violence

it's the only distinct advantage they have and because we ignore it it kicks our ass and keeps them close enough to steal more elections

[Caliman73]

29. Agreed. Unfortunately we have a lot of people on our side sticking fingers in their ears.

It isn't just Fox, as you said, it is thousands of radio stations, Sinclair Broadcasting, OANN, and right wing online outlets that do coordinate their message.

Their audience combined is large, though not the majority by any means. The problem is that even with the numbers they have, their message infiltrates the mainstream media and so they give it more airtime so as not to appear "biased", even though right wing media is out and out propaganda.

We need to get better at calling it out and trying to shut it down.

[certainot]

34. imo a lot of the other propaganda dependds on talk radio to do the unchallenged

groundwork repetition. the majority of the social media trollling for eg piggybacked talk radio. fox too. the web sites like breitbart, drudge etc may feed propaganda and reinforce it but they can't do that ubiquitous buzz. and they all have competition in their own mediums. fox too.

and TV can't lie and do racism like radio. people notice. and it can't be locally coordinated with that content, like is possible when the state gop think tanks go after particular local dems or want to distort an issue.

i think talk radio is the only unique advantage they have AND it is extremely vulnerable now. there's a perfect storm headed it's way and a progressive org or a bunch of activists could force the ad industry to break up the monopoly. advertiser support is very soft but those stations are loud and reach big audiences. they're just counting ears..

1- limbaugh is probably dying. he's had a lot of time off and unless he gets a miraculous recovery from stage 4 lung cancer very soon, and he's the lasst guy due a 'miracle', the ad industry is going to have to think about those 600 major stations that depend on him to anchor 10-15 hrs of fascist bullshit every day. it was all built around him and many have been losing money. all those stations just spent 3 months yelling hoax in a covid theater. if there was a real FCC there'd be a good case for losing their licenses.

2- artificial intelligence makes it really easy and cheap ($5/hr at sonix.ai) to transcribe recordings of shows and list and get contact info for advertisers - with little listening. the ad industry wouldn't want more than a taste of that before they had to stop bundling and shuffling advertisers onto those stations and had to ask their clients if they REALLY want to support COVID denial, global warming denial, racism, trump. the ad industry needs to know a sandra fluke type action, now maybe in defense of the obamas, would be amped up exponentially.

3- a guy like michael moore could walk onto mich state uni and ask them why they support 11 llimbaugh stations with their sports and can't they find apolitical stations that don't support lead in water, attack black athletes for kneeling, want to defund public ed, etc. then the other 87 uni communities might start similar conversations. advertisers would head for the hills.

[hurple]

36. See... this is 99% of the problem

Someone steps forward to say, "believe it or not, this thing is taking off and might cause an issue in the future" and rather than take the warning seriously and try to come up with some counter-programming people just roll their eyes and go, "sure, nobody will buy it, it's too stupid. People aren't that dumb."

Well, if there's anything I've learned over the last 6 years, it's that, yes, people really are that dumb.

It may be nonsensical, it may be stupid, it may be laughably phony... but, believe it or not, people are going to decide which person to vote for because of it. "Oh, I can't vote for Biden because of Obamagate."

You might not be taking it seriously, but they are.

[SamKnause]

7. And ???

They have been doing this since day one.

Were you unaware ???

Such bullshit.

[Mr. Ected]

9. It's your job and your network's job to debunk all that horseshit, Jake

Don't warn us off in one breath and feed the beast with another.

Media created and perpetuates the monster in the White House.

[crickets]

41. +1000000

[Windy City Charlie]

10. It doesn't matter to him

It doesn't matter to Trump. He knows all he has to do is say whatever and the Trumpers will believe what he says over the truth.

[Stuart G]

11. Yes, the Trumpers will believe, but now there are more "NEVER TRUMPERS" then ever.

More than ever. If 35 percent believe, then 65 percent do not believe him, and never will again, (even if some once believed) Lying about "death" & prevention of death is very stupid and awful.
...Some will still believe..most won't.

[frazzled]

12. Does it ever feel like

You are still sane, but you are locked in an institution for the mentally incapacitated and can't get out of your cell to escape?

[Squidly]

38. Every damn day

[bigtree]

15. fairly certain this describes his entire presidency.

[GoCubsGo]

27. His entire campaign before that, as well.

Tapper must have been in a coma for the past four or five years.

[peggysue2]

16. Unprecedented?

Did we not all live through 2016? Pizzagate, anyone? Hillary has a fatal disease and is on death's door. Corruption accusations against the Clinton's. The Clinton Foundation. Uranium 1 allegations. Benghazi. Her infamous emails. Etc., etc., etc. And back in the day--Vince Foster.

The beat goes on and on.

To pretend these ongoing smears are new, unprecedented, shocking is to admit you've been living in a cave.

Republicans have traditionally used smears and dirty tricks against their opponents. One could argue that Trump and his enablers have continued the tradition.

But unprecedented?

Only if you're seeking to rewrite history.

[JDC]

22. The most over used word ever, especially on CNN. That and "Stunning"

CNN pretends that is sounding the alarm.

[peggysue2]

25. Sounding the alarm

The MSM missed the boat on that 'alarm' by decades. The GOP went rogue many moons ago. They're simply not hiding the racist, sexist, anti-democratic, money-trumps-all-else penchant.

Trapper and his cohorts need to put on glasses, then drop the frenzy of all things are equal nonsense, aka bothsiderism.

The Republicans are no longer the 'loyal opposition.' They've betrayed their oaths and betrayed the country. As scary as that is, the press needs to call the betrayal out and stop being stunned by what's been hiding in plain sight: the threat is inside the tent.

[Cha]

30. Mahalo, Peggysue.. Sarah Cooper.

Link to tweet

[peggysue2]

32. Exactly, Cha

This is the same damn playbook and Trump and the GOP need to be called out on it.

For the MSM to pretend this is shocking/stunning is a tragic and dangerous perspective by the press, merely giving the smear merchants a pass on former, equally slimy accusations.

Btw, Sarah Cooper is great!

To counter all the slime? Cooper has proven how effective it is to use Trump's own words, sling them right back at the Squatter-in-Chief. Knock out city!

[mnmoderatedem]

17. and earlier on his show this morning

Ron Johnson (dipshit, WI) was babbling about, you guessed it, Hillary's emails.

[KS Toronado]

19. That's all they got is smears/allegations/conspiracy theories, nothing about policies

Where is the better and cheaper trumpcare that covers everyone?

[athenasatanjesus]

20. Just borrowing the Russian playbook.

[Martin Eden]

24. Trump and his team will continue to shovel this shit as long as their followers keep swallowing it

Trumpers continue to lick their lips and ask for for more.

[GoCubsGo]

26. "Are launching"?

Where the hell have you been, Jake? It's been one big long string of smears, lies and conspiracies since the day the Trump campaign started. Wake the fuck up.

[Cha]

28. Sarah Cooper.. & I thank them both.. Retweeted!

Link to tweet

Thank you, too, CB

[essme]

31. Oh, well that's original. Maybe they should hire a medium

and try to contact Lee Atwater for advice.

[kentuck]

33. McCarthyism on steroids.

Unashamed.

[JHB]

40. Jake, I'll see your "unprecedented" and raise you...

...The Clinton Chronicles, the "Clinton Body count," the swift boat liars, etc., etc., etc.

This is more of what Republicans have made their standard operating procedure for decades. It's not something Trump brought down the escalator with him. It's just that he broadcasts at full-blast what used to be done on the q-t.