Elie Mystal: Why Does the Media Care More About "the Slap" Than Trump's Missing Call Logs?

[Nevilledog]

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-missing-call-log/

Earlier this week, The Washington Post broke the news that there is a 457-minute gap in the presidential phone logs for January 6, 2021, the day of the Trump-inspired attack on the Capitol. The White House keeps a record of every person the president talks to (remember, the president is supposed to be a public employee, not the king of white supremacists). The January 6 records show that Trump took eight calls in the morning and 11 in the evening, but from 11:17 AM until 6:54 PM, there is a big, stinking gap. We know Trump took phone calls during this time: It’s already been reported that he called Senator Mike Lee and spoke to Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy. But the full extent of Trump’s activities are missing from the official record during arguably the most important time of his failed presidency.

Unnamed sources now claim that a giant hole in Trump’s call records is not “unusual” because the former president used the White House switchboard while in the residence, but not when he was in the Oval Office. I find it amazing that Trump’s spin on this is that there are four years of unlogged phone calls (Russia, if you’re listening) instead of seven hours. But even if that’s the case, the seven hours on the day of the coup seem appropriate for heightened scrutiny. Pinning down the president’s timeline on the day his forces attacked the Capitol would seem to me to be job No. 1 of federal investigators, and investigative journalists.

But nobody cares. There are still a lot of people who can remember when this country ground to a halt over an 18-minute gap in Richard Nixon’s recordings of his taped conversations. Here, we have 457 minutes, about seven-and-a-half hours, during which the very existence of phone calls have been wiped from the record. But for some reason this was a one-day story for mainstream American media. To put this in context: There have been more articles, news segments, think pieces, and investigative freaking reports on the details of a movie star hitting a comedian at the Academy Awards than there have been about whom the president of the United States was talking to during an attempted coup against our government.

Reading mainstream US newspapers this week has been a case study in why America is failing. In addition to reams of coverage on “the Slap,” there have been multiple stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop—an entire “controversy” generated by the same media weakness that produced endless coverage of “her e-mails.” There has been breathless coverage of Madison Cawthorn’s titillating allegations of cocaine and sex orgies that he claims to have been invited to. There’s even been coverage of the Republican rebuke of Cawthorn’s claims, which is interesting because there’s been almost no follow-up on how Republicans are reacting to the seven-hour gap in White House phone logs. Among Republicans, only John Bolton took a break from (I assume) lathering himself in oils as an aide reads him the projected death tolls in a World War III scenario to say that he thinks Trump is lying about his knowledge of burner phones.

*snip*

[Bonx]

1. Official review of Trump phone logs from January 6 finds record is complete

"According to multiple sources familiar with Trump's phone behavior and the White House switchboard records, the January 6 log reflects Trump's typical phone habits. He mainly placed calls through the switchboard when he was in the residence but rarely used it when he was in the Oval Office. The fact the log does not show calls on January 6, 2021, from the Oval Office is not unusual, said the sources, because Trump typically had staff either place calls directly for him on landlines or cell phones. Those calls would not be noted on the switchboard log."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/31/politics/mystery-call-gap-trump-jan-6-white-house-phone-logs/index.html

[Nevilledog]

3. I feel confident we'll find out that's a lie.

CNN was wrong to post Trump propaganda as truth.

[brooklynite]

2. Why do people here care more?

Compare the number of threads.....

As for me, I'd guess that there's less discussion of Trump's phone logs because there hasn't been some new revelation about Trump's phone log.

[dpibel]

5. You knew about the 7-1/2 hour gap?

I thought that was a new revelation.

Did I miss it first time 'round?

[Kid Berwyn]

4. I care.

Treasonous turd got help from Russia to get elected. When tossed by voters, not only does he refuse to concede, he leads a conspiracy to overthrow the government.

Corporate McPravda, go fuck yourselves.

[central scrutinizer]

6. They're waiting

For a blonde girl to go missing somewhere or little Timmy to fall in a well.