Trump doesn't like Fox News today

President Trump's approval rating does best when he tweets less or attacks every little insult or opposition moment.

On Sunday, he was more critical toward Fox News, his favorite cable news network.  He blasted them for "moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side" and forgetting "the people who got them there" by hosting a town hall for Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg [aka Butter Judge; aka Alfred E. Neuman.]

Actually, President Trump didn't get Fox News "there," meaning to the top of the cable news charts--they were already there before he went on the campaign trail simply because they're center right position commands a larger, more normal, much more patriotic audience.

The town hall event was hosted by Fox News' Chris Wallace and held in Claremont, New Hampshire. As was the case with Fox's Bernie Sanders town hall, most of the audience responded frenetically to the gay South Bend mayor, and gave him a standing ovation, as noted by Mediaite. 

So in this case, as he was with the Bernie Sanders "Commie-a-thon Town Hall," the president was angry about Fox offering the far-left Democrat a positive platform on the network. Trump was particularly critical of Wallace and it's rumored that he put a magic curse on him.

Never one to let a miff go by without a tweet, Trump posted:

"Hard to believe that @FoxNews is wasting airtime on Mayor Pete, as Chris Wallace likes to call him." 

"Fox is moving more and more to the losing (wrong) side in covering the Dems. They got dumped from the Democrats boring debates, and they just want in. They forgot the people who got them there. Chris Wallace said, 'I actually think, whether you like his opinions or not, that Mayor Pete has a lot of substance...fascinating biography.' Gee, he never speaks well of me — I like [his father] Mike Wallace better...and Alfred E. Newman [sic] will never be President!"

Trump's jab at Wallace for praising Buttigieg is a reference to the host's comments last month comparing the mayor favorably to his fellow Democratic presidential candidate Robert [Beto] O'Rourke; Buttigieg, said Wallace, offers "a lot of substance" and "interesting, refreshing ideas," particularly compared to the Texas Democrat.

Trump could have pointed out that Buttigieg has swung so far to the left that he swallowed a mouthful of the Pacific Ocean, rather than attacking Wallace [who is left of center, for sure.]

In response to Trump's criticism of the network, Fox's Senior Political Analyst Brit Hume offered a little praise for Buttigieg and faulted Trump for not taking enough questions from the press. "Say this for Buttigieg--he’s willing to be questioned by Chris Wallace, something you’ve barely done since you’ve been president," said Hume. "Oh, and covering candidates of both parties is part of the job of a news channel," Hume added.

I understand that Trump is a fighter and tough counter-puncher, but I believe he needs to know when not to punch, especially the one cable news network that covers him fairly. Rather than attacking the network and the interviewers, Trump might try attacking the leftist positions the Democratic candidates have taken and talk about his economy.

The president's comments about Democrats "dump[ing]" Fox News from the party's debates refers to the Democratic National Committee announcing in early March that it is barring the network from hosting any of the Democratic presidential debates due to alleged ties between the network and the Trump administration. 

In response, Fox News Senior Vice President Bill Sammon issued a statement urging the DNC to reconsider. "We hope the DNC will reconsider its decision to bar Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, all of whom embody the ultimate journalistic integrity and professionalism, from moderating a Democratic presidential debate," Sammon said. "They’re the best debate team in the business and they offer candidates an important opportunity to make their case to the largest TV news audience in America, which includes many persuadable voters."

Whether you like Chris Wallace or not, Sammon is absolutely correct about that team. Even Wallace would ask tough questions, unlike the powderpuff questions the left asks of them.

Following Fox News' Sanders event, Trump also issued some critical comments directed at the network and the host of the event, Bret Baier. "So weird to watch Crazy Bernie on Fox News. Not surprisingly, Bret Baier and the 'audience' was so smiley and nice," said Trump via Twitter. "Very strange, and now we have Donna Brazile?"

Brett Baier is one of the best news anchors in the business, bar none. Trump needs to allow the other side to have a voice and to be courteously interviewed by him and others, unlike the way the left [such as Jim "Gosh, I Love Me" Acosta] asks questions of Republicans.

Trump cited "many complaints" that the town hall was "stuffed with Bernie supporters" while Trump supporters were supposedly not "let in." 

Trump tweeted:

"Many Trump Fans & Signs were outside of the @FoxNews Studio last night in the now thriving (Thank you President Trump) Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, for the interview with Crazy Bernie Sanders. 

"Big complaints about not being let in-stuffed with Bernie supporters. What’s with @FoxNews?" 

But the Daily Wire pointed out, The Morning Call's coverage of the event noted that Fox News "reached out to various political and local groups in the area and mined requests to attend after it publicly announced the event," and that the event was attended by Trump supporters, independents as well as Bernie supporters.

Hopefully, President Trump will stop "punching down" and go after the socialist policies the Democrats are calling for as well as the abortion issue and open borders, the two biggies that Americans are very concerned about. If he sticks to the issues rather than trying to soothe his ego [which all presidents have], I believe he'd win the 2020 election by a landslide.

So President Trump doesn't like Fox News today. Give him another day--he'll get over it.


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FBI: don't worry, be happy

It seems that the FBI has taken a Mad Magazine-Alfred E. Neuman approach to its terror tracking and said "What, me worry?" to the problem of terrorism. After all, they concluded Ahmad Rahami was not a terrorist two years ago after he committed a terrorist attack that injured 31 people, at last count.

And just because nobody died due to his incompetence, that doesn't lessen the significance of his attempt. We were very lucky this time, but the FBI had nothing to do with it.

Rahami allegedly planted a pipe bomb and pressure cooker bombs at four New York City and New Jersey locations. Upon his arrest Monday morning, law enforcement found his journal praising "Brother Usama bin Laden." He also wrote that he prayed to Allah to continue his jihad and achieve martyrdom against the US government.

Rahami's father, Mohammad [believe it or not], told reporters that he contacted the FBI two years ago as a result of a violent family incident. He told them that his son was a terrorist. The FBI was also told that Rahami may have been trying to get his hands on explosives and was "associating with bad people," an FBI statement showed. But Daddy recanted his story and nothing was found to show Rahami became religiously orthodox and planned to commit jihad.


So the FBI did nothing. In normal times in a democracy like ours, it's totally understandable that the FBI would do nothing further. 

But these are not normal times.

This blown opportunity by the FBI to collar Rahami before allegedly bombing his targets is not the first time the FBI blew it.

Take the Pulse nightclub terrorist Omar Mateen, for example. Mateen was interviewed by the FBI three times before his June 12, 2016 attack that killed 49 and injured scores more. Three interviews.

His co-workers said in 2013 that Mateen bragged about having Al Qaeda connections and that he wanted to be a martyr.

But the Alfred E. Neumans of the FBI figured Mateen was just pushing back on anti-Muslim bullying by his colleagues and that he wasn't a threat. In the summer of 2014, they interviewed him again, but this was due to his connections to an American-born jihadist who blew himself up in Syria. Mateen answered questions, told officials what they wanted to hear, and was off on his merry jihad way.

In the course of his being investigated, the FBI ran his name in their databases and deployed a pair of confidential informants during their investigations and placed him on a terror watch list.

The investigation eventually ended along with the FBI's further surveillance. 

"What, me worry?"

Mateen was able to buy two guns  before the Florida attack and nobody was alerted.

The Boston Marathon bombers are another example of how the FBI dropped the ball.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother of the two bombers, was initially flagged by Russian intelligence back in 2011. A memo to US officials stated that he had been radicalized and planned to fly to Russia to join an extremist group. Meanwhile, back in the States, counter-terror investigators screwed up royally, according to an unclassified summary report from the Office of the Inspector General.

Although a few attempts to investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev were made, including a face-to-face interview, agents never told local law enforcement about their concerns, nor did they ever visit Tsarnaev's mosque. They never interviewed the terrorist's wife or an ex-girlfriend that he had physically assaulted in the past. The FBI never asked him about his plans to travel to Russia and they failed to search several major FBI systems.

"What, me worry?"

When hardly beautiful Tashfeen Malik came here from her native Pakistan in July 2014, she was "vetted" by no less than five (5) US agencies. She passed three background checks and had two face-to-hijab interviews.

Perhaps they asked her "Are you a terrorist or planning to become one?" and she answered: "No."

None of the vetting uncovered her pro-jihad social presence. She was the "Queen of Twitter Jihad" but the FBI only learned of that after she and her scumcrumpet husband, Syed Farook, killed 14 people at an office holiday party in San Bernadino in December 2015. Among the dead were work colleagues who bought the killing couple baby gifts for the arrival of their "little terrorist to be."

"What, me worry?"

People from two FBI anti-terrorism task forces were aware that Army Maj. Nidal Hasan was in email  communication with terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki since December 2008, and even asked Awlaki about suicide attacks.

The FBI was more concerned about how it would look if they launched a probe into the matter given that Hasan was an American Muslim in the military. The FBI never pursued the case and on November 5, 2009, Hasan killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, as he screamed in Arabic "Allahu Akbar" (Allah is greater") in what the Obama administration labeled "Workplace violence."

Workplace violence? "What, me worry?"

Sure, the FBI is as busy as a one-armed juggler with all the terrorism leads they get. According to Clinton supporter, James Comey, they are currently working on 1,000 cases in all 50 states and that makes it difficult to do an effective job.

So as long as there are excuses, and if Hillary Clinton should become our next incompetent president, our government will continue to take a "What, me worry?" approach to national security.

One last word--the few examples given above are not nearly the total of FBI miscues. 


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