Leadership and the Free Press - First Amendment is essential

"It's kind of hard to tell others to have an independent, free press and we're not willing to have one ourself," said Bush.

Former President Bush was speaking on the NBC Today Show to support the publication of his book "Portraits of Courage", in an interview with Matt Lauer.

Donald Trump is so thin skinned, he lost his ability to be objective about his responsibility to accept the Free Press in support of American Democracy. In fact, Trump calls the news he disagrees with "fake-news" and declared war on the media as being an enemy of the people. Donald Trump's obsession with criticizing the media is, frankly, against the law. It's doubtful he ever read the First Amendment in the US Constitution, that requires "Free Speech". President George Bush '43 agrees with the Constitution. So does Admiral William H. McRaven, the Chancellor of the University of Texas system as does Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona.

It's past the time for Donald Trump to uphold what he swore to do on January 20, 2017, when he placed his right hand on a Bible and swore to uphold his oath of office. In fact, Trump should be leading the argument for Free Speech rather than creating unnecessary controversy about the basic tenet of democracy.  

Former President Bush said he spent a great amount of time trying to convince people, like Russian President Vladimir Putin, to accept the notion of an independent press, but Trump's adversarial relationship is making the message a difficult one for the United States to deliver.

"It's kind of hard to tell others to have an independent, free press and we're not willing to have one ourself," said Bush.

Bush took office in 2001 after a controversial election that ended up being decided by the Supreme Court, and during a time when the nation was also divided, but on Monday he said it is hard to compare what was going on then with what's happening now.

"One thing is for certain, the job is a tough job," said Bush. "Everybody looks at the presidency when they campaign one way, then, they get in office and find out there's a reality to the job." Former President George W. Bush faced his share of criticism from the media during his time in office, but he said Monday that unlike President Donald Trump, he considered the media "to be indispensable to Democracy," and not as an enemy of the American people.

"We need an independent media to hold people like me to account," Bush said during an interview with NBC's "Today" anchor Matt Lauer.

"I mean, power can be very addictive, and it can be corrosive. And it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power. Whether it be here or elsewhere."

Bush said when he got out of college, the nation was "really divided," and it "requires a lot of people coming together to try to make us united."

Meanwhile, Trump has only been in office shortly over a month, and Bush said he thinks Americans need to take Trump for his word, that he wants to unify the nation.

"We'll see if he's able to do so," said Bush. "It's hard to unify the country with the news media being so split up. When I was president, you mattered a lot more because there were three of you. And now, there's all kinds of information being bombarded out, and people can say things anonymously. And it's just a different world."

(MaineWriter- Dear Mr. Bush, it isn't the media or the "anonymous sources" that gave the "free press" the label of "fake-news".)

Bush also spoke out about Trump's travel ban from seven Middle Eastern countries, saying that he does believe that it's important for people to be able to worship freely.

However, it's "hard to fight the war on terrorism if we're in retreat, and I think we learned that lesson," said Bush.

"If the United States decides to pull out before a free society emerges, it's going to be hard to defeat them," said Bush. 

"The enemy is very good about exploiting weakness. It's going to be important. If that's the goal, to defeat ISIS, which I believe it should be, that we project strength."

But Bush wouldn't say specifically if he's for or against the travel ban. "I'm for an immigration policy that's welcoming and upholds the law," said the former president. (Maine Writer: In other words, the travel ban as proposed against 7 mostly Muslim nations was decided to be illegal, as ruled by two courts.

So, in terms of Donald Trump versus the First Amendment of the Constitution, the experts have spoken. Creating "fake-news" is, frankly, a terrible, not to mention, also illegal, way for any American president to lead a Democracy.

Who's the real Donald Trump: or who's the real John Miller?

The New Yorker writer John Cassidy spotlights Donald Trump's multiple personality character disorder.
(This article supports my point about Trump "Liar-Liar-Pants-on-Fire")

JOHN CASSIDY
DONALD TRUMP AND THE “JOHN MILLER” TAPE: 

A QUESTION OF CHARACTER

Composite Sketch - Donald Trump or John Miller? 

Back in the late eighties and early nineties, when Cassidy worked for the London Sunday Times out of New York and Washington, he sometimes wrote about Donald Trump—mostly covering his business deals, but also his personal life, which was splashed all over the New York Post and Daily News. 

"In my recollection, Trump was easy to get in touch with, which was one reason why he got so much ink", writes Cassidy. 

After calling his office, he’d be put through to a woman named Norma Foerderer, who was his top aide. Foerderer, who died in 2013, would say that she’d check if Trump was available. You’d hear talking in the background, and then he'd get on the phone and tell you how fabulously everything was going for him.

Since Trump’s voice, even then, was instantly recognizable, it’s hard to conceive of him pretending to be somebody else, such as a fictional spokesman. 

But, evidently, that is what he did when dealing with some reporters, calling himself John Miller or John Barron. Now the Washington Post has surfaced a tape of one of those conversations, which took place in 1991 with Sue Carswell, then a reporter for People magazine.

On Friday morning, Trump denied that he was the person on the tape. “It doesn’t sound like me on the phone, I will tell you that. And it was not me on the phone,” he said on the “Today” show. But anyone who listens to the recording will quickly discover that it sounds very much like Trump. It’s full of braggadocio, narcissism, and scarcely believable claims.

The alleged spokesman says that Trump, who was then struggling through a real-estate bust and emerging from a divorce from his first wife, Ivana, was faring “tremendously well financially” and was being besieged by attractive women who wanted to date him, including Carla Bruni and Madonna. At the time, Trump was engaged in an on-off relationship with Marla Maples, a young model who would go on to become his second wife, and Trump had just declared, via a story in the New York Post, that this was one of the off periods. “Have you met him?” the man identifying himself as Miller asked Carswell. “He’s a good guy, and he’s not going to hurt anybody. . . . He treated his wife well and . . . he will treat Marla well.”

The Washington Post said that it obtained the tape from a source who “asked to be identified only as a person with whom Carswell shared the microcassette of the call shortly after the interview.” After being contacted by the Post and hearing the tape for the first time in decades, Carswell said, “This was so farcical, that he pretended to be his own publicist. Here was this so-called billion-dollar real-estate mogul, and he can’t hire his own publicist. It also said something about the control he wanted to keep of the news cycle flowing with this story, and I can’t believe he thought he’d get away with it.”

Trump has gotten away with a lot, of course, and he will surely remain brazen during this flap. On the “Today” show, he affected outrage that anyone would bring up such an old story. “You’re going so low as to talk about something that took place twenty-five years ago, about whether or not I made a phone call?” Trump said. “Let’s get on to more current subjects.”

Coming from someone who is constantly harking back to stories about Bill Clinton that are decades old, this was a rich response, and it won’t quell the media furor. That’s partly because there’s an actual tape for news outlets to play and for people to share online. But it’s also because Trump is now the presumptive G.O.P. nominee, and every aspect of his persona is going to be examined anew.

As noted in previous Cassidy posts, there's plenty of material in both Trump’s personal life and his business career that bears inspection. He has successes to his name, including some trophy buildings and a collection of upscale golf resorts, but he is also a man who has built his career on hype and self-promotion, who has presided over numerous costly business failures, who has done business with mob-related figures and been sued many times, who has been married three times, and who has even clashed with members of his own family about providing medical coverage for a seriously ill young relation.

Trump shouldn’t be underestimated. His populist message is resonating with a lot of Americans, he knows how to play the media, and his status as a political novice and outsider gives him a leg up. Ultimately, however, voters will have to decide whether he passes the smell test: Is he someone with the character and judgment to be President?

The “John Miller” tape plays to this question. Here is more of him apparently masquerading as his own spokesman:

Carswell: What is your position there?

“Miller”: Well, I’m sort of handling P.R. because he gets so much of it. And, frankly, I mean, I could tell you off the record. Until I get to know you, and talk a little bit off the record, I can tell you that he didn’t care if he got bad P.R. until he got his divorce finished.

So when he got a lot of bad financial stuff, he liked it because, you know, it was good, because he could get a divorce finished. And once his divorce is finished, if you noticed, since then he’s doing well financially and he’s doing well in every other way. . . . And people are saying, “How come all of a sudden he’s doing so well?” . . . So I’ve sort of been put in here to handle because I’ve never seen anybody get so many calls from the press.

Carswell: Where did you come from?

“Miller”: I basically worked for different firms. I worked for a couple of different firms, and I’m somebody that he knows and, I think, somebody that he trusts and likes. So I’m going to do this a little part time, and then, yeah, go on with my life, too.  (Liar-Liar-Pants-on-Fire!)

No facts - no sympathy Donald Trump gets more free media

On a morning on March 22, 2016, when the world is mourning even more terrorism attacks in Brussels in Belgium, with dozens dead resulting from bombing attacks at the Zaventem airport and Maelbeek metro, the Today Show decided to interview Donald Trump. So, Donald Trump gets even more free media time, but what does he do? He offers "NO facts- NO sympathy" and no information about what he would do if her were (God forbid) elected president or leader of the free world. 

Terrorist bombing in Brussels Belgium March 22, 2016

Instead, Donald Trump opened his free interview talking about his crazy poll numbers. After that, he then said he would close all US borders. HELLO? So, will Americans form a human chain along all of the US Canada and Mexico international borders? How would Trump-Drumpf close the US borders? Trump did not explain how to close US borders. In fact, closing borders is irresponsible and, indeed, even impossible. Rather, the right answer is to build excellent communications with Canada and Mexico to prevent illegal immigration between all three nations.

Rather than open his interview with Savannah Guthrie and Matt Lauer, with appropriate messages of sympathy to the Europeans and the entire Belgian population during this sad time, Trump spoke about his poll numbers instead of offering useful information.

Shame on Today for giving stupid Donald Trump even more free media time, when the wanna-be president, leader of the free world, contributed no facts about the Brussels bombings.

Although the surrogate NBC correspondent, Kelly O'Donnell, went on Twitter to explain how the 2016 presidential front runners were invited to be interviewed, but only stupid Donald Trump responded, that was a weak excuse for giving free media time to a candidate. Obviously Ms. O'Donnell, American only has one president at a time and stupid Drumpf-Trump is not the one.  

In the event Donald Trump had something to add to the Belgian condition, other than stoke more fear, then, maybe, there was a reason to include him in a free media blitz. Otherwise, Trump's "no facts-no sympathy" interview was a total waste of time and denigrated quality journalism.

NBC employs classy journalists like Pete Williams, Richard Engel and Tom Costello. Therefore, it makes absolutely no sense to pay for experts to report the news instead of wasting important media time creating news with the "no facts-no sympathy" commentary by Donald Trump. 

My sympathy to the people of Europe and particularly the Belgians.

These are terribly tragic times, but Donald Trump is not the person to improve our human condition.