April 24, 2017: Obama Interferes | Ann Coulter, Patriot | Poll Watch
1. French Election: The Obama Connection
Yes, Marie Le Pen and her anti-immigrant party won enough votes to head toward a runoff. She will face the centrist Emmanuel Macron. And, yes, the Alt-Right Media predictably gloated that another country is falling to the populist movement.
But oddly, even as the results became clear, the Red Media fixated on a side note: Three days before the election, Macron got a call from none other than a private citizen named Barack Obama.
Obama said the call was not an endorsement. but perhaps because the Mainstream Media had reported that both Russian trolls and President Trump himself (through Twitter, of course) were trying to help Le Pen, the Red Media went into high dudgeon that this was an influence story being ignored.
Townhall, a conservative website, featured a post headlined, “Obama Injects Himself into the French Elections.” Meanwhile, Sean Hannity’s website went with this more ominous tone: “Shadow State Department: Obama Meddles in French Election, Heads to Germany Next Month:”
Former President Obama continues to meddle in foreign affairs, holding a phone conference with a leading candidate in the French presidential elections ahead of Sunday’s vote, then jetting off to Germany for a joint event with Chancellor Merkel next month.
The popular YouTube blogger and Infowars editor-at-large Paul Joseph Watson @PrisonPlanet wrote:
Obama interfered in a foreign election to help Macron. Where is the outrage?
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) April 23, 2017
Obama interfered in a foreign election to help Macron. Where is the outrage?
Similarly, the conservative pundit and author Dinesh D'Souza @DineshDSouza, with 493k followers, complained:
— Dinesh D'Souza (@DineshDSouza) April 23, 2017
Co-opt Alert:
It appears the far right has successfully taken over Hillary Clinton’s slogan “I’m with her” and made it a hashtag to support Le Pen at #imwithher. It’s going to be a brutal two weeks until the runoff on May 7.
2. Ann Coulter, Fearless American
And speaking of the further crumbling of Western civilization, one of the more galling developments of the past week has been the emergence of the bomb-thrower Ann Coulter as a symbol of free speech.
Like every other publicity-hungry right-wing pundit, Coulter booked a speech at U.C. Berkeley, where the Antifa -- a radical movement whose members have decided conservative speech is hate speech and must be stopped at any cost -- predictably protested. The university, no doubt fearing that yet another embarrassing riot would ensue, tried to postpone the speech. At which point an outcry from minor celebrities on behalf of Coulter ensued. Berkeley backed down.
Bill Maher, host of HBO’s “Real Time,” drew coverage on almost every conservative site for his defense of Coulter’s right to speak. Here is Independent Journal Review’s version:
“ ‘I know,’ the HBO host quipped, ‘we don't like Ann Coulter's views,’ to a round of giggles from his audience. Maher went on to mention how ‘[he] was the speaker at Berkeley a couple of years ago, and they disinvited [him], and then they got their act together, and [he] wound up doing it. And apparently, that's what's going to happen with her, [he] think[s].’
From there, Maher would opine that ‘Berkeley used to be the cradle of free speech. And now it’s just the cradle for f**king babies’.”
And while Coulter was being defended from unlikely corners, the Alt-Right Media did a full jugular on the Berkeley mayor, Jesse Arreguin. Conservative sites found an archived version of his Facebook page showing scores of organizations he had joined, including the Berkeley Progressive Alliance and the Sustainable Berkeley Coalition. At some point, however, he had joined BAMN, or “By Any Means Necessary,” an Antifa group. It is unclear whether he had done this knowingly, but it was undoubtedly red meat for Gateway Pundit, among others:
The Mayor of Bekeley, Jesse Arreguin supports the far-left terrorist organization, BAMN according to his Facebook page.
Perhaps this is why the police were told to stand down while ANTIFA threw glass bottles, M-80’s and bricks at Trump supporters in his city.
Mayor Jesse Arreguin is a member of ‘BAMN’ AKA ‘By Any Means Necessary’, a violent organization affiliated with ANTIFA. Is this something that should be acceptable for a sitting Mayor?
The leader of this group is Yvette Felarca. Felarca is a middle school teacher (scary) and her group is behind much of the violence towards Trump supporters. She also works to shut down Conservatives who seek to give speeches at universities.
Also of Note:
No one really thought Papa Bear Bill O’Reilly would go gently into the night So even though Fox News officially severed ties with him last week, his personal podcast, “No Spin News,” will continue on. New episodes will be available on his website starting today.
3. Limbaugh: Trump’s Nailing the Blame Game.
With Trump’s 100-day anniversary arriving on Saturday, the White House is leaking that the president will be extra busy signing executive orders on everything from trade to protecting whistleblowers at the Veterans Administration. Trump himself tweeted: “Big TAX REFORM AND TAX REDUCTION will be announced next Wednesday.”
Interestingly, the Mainstream Media and the Red Media have come to the same conclusion as to why. Little has been accomplished legislatively and budget negotiations coming up this week are only going to make gridlock among Republicans more apparent. The president, who has lately tweeted that the 100-day timeframe is “ridiculous” anyway, is trying to pass blame to Congress. And if you ask Rush Limbaugh, this is the right strategy:
“My humble opinion is that the entire Washington establishment has been behaving, has been comporting themselves in such a way as to stall and delay and limit and prevent as much of Trumpism actually happening as they can, under the belief that at some point Trump’s gonna burn out, grow tired and weary of it, and either resign or the Democrats are gonna impeach him or something.
And I think behind this is a lot of the donor class telling House and Senate Republicans, “Look, you want to continue to receive our support, you’re gonna stop this stuff, you’re gonna stop that wall, you’re gonna stop these stupid trade things he’s trying to do, you’re gonna stop this stupid tax package, and if you don’t, you can forget us sending you any money.” I mean, that may be a little broad in my projection, but I think something like that’s happening. ‘Cause these people didn’t want Trump to win.”
Poll Watch: Trump Fans Have His Back.
It is hard to tell if this strategy of shifting the blame is working for Trump. Gallup’s first quarter poll showed his approval rating at 41 percent, the lowest in the survey’s history. However, his support in his party is rock solid. An astonishing 87 percent of Republicans said they approved of his job performance -- that’s a higher number than Eisenhower, Nixon and Reagan had at the point in their first terms or the elder George Bush had three months into his only term.
A Little Talk Among Friends.
And to bolster his base, Politico reports, Trump will host a special reception exclusively for alt-right news outlets like Breitbart and The Daily Caller today. “They were neglected the last eight years, and they’re an important medium to communicate to a massively growing number of Americans who, frankly, have grown tired of mainstream media’s coverage,” the White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, told Politico.
4. What We’re Reading
It was a great weekend for enterprise reporting on the conservative media so we thought we’d point to a few highlights. Salon ran a story headlined “Right-wing media civil war: How Donald Trump pitted Drudge against Fox News.”
The Washington Post had an article full of juicy tidbits on how Trump’s obsession with cable TV affects how he perceives the world.