I guess I should thank CNN and the Times because my prediction that they would continue to ignore the Trump/Bondi story is feeling pretty vindicated at the moment. As I noted below, the Times mentioned the question in passing in an overnight piece but went with Trump’s denial of any wrongdoing, unrebutted and unquestioned. Then just a short while ago CNN also did a package. If anything it was worse.
There was one good thing. They had on the Post’s David Fahrenthold, who’s been the top reporter on this story, along with the Associated Press. Fahrentold gave a fairly straightforward but solid account of the main facts but unfortunately did not highlight what at the most generous seems to be a contradiction between Trump’s account and Bondi’s. From there, the hosts went straight to RNC spokesman Sean Spicer who said there was nothing to it. And that was that.
Here was his argument.
Not at all. There were 48 other attorneys general that didn’t investigate this. The only one that did was Eric Schneiderman who is a Hillary Clinton supporter. Of all of the 50 states where this was brought up, only one state pursued it, New York, a close ally of Hillary Clinton. There was a clerical error that was made, all fixed, paperwork refiled. That’s it. If this was a cover-up, where are the other 48, 49 states that should have done something? None of them agreed with Eric Schneider man, the only one, an ally of Hillary Clinton. The rest of them shared there was no merit in going forward.
Now this 48 or 49 other Attorneys General agreed with Trump is silly. Trump passed money around other places too. But the key point is that Florida was where a big concentration of the complaints were. Bondi’s office said she was considering joining New York’s suit. So Florida wasn’t just any other state. Florida was a focus. Schneiderman being “a Hillary Clinton supporter” is a nonsensical point I was expecting the hosts to flag since I think I’m on pretty firm ground saying that no one expected in 2013 that Trump would run for President, let alone be the nominee this year. So his politics – I’m sure he is a big Clinton supporter – simply aren’t relevant to the decision he made in 2013 since it didn’t seem to be one with any political import.
In other words, you have a perfunctory one and done from the Times and CNN, basically asking Trump or his representatives whether it was a problem and moving on when they said it was fine.
