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Sunday, September 11, 2016

Trump's 9/11 Lies

Remember all the criticism Hillary got when asked about her donations from financial donors and she evoked 9/11? There was outrage.

On another 9/11 15 years later, it's worth considering Trump's track record of self serving lies. Imagine if the media took Trump's gross exploitation of 9/11 as seriously as they took whether Al Gore said or didn't say he 'invented the Internet?'

That was a question for which it really didn't matter what the truth was in the first place.

Check out this Daily News exclusive. The media in 2000 argued that a man who allegedly lied about inventing the Internet just couldn't be trusted. So what about a man who lie about why he got post 9/11 state funds? Is that as important as why Gore went to a Buddhist temple or every possible detail on an email server?

To any other life form, probably. For Beltway journalists who knows?

"Donald Trump’s tale about why he took $150,000 in 9/11 money is as tall as the Downtown skyscraper he says he used in recovery efforts, according to government records."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/exclusive-trump-didn-post-9-11-funds-helping-people-article-1.2786879?

Actually taller, as he lied about how tall his building was too. You have to give Donald Trump the benefit of the doubt, have to take him at his word, the Beltway media loves to preach.

"Though the billionaire presidential candidate has repeatedly suggested he got that money for helping others out after the attacks, documents obtained by the Daily News show that Trump’s account was just a huge lie."

"Records from the Empire State Development Corp., which administered the recovery program, show that Trump’s company asked for those funds for “rent loss,” “cleanup” and “repair” — not to recuperate money lost in helping people."

"That government program was designed to help local businesses get back on their feet — not reimburse people for their charitable work."

"If Trump’s company had asked for money for that reason it would have been rejected, officials said."

“He’s clearly wrong. I saw him say that and he’s obviously wrong,” said David Catalfamo, a senior adviser to then-Gov. George Pataki, who helped run the program.

Yeah, but as the NY Times public editor would say, Hilary is not trusted so it's a wash.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-medias-false-modesty_11.html

Or as Chris Cillizza would put it: 'It just looks bad.'

Months ago, Trump patted himself on the back for his imaginary efforts.

“It was probably a reimbursement for the fact that I allowed people, for many months, to stay in the building (40 Wall St.), use the building and store things in the building,” Trump told Time magazine in April.

“I was happy to do it, and to this day I am still being thanked for the many people I helped. The value of what I did was far greater than the money talked about, much of which was sent automatically to building owners in the area.”

Does this look bad? How much you want to bet Chris Cillizza never writes about this?

So that's Trump. Make up self-serving lies about why he received 9/11 funds. Make up a story about cheering Muslims in New Jersey.

Then there is Hillary's record on 9/11.

"The Clinton who emerges from the WNYC tapes is passionate, raw and unrestrained. Above all, she is livid. She had just learned that the Bush administration instructed officials of the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reassure New Yorkers after 9/11 that the air over Ground Zero was safe. In fact, they had a pretty good idea that it was a toxic pall of asbestos, cement, glass dust, heavy metals, fuels and PCBs."

“I am outraged,” Clinton went on. “In the immediate aftermath, the first couple of days, nobody could know. But a week later? Two weeks later? Two months later? Six months later? Give me a break!”

"Of all the varied chapters of Clinton’s tumultuous 30 years in public life, the story of her response to the attacks on the twin towers is one of the richest in terms of the clues it provides as to what to expect from a Clinton presidency. It reveals elements of her character, of her domestic policy strengths, as well as her tendency to lean towards the hawkish side in international affairs."

"Then a uniformed firefighter with battalion 58 in Canarsie, Brooklyn, Alles arrived at Ground Zero 20 minutes after the second tower collapsed. He stayed there for two days and nights, seeking survivors amid the ruins. What struck him most about Clinton that day, he said, was what he called her “compassion”.

“She really went out of her way to speak to the first responders on the site to reassure them,” he said. “I never forgot it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/09/hillary-clinton-9-11-attacks-response?CMP=share_btn_tw

This is a side to Hillary very at view with the Cruella Daville caricature both the GOP and the New York Times have fostered for years. Beltway journalists are just clueless.

If she doesn't give a presser they beat their breasts about a democratic crisis. But Hillary always cares more about talking about the American people rather than the Beltway aristocracy. 

James Fallows called out this Beltway presumption so well in 1994. 

https://www.amazon.com/Breaking-News-Undermine-American-Democracy/dp/0679758569/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1473599253&sr=1-1&keywords=james+fallows

"Alles was also struck by how Clinton quickly grasped the potential health risks of Ground Zero, and how doggedly she pursued treatment for those who suffered. “We all knew from the get-go that the air was contaminated,” he said, “but we had a job to do so we kept on working. Senator Clinton was at the forefront over dealing with it, she showed herself to be a fighter.”

"On 9/11, Peter Gorman was president of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association of New York City, a union that represents largely white, blue-collar workers of the sort who today might back Donald Trump. The union had pointedly put its weight behind Clinton’s opponent in the 2000 senatorial race, Republican Rick Lazio."

That was smart. If Lazio had won first thing he'd want to know about is cutting the pay of the fire officers, but I digress...

"Yet Gorman recalls being pleasantly surprised by Clinton’s commitment, both in terms of her mastery of policy detail and on a personal level. “She would call me on my cellphone to ask how I was doing, how my members were doing,” he said. “One time I was pumping gas at a Texaco station, it was Christmas Eve, and she wanted to know how things were going. When a senator calls someone on my level, that’s impressive.”

"Having declared 9/11 to be an attack on all Americans, Clinton soon discovered that the national response was not entirely united or favorable to struggling New Yorkers. The head of the EPA at the time, Christine Todd Whitman, repeatedly insisted the air at Ground Zero was safe even as early as three days after the towers collapsed, as did Mayor Rudy Giuliani despite worries within City Hall that they were facing thousands of liability claims."

"Confronted by this wall of denial, Clinton was one of the most powerful voices warning of an impending health crisis. Ben Chevat, chief of staff to congresswoman Carolyn Maloney of New York on 9/11, recalls the impact."

“The Bush administration was saying, ‘There’s no problem, move along’,” he said, “and so it was hard work getting any traction in the media. Yet we knew there was a problem because people were getting sick with respiratory diseases and cancers.”

"Chevat, now executive director of 9/11 Health Watch, said: “It took Clinton to put a spotlight on the issue and change the frame.”

That was how she reacted to Flynt as well that so impressed Mayor Karen Weaver.

The NY Times public editor says journalists are just here to report facts not insert their own moral and ideological judgments.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/09/the-medias-false-modesty_11.html

Except if it's about her emails, then they put agnosticism aside.

But here is the record of the two Presidential candidates on 9/11. The facts are pretty stark.


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