The real world consequences of anything don’t matter to Donald Trump, because he doesn’t live in the real world. Neither do his lawyers. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that the lawyers live in a pre-Newsmax host world, where all that matters to them is looking good and making the right noises to eventually land a berth on Newsmax, or possibly Fox News, when Trump is gone but the right-wing propaganda machine marches on.
Alinna Hobb was doing her stint on Newsmax, huffing and puffing with the host about “transparency.” Um…it’s not transparency when you’re putting people’s lives in danger, especially when they’re acting in the course and scope of their employment with the government, doing something lawful.
And it is not unrealistic to suppose that FBI agents’ lives would be placed in danger. Not with the death threats going through to members of Congress and the MAGA who was shot dead in Cincinnati last week after attacking an FBI office. This is a very real threat.
"What do you expect is going to happen?" — Trump lawyer Alina Habba indicates Trump plans to release raw footage of FBI agents searching his home, possibly allowing people to identify them pic.twitter.com/Fb4M5RxxEC
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 18, 2022
Life is but a TV show to Trump. That’s how he got where he got. He understands television. It’s the only thing he’s ever been good at. And right now our culture is in a place where we see life the way the TV camera sees it, because that’s how television itself has molded us to see. Marshall McLuhan was right, the medium is the message. We see life the way TV has taught us to see life. It’s about shock value and sound bites anymore, not about critical thinking.
When Ronald Reagan dismantled the Fairness in Broadcasting Act in the 80’s, he set the stage for the right-wing media madness that you see today. Newsmax and the rest of them should have statues of Reagan in the lobby, if they don’t already. Reagan singlehandedly set back the broadcasting industry to the cave. It’s not about truth — or fairness — anymore, it’s about whatever flash in the pan can grab an audience at any given moment.
Alinna Hobb is what Trump would call a “television lawyer.” She wouldn’t be there otherwise. That’s what Trump wants, is lawyers who can talk and look good on television. Whether they have any actual legal chops is completely secondary. If they just “sound” like lawyers, they’re there, where he wants them to be.
I think Hobb is blowing smoke and she won’t get the footage released. But even the fact that this is being toyed with, particularly in the wake of last week’s tragedy at the FBI office in Cincinnati, shows you how there are zero ethics in broadcasting amongst the right-wing crowd. It’s all about creating a smirking side show and making hollow threats that sound good to the ignoramuses of the base.
Like all of Trump’s lawyers…
She will need a lawyer very soon.
😀
Mango Mussolini is never going to release the footage because it will show the FBI agents being professional and doing their jobs. If he thought there was any advantage to releasing it, he would have already done it. He doesn’t care about the lives of the agents, but putting targets on their backs doesn’t help him. It would only reinforce the gov’t’s desire to incarcerate his flabby ass as quickly as possible.
Interesting point. That “tee vee” footage is from Trump’s own security cameras that monitor his residence/club. That means he owns that footage. If he refused to turn over any footage the government would have to show probable cause to get a warrant to obtain copy. (Which if I’m not mistaken they anticipated and were prepared to do during the August search down there at “Marma-lard-Ass-oh.”) So, absent an order from a judge to quash him from doing so Trump has been free to release footage of the search from the time it happened!
Yet he hasn’t done so. I’m no rocket scientist but it’s easy to know why. I’d say the village idiot knows why except there are tens of millions of MAGAts out there who are too STUPID to know why. Or maybe the average Village Idiot is a helluva lot smarter than MAGAts.
It would cost serious money to edit some of that footage into something that might make those conducting the search look bad and Trump is too fucking cheap to spring for it. Sadly, he and his talking head enablers can just go on TV and radio and bray about the GOVERNMENT not releasing it. And MAGA Nation will lap up the spilt toxic orange Kool-Aid and ask for more.
You don’t need much to keep sheep in the pen, especially if they’ve been infected with baseless fears on a daily basis.
Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid. Step out of line…the man come & take you away. Buffalo Springfield
Every fascist needs two things from their cult…stupidity & cowardice.
IT WAS NOT A RAID. I really wish folks would quit using that word. It was the execution of a legal warrant.
I agree! I continue to be surprised when otherwise responsible reporters use “raid” – seemingly unaware of what they are saying. I don’t understand it.
Corporations own all mass media. The language fits their biases. How is it the gop are known as ‘conservatives’ when they stand against conserving our clean air, water, & soil? They stand against conserving our rights, our democracy, & even the definition of ‘facts’. Lies all the way around.
I can’t help thinking that Habba needs someone to advise her on dressing for professional appearances – like TV shows.
It’s August. Buildings are air conditioned. She must have been chilly.
I wonder if anyone pointed out tyhat ‘Reckles Endangerment’ is a federal offence?
“Reckless Endangerment in the First Degree is a Class D felony that can, upon conviction, send you to prison for anywhere from two and one third to seven years. If you have a prior felony on your record, then the minimum sentence can go up to four years.”
Expecting an attorney representing a careless, callow, little three year old, to be anything other than careless and callow is expecting too much I suspect.