After President Donald Trump admitted in a June 22 tweet that “I did not make, and do not have” any “‘tapes’ or recordings of my conversations with [FBI Director] James Comey,” conservative and pro-Trump media figures and outlets tried to defend his original threat that claimed, “James Comey better hope that there are no ‘tapes’ of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!” The media figures and outlets insisted the move was “brilliant,” “impressive,” and “a victory” and said it was a “smart way to make sure [Comey] stayed honest” in his congressional testimony.
How conservative, far-right, and fringe media figures are defending Trump’s “tapes” threat to Comey
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Sarah Wasko / Media Matters
1) Sean Hannity: “This was one of the most brilliant, strategic, doubt-inducing, mind-messing tweets in the history of mankind.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/22/17]
2) Fox’s Ainsley Earhardt: “That was a smart way to make sure [Comey] stayed honest in those hearings." [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/23/17]
3) Fox’s Julie Banderas: “As a businessman, isn’t that what businessmen do? They hold their cards, it’s like a game of poker, and you’ve got to out-bluff your competitors.” [Fox News, Happening Now, 6/23/17]
4) Breitbart’s Joel Pollak: “Trump’s ‘tapes’ were a poker bluff, plain and simple, designed to force his opponent to show his hand. And it was a gamble that worked.” [Breitbart, 6/22/17]
6) Frequent Fox guest and Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow: Trump’s tweet “compelled James Comey to … tell the truth, so he told the truth. That’s not an illegal act, getting someone by the way, to tell the truth.” [Fox News, Hannity, 6/22/17]
7) Frequent CNN and Fox guest Alan Dershowitz: “Trump’s bluff was calculated to get Comey to tell the truth.” [The Hill, 6/22/17]
8) Fox’s Melissa Francis: “It feels clever in that [Trump’s] keeping [Comey] honest” and saying Trump “lied” is “too strong of a word.” [Fox News, Outnumbered, 6/23/17]
9) Fringe outlet Infostormer: “Donald Trump is a highly skilled troll.” [Infostormer, 6/22/17]
10) Fringe outlet The Political Insider: Trump’s business experience “allowed him to outsmart the former head of the FBI. That’s impressive!” [The Political Insider, 6/22/17]
11) Fringe outlet Angry Patriot: Trump’s tweets about tapes were “just a big joke, and Trump got the last laugh.” [Angry Patriot, 6/22/17]
12) Fake news purveyor Before It’s News: Trump’s tweet was trying to “force Comey to be as truthful as possible. … More or less, it worked.” [Before It’s News, 6/22/17]