8/5/20: Trump proved once again this
week that when his lips are moving, he’s either lying or super-spreading misinformation.
The man needs to wear a mask to protect others. Or provide us with earmuffs.
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That made the president’s misstatement dangerous, not just
the latest example of how ill-informed he is.
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On Tuesday, in the wake of a massive explosion in Beirut, he decided to open his mouth and let nonsense pour out. Knowing almost nothing about what had happened (because he has the intellectual depth of rutabaga), he described the blast as an “attack.” When reporters asked him, specifically, if he felt it was an attack, he said that he had met with “some of our great generals, and they just seem to feel” that the destruction was the result of “a bomb of some kind.”
It didn’t take a demolitions expert
to tell otherwise. The first pictures available indicated the blast area was massive,
too large for any surgical air or missile strike, unless someone hit a vast military
ammunition dump by mistake.
Who then might have had reason to attack Lebanon? Terrorists? Unlikely. Israel? If it really was an attack, they might have been striking at a Hezbollah arms storage facility. But this was Trump talking. You wouldn’t have been surprised if he blamed Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.
Unfortunately, across that region, people would assume the
President of the United States knew what he was talking about. In the
Muslim world, where suspicion runs hot, Trump’s words might sound like an admission
that we played a role. Would jihadists seek revenge? Would they insist the
catastrophe in Beirut was the work of a U.S. missile strike? Or an American
super bomb? Muslims have their own conspiracy theorists. They have their Alex
Joneses in turbans.
That made the president’s misstatement dangerous, not just the
latest example of how obtuse he is.
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The blast involved 2,750 metric tons of ammonia nitrate
IT SOON PROVED not to be an attack, but rather a blast centered on a warehouse stuffed with ammonia nitrate. This was the material Timothy McVey used to blow up the Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. In that attack, McVey, a right-wing conspiracy crazy, used two-and-a-half tons to fashion a bomb. McVey killed 168 people, including children at a daycare center on the first floor.
As terrible as that crime had been, this was worse, Lebanon’s
9/11. The blast in Beirut involved the accidental explosion of 2,750 metric
tons of ammonia nitrate. The material had been impounded in 2014, when a
Russian cargo ship docked at port, but could no longer pay its crew or other
bills. Hundreds are feared dead. At least 5,000 Lebanese are injured. Billions in
damages resulted. The explosion left a giant crater where the warehouse had
been.
The problem is, Trump had informed the world this was an “attack.” He could have cleaned it up the next day and admitted error. Instead, he sent his toadies out to say that he was right from the start. (Secretary of Defense Mark Esper correctly said Wednesday that U.S. intelligence was gathering information, “but most believe it was an accident as reported.”) That meant it fell to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to march out, stand in front of cameras, and say the president was correct.
“The initial reports looked at the explosion.” As for it having been an attack, he said, “We still have not totally ruled that out.”
Meadows ignored the fact U.S. intelligence was ruling out an attack.
“Obviously,” he continued, “there’s
no group that has claimed any responsibility.” That would make sense, since
evidence was piling up that a catastrophic accident had occurred. What “the
president shared with the American people is what he was briefed on,” Meadows
claimed. “And as we look at that, we’ll continue to evaluate it. Hopefully, it
was just a tragic accident and not an act of terror.”
It was a tragic accident.
Within hours everyone knew it. Trump just couldn’t admit he was wrong. This
afternoon, he doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down. Asked during a press
conference about his earlier statement – which some officials feared might
spark an international crisis – you knew Trump was going to have to make sh*t up. The
president did not disappoint.
“How can you say ‘accident’ if somebody left
some terrible explosive-type devices and things around perhaps – perhaps it was that. Perhaps it was an
attack,” Trump explained lamely. “I don’t think anybody can say right now. We’re looking into it
very strongly right now.”
Just about every man, woman and child in
Lebanon realized that the blast was a horrific accident and that 2,750 metric
tons of ammonia nitrate had been left “around.”
Not “explosive-type devices.”
Trump couldn’t let go. He couldn’t admit error. He couldn’t cite which “great generals” had told him it had been an attack, because none had. “Some people think it was an attack and some people think it wasn’t,” he continued, repeating himself, as is his habit. “In any event, it was a terrible event and a lot of people were killed and a tremendous number of people were badly wounded, injured. And we’re standing with that country.”
He had a memo in his hands,
and, as usual, read that last statement in a monotone, as if completing a task reluctantly,
like a child eating lima beans. You knew the president didn’t have a
humanitarian bone in his body. If Lebanon had been wiped from the face of the
earth, he wouldn’t have shed a tear. It’s doubtful he could even find the
country on a map.
Multiple sources, however, contradicted the president’s claim that an attack had occurred. Lebanese authorities said no. Multiple U.S. officials told Fox News there was no evidence of an attack. CNN said three Defense Department officials told them there was no evidence. Two officials told the Associated Press the same. Secretary Esper was already on record.
The best the Pentagon could do in “support” of the fool in the White House, was to decline comment and tell reporters to go find Kellyanne Conway or “Birther” McEnany. You could always count on them to back what Trump had said, even if he claimed his cheeseburgers sometimes talked to him when he was alone in his private quarters.
Satellite image of crater left by explosion.
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ARE WE BEATING
COVID-19 yet? No. We are not. New cases in the United States, August 5:
53,685.
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