Bill Bar Again Tries to Protect & Defend Donald Trump, This Time in E. Jean Carrol Defamation Suit

Here's *exactly* why Donald Trump talked to Bob Woodward so much

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/why-trump-talked-to-woodward/index.html

 Trump has two Achilles heels in politics and life. The first is that he cares so desperately about how people think of him and remember him that he is willing to do almost anything to impact his legacy. The second is that he believes far too much in his own ability to persuade. Woodward (and the book he has produced) cuts at both of the heels.

For all the attacks he lobs at the media, there is NO president who has more closely followed how he is covered and treated by the press than Trump. And it's not even close. He is a voracious consumer of cable news as well as print newspapers. Cable TV has long been the lens through which he views the world and, since being elected president, the way that he analyzes -- in real time -- how he thinks he is doing. 

 That obsession with perception has naturally lead Trump into forever hunting out ways to cement his legacy in office. Whether that's the almost farcical attempt to buy Greenland or his fascination with the possibility of his face being added to Mount Rushmore, Trump has shown a unbending focus on creating and preserving his legacy. (Trump thinks like a real estate developer; he goes big!)

 In short: Woodward is writing the history of each president as it happens. He is the most recognizable and famous political journalist in the country. When Bob Woodward says he wants to write about you -- even if you are a billionaire businessman or the president of the United States -- you are flattered. And you see opportunity, because if you can convince Woodward that the coverage of you is unfair and biased and that you are really doing a great job, well, then, maybe history starts remembering you the way you want it to.

 Which means that Trump was essentially poking at his own weakest spots with every single word he uttered to Woodward. And yet, he couldn't stop himself.

White House and Trump campaign scramble to respond to Woodward revelations

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/trump-woodward-fallout-coronavirus/index.html

 Journalist Bob Woodward's new book "Rage" sent shockwaves across Washington on Wednesday that left the White House, Trump campaign and congressional Republicans scrambling to react to revelations that President Donald Trump concealed what he knew early on about how dangerous and deadly the coronavirus was.

A source close to the Trump campaign told CNN many were shocked by the President's comments so early about how deadly coronavirus is, noting that the President kept that information from his own campaign.

"Hard to say fake news when there is audio of his comments," a Trump campaign adviser said.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, said in response to Woodward's reporting that if the President had made the decision earlier on to explain the dangers of coronavirus and the threat of the virus, it could have made "a little bit of a difference."

"A little bit of alarm about the seriousness early on could have made a little bit of a difference," Rubio said. "Getting people to think earlier on about some of the protective things we ultimately had to put in would have been better looking back."

 

 

Rage by Bob Woodward - Trailer

Trump Tells Bob Woodward He Intentionally Downplayed Severity Of COVID-19 | Andrea Mitchell | MSNBC

'Play it down': Trump admits to concealing the true threat of coronavirus in new Woodward book

 https://edition.cnn.com/2020/09/09/politics/bob-woodward-rage-book-trump-coronavirus/index.html

 "Rage" is a follow-up to Woodward's 2018 bestselling book "Fear," which portrayed a chaotic White House in which aides hid papers from Trump to protect the country from what they viewed as his most dangerous impulses.

While Trump slammed "Fear," he also complained that he didn't speak to Woodward for the book, which resulted in his agreeing to extensive interviews for "Rage."

However, on August 14, Trump preemptively attacked Woodward's new book, tweeting, "The Bob Woodward book will be a FAKE, as always, just as many of the others have been."

Throughout the book, Trump provides insights into his view of the presidency. He tells Woodward when you're running the country, "There's dynamite behind every door."

After his 18 interviews, Woodward issues a stark verdict: Trump is the "dynamite behind the door." Woodward concludes his book with a declaration that "Trump is the wrong man for the job."

 

 

Is It Time for the Jews to Leave Europe?

 https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/04/is-it-time-for-the-jews-to-leave-europe/386279/

 For half a century, memories of the Holocaust limited anti-Semitism on the Continent. That period has ended—the recent fatal attacks in Paris and Copenhagen are merely the latest examples of rising violence against Jews. Renewed vitriol among right-wing fascists and new threats from radicalized Islamists have created a crisis, confronting Jews with an agonizing choice.

Terrorist Attacks Against Jewish Targets in the West (2012-2019): The Atlantic Divide Between European and American Attackers

https://ctc.usma.edu/terrorist-attacks-jewish-targets-west-2012-2019-atlantic-divide-european-american-attackers/ 

  Four deadly terrorist attacks launched specifically against Jewish targets have taken place during the 2012 to 2019 time period in Europe.^j Each was launched by an individual or individuals with either an aspirational or actual association with a jihadi terrorist group. Underpinning the motivation for these different attacks has been a mix of al-Qa`ida/Islamic State ideological doctrines, ancient Islamic anti-Semitic tropes, and current Palestinian-Israeli political tensions.

 The past seven months have seen the death of 12 Jews in the United States by the way of two politically motivated attacks against non-combatants, or terrorism.⁷⁴ Accounted for by the October 27, 2018, attack in Pittsburgh in which 11 congregants of the Tree of Life Synagogue were killed and the April 27, 2019, Chabad of Poway, California, synagogue shooting in which one parishioner died,⁷⁵ these attacks as well as the deadly 2014 attack at the Kansas City Jewish Community Center were carried out by white supremacist, neo-Nazi-affiliated individuals.

  Every single fatal extreme right-wing terrorist attack on Jews in the West between 2012 and 2019 took place in the United States, suggesting the country is a new, emerging focal point of the extreme right-wing threat against Jews. The three deadly terrorist attacks (and at least four thwarted plots) against Jews in the United States in this period were carried out by individuals motivated to attack explicitly Jewish targets by violent extreme right-wing ideology. There were no deadly terror attacks on Jews in the United States that were perpetrated by jihadi extremists in this period.

Belgian Jewish community feeling vulnerable over scaling back counter-terror patrols

 https://www.euronews.com/2020/05/29/belgian-jewish-community-feeling-vulnerable-over-scaling-back-counter-terror-patrols

 Belgian authorities may consider the terrorist threat diminished enough to end the patrols.

German synagogue shooting was far-right terror, justice minister says

DOJ moves to defend Trump in rape accuser E. Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit

https://www.axios.com/doj-trump-e-jean-carroll-rape-lawsuit-c23dfdb8-14b6-49d7-b3c9-6426e8f60603.html 

 The Department of Justice filed a motion notifying a New York State court Tuesday that it intends to replace President Trump's private lawyers to defend him in a defamation lawsuit brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.

Why it matters: It's highly unusual for the DOJ to intervene in such cases. The department said in its notice that it intervened because Trump was "acting within the scope of his office as President of the United States" when he said last year that Carroll was "totally lying" about claims that he raped her in the mid-1990s.

 https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/7204036-Carroll-2.html

Trump Suggests Pentagon Leaders Are War Profiteers | Morning Joe | MSNBC

Fallen Heroes

DOJ Files To Take Over Trump Defense In Rape Accuser’s Defamation Lawsuit | All In | MSNBC