Conservatives mount a whisper campaign smearing Khashoggi in defense of Trump

[BeckyDem]

By Robert Costa, Karoun Demirjian

October 18, 2018 at 11:32 PM

Hard-line Republicans and conservative commentators are mounting a whispering campaign against Jamal Khashoggi that is designed to protect President Trump from criticism of his handling of the dissident journalist’s alleged murder by operatives of Saudi Arabia — and support Trump’s continued aversion to a forceful response to the oil-rich desert kingdom.

In recent days, a cadre of conservative House Republicans allied with Trump has been privately exchanging articles from right-wing outlets that fuel suspicion of Khashoggi, highlighting his association with the Muslim Brotherhood in his youth and raising conspiratorial questions about his work decades ago as an embedded reporter covering Osama bin Laden, according to four GOP officials involved in the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly.

Those aspersions — which many lawmakers have been wary of stating publicly because of the political risks of doing so — have begun to flare into public view as conservative media outlets have amplified the claims, which are aimed in part at protecting Trump as he works to preserve the U.S.-Saudi relationship and avoid confronting the Saudis on human rights.

Trump’s remarks about reporters amid the Khashoggi fallout have inflamed existing tensions between his allies and the media. At a Thursday rally in Montana, Trump openly praised Rep. Greg Gianforte (R-Mont.) for assaulting a reporter in his bid for Congress last year.

“Any guy that can do a body slam, he’s my kind of — he’s my guy,” Trump said.
Michael Beer holds a poster during a rally about the disappearance of Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Embassy of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/powerpost/conservatives-mount-a-whisper-campaign-smearing-khashoggi-in-defense-of-trump/2018/10/18/feb92bd0-d306-11e8-b2d2-f397227b43f0_story.html?__twitter_impression=true&noredirect=on

[Botany]

1. Trump Jr. is big into this crap

Washington (CNN)Donald Trump Jr. retweeted an unsubstantiated claim on Friday insinuating missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi is a terrorism sympathizer -- a move that comes as the administration of his father, President Donald Trump, faces pressure on how to respond to the journalist's disappearance.

Khashoggi, a former Saudi royal insider who became a critic of the country's government, disappeared last week after he went into the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, to obtain paperwork to marry his Turkish fiancée.

Turkish authorities have said they believe Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, was killed inside the consulate, a startling allegation that is firmly denied by the Saudis.

The series of tweets that Trump Jr. retweeted Friday included a post by Patrick Poole, who according to his Twitter profile is a national security and terrorism correspondent for PJ Media, a conservative-leaning collaborative news and commentary blog formerly known as Pajamas Media.

https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2018/10/13/donald-trump-jr-jamal-khashoggi-nr-vpx.cnn

[BeckyDem]

2. Figures. Like his father, he has no moral center. It doesn't exist.

The most disgusting corrupt president in US history.

[Botany]

6. And Kusher might have helped in "giving up" Khashoggi to the crown prince of S.A. too.

Link to tweet

[MineralMan]

3. That's not surprising at all.

Trump likes the idea of intimidating journalists. He's been doing that all along, with his Fake News nonsense. He has tried to incite anger and even minor violence against reporters, even back during his 2016 campaign. It's a thing for him.

[BeckyDem]

4. We did see it during the campaign, true. You're right, where

they go with this story should surprise no one.

[MineralMan]

5. His attacks on journalists have been a feature of his

speeches all along. I actually expect him to escalate that. Attacking the media is his schtick. And his right-wing base eats it up.

Personally, I think we may see more actual violence against reporters before long, as the base gets emboldened by Trump's words.

[BeckyDem]

8. I believe there is good reason to expect that. The more Trump feels threatened that he may lose 2020

I do worry about his calls implied or otherwise for violence.

[scheming daemons]

7. Conservatives are showing themselves to be despicable human beings.

[BeckyDem]

9. Yes, there is no bottom.That is the worry imo.

[FSogol]

10. They have the assistance of a Pro-Saudi Twitter bot:

Twitter kills pro-Saudi “botnet” spreading Khashoggi disinformation tweets

Twitter today pulled down a disinfo bot network that was amplifying pro-Saudi talking points about disappeared journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who is presumed to have been tortured and killed on orders of the government of Saudi Arabia.

NBC reports that Twitter became aware of the crisis Thursday, when an NBC News reporter presented the social media firm with “evidence of coordinated activity” in the form of “a spreadsheet of hundreds of accounts that tweeted and retweeted the same pro-Saudi government tweets at the same time.”

More at:

https://boingboing.net/2018/10/18/twitter-nukes-saudi-botnet.html

[BeckyDem]

11. Look at that, damn them. Thanks for pointing it out.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

12. Whenever you ask how low the Republicans can go

Their response is "Hold my beer."

[BeckyDem]

13. +1 That is the danger we are in.