Brian Beutler Catches Matt Taibbi Altering James Clapper Quote to Try to Make Obama Look Bad.
Matt Taibbi deployed a deceptive ellipsis to make it appear that former Director of National Intelligence and virulent Trump critic James Clapper threw President Obama under the bus during a CNN interview about the now “criminal” ( you can deploy that word as you will) investigation being conducted by AG Barr into the oranges(sic) of the probe of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.
Taibbi tweeted:
LOL. Barack Obama is going to love this interview his former DIA James Clapper just gave to CNN about the Durham probe: “It’s frankly disconcerting to be investigated for having done… what we were told to do by the president of the United States.” https://t.co/peAoCvjWCg
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) October 25, 2019
“It’s frankly disconcerting to be investigated for having done… what we were told to do by the president of the United States.”
Beutler corrected:
Fun with selective quotation. https://t.co/VR0vmYlvJy
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) October 26, 2019
…which was to assemble all the reporting we could, that we had available, and put it in one report that the president could pass on to the Congress and the next administration and while we're at it, declassify as much as possible."
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) October 26, 2019
(You can see Clapper’s interview for yourself by clicking the link in Taibbi’s tweet)
The difference between the full quote and Taibbi’s truncated one being, of course, that the way Taibbi misquoted Clapper, it makes it sound like Obama called his IC people in and, out of the blue, told them to open the investigation.
Clappers full statement makes it clear that the IC had already assessed the threat that the Russians posed to the election and, being informed, Obama weighed his options and asked them to prepare a report for Congress.
But if you read the replies to Taibbi’s tweet it is clear the RW trolls that follow him prefer Matt’s fanciful retelling.
I’ll let this follower of Beutler speak for me…
Republicans want to pillar and blame Obama for “allowing” Russia’s attacks while under his watch but now are also trying to insist that even investigating Russia’s attacks on our democracy was criminal and corrupt. Apparently Matt also thinks this contradictory nonsense?
— cameron glenn (@jetsjets) October 26, 2019
