The operation always works the same way. Here you're just getting an unusual look at Step 2. But there are three steps:
Donald Trump says something.
The Hillary campaign, if not Hillary herself as in this case, comes out with an absurd and completely fictional characterization of what Trump said.
The media run with Hillary's narrative.
Wednesday was very bad for Hillary because Trump outshone her pretty seriously at NBC's so-called commander in chief forum. She got faced by a veteran on her illegal mishandling of classified information, while Trump handled the questions so well Hillary's supporters were upset with Matt Lauer for not being enough of a shill for Hillary in asking them.
And in the course of this interview, Trump said two very interesting things. First, he said that Vladimir Putin was a better leader of his nation than Barack Obama is of this nation. Second, he said that during intelligence briefings, he learned that Obama, Hillary and Kerry ignored the advice of their generals, and that Trump's reading of the generals' words and body language was that they were not happy about it.
We already discussed the media mischaracterization of the Putin comment - how it wasn't about praising Putin at all but about expressing the need for America to have a stronger leader to counter Putin, because Putin stands up for Russia's interests (at least as he sees them) and no one stands up for America's, at least not at the moment. The thing about the generals seems self-explanatory enough, doesn't it? Trump sides with the generals and thinks Obama, Hillary and Kerry should have followed their advice.
Yet to let Hillary tell it, Trump "praised" Putin and would "let him do whatever he wants," and Trump "insulted our generals." Oh, and by criticizing Obama, Trump was "unpatriotic." Seriously:
Video – Clinton on Trump’s comparison of Putin and Obama: “not just unpatriotic and insulting … it is scary” https://t.co/aHSJMAjeiD
Hillary thinks she can get away with this because she's got the media trained to run with the interpretation of anything Trump says that will make him sound the most wild and irresponsible. And yes, they do like to do that.
But think of the mental gymnastics you have to go through to accept Hillary's take on either of these statements. Let's start with the generals. I guess we're supposed to believe that Trump "insulted" them by reading their body language and concluding that they were not happy with Obama. The generals, and everyone else with a brain, might respond that Hillary and those of her ilk insult the generals by refusing to listen to them.
As for the Obama-Putin comment, it's one thing to try to defend Obama's effectiveness as a leader. I think that's an awfully tough case to make, but I guess you can give it a shot if you want to try. (Seems to me Obama is the one who lets Putin do whatever he wants, but never mind.) But Hillary doesn't even attempt to do that here. She simply asserts that because Trump's assessment of "our American commander in chief" was thumbs-down vis-a-vis his Russian counterpart, Trump is "unpatriotic."
Hillary calls that "scary." I'd say that when someone wants to be president, and calls it "unpatriotic" to render a negative verdict about the effectiveness of an American president, the word "scary" ought to be applied a little differently.
I guess we're way past the point where it's front-page news that Hillary tells a lie, but let's make no mistake: This entire statement is a lie - one big and intentional misrepresentation of what Trump said. This is par for the course with Hillary, of course, and as usual she's counting on her media stenographers to spread the false word on her behalf.
The operation always works the same way. Here you're just getting an unusual look at Step 2. But there are three steps:
