February 06, 2017 03:43 PM UTC

Trump Says Media is Covering Up Terrorist Attacks

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• by: Colorado Pols

President Donald Trump keeps on dialing up the extreme rhetoric when it comes to his true paramour: The news media. If it wasn’t weird enough for you already, wait ’til you hear this one. As the Washington Post reports:

Speaking to the U.S. Central Command on Monday, President Trump went off his prepared remarks to make a truly stunning claim: The media was intentionally covering up reports of terrorist attacks. [Pols emphasis]

“You’ve seen what happened in Paris, and Nice. All over Europe, it’s happening,” he said to the assembled military leaders. “It’s gotten to a point where it’s not even being reported. And in many cases the very, very dishonest press doesn’t want to report it. They have their reasons, and you understand that.”

The comment immediately harked back to comments from senior adviser Kellyanne Conway on MSNBC last week.

“I bet it’s brand-new information to people that President Obama had a six-month ban on the Iraqi refugee program after two Iraqis came here to this country, were radicalized and were the masterminds behind the Bowling Green massacre,” she said. “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”

It was brand-new information to people because there was no “Bowling Green massacre.” Conway had referred to the supposed terrorist attack previously, including in response to a question posed by TMZ. But the two Iraqis arrested in Bowling Green, Ky., in 2011 never committed an attack in the United States. She later admitted that she’d misspoken.

As Chris Cillizza notes in a separate story for “The Fix,” Trump didn’t offer any further explanation to back up his claims that the news media is “intentionally covering up reports of terrorist attacks.” Says Cillizza:

The job of a leader isn’t to give people what they want — especially if you know (or suspect) it’s not entirely accurate. If Trump has evidence that the media has covered up a terrorist attack — or downplayed it in any way — he should come forward with it. Otherwise, it’s simply a baseless allegation. And baseless allegations from the president of the United States are very dangerous things.

What in the hell is going on here? Is Trump really convinced by advisors such as Kellyanne Conway that there are terrorist attacks taking place that no media outlet is bothering to cover? (today it was reported that Conway has talked up something she calls “the Bowling Green Massacre” on at least three separate occasions).

This is obviously completely absurd. The idea that the news media, or any other group of loosely-affiliated professionals, could “cover up” something as significant as a terrorist attack is stupid. Period.

That the President of the United States could make these outlandish claims is absolutely terrifying. Period.