Update 1: As with all my stories, this is brought to you by groups encouraging massive youth voting, including Civic Influencers to help college voter activism and The Civics Center for high school students.
Update 2: Because this involves press critique, this is another in a series honoring and continuing the legacy of Eric Boehlert, the invaluable media critic who tragically died in April. The series carries the hashtag #Eric’sLegacy.
There were dozens and dozens of horrible, unprecedented things done during the Trump administration. So many that some came and went in one news cycle and faded from memory.
The one that burned my chops the most was Trump’s overruling those who did security review and granting Ivanka and Kusher and dozens of others security clearance, despite the grave risks. As reported at the time, Kushner omitted important information about his foreign contacts from his security clearance questionnaire and has reportedly been identified by foreign adversaries as a manipulable target.
In fact, Kushner’s security clearance was denied due to concerns of foreign influence.
For years, I’ve been asking “Why was this not a bigger deal?” Primarily a failure of the media, and Democrats. Yes, Elijah Cummings spoke out, but it was never considered as a separate grounds for impeachment, and was not included in the actual impeachments. But the main culprit is the supine media, who let one after another thing like this come and go.
Well, the chickens have certainly come home to roost now, as the furor over nuclear documents at Mar-a-Lago includes concerns about Jared and his $2 billion Saudi deal.
The media normalized Trump and continues by (at least until today) giving MAGA’s reaction to the warrant as much or more weight than the warrant itself. Or giving aider and abettor Mick Mulvaney a job on CBS to spew propaganda. And generally retroactively validating the legitimacy of a corrupt and monstrous administration.
