What the Hell Were the Leaders at ABC News Thinking?

 This is a step backward for the free press.

The leaders of ABC News, in an apparent move to make nice with the soon-to-be American Chief Executive Duce, settled a defamation suit with Donald Trump over his allegations that George Stephanopoulos defamed him by calling his sexual assault of E Jean Carroll rape on the March 10, 2024, This Week Program. 

Days before Trump and Stephanopoulos were supposed to give depositions to the courts on the suit, ABC News issued an apology to Mr. Trump for their journalists labeling the jury found sexual assault rape and agreed to contribute $15 million toward Trump's future Presidential Library and one million for his legal bills. 

What the hell were the leaders at ABC News thinking?

First the facts, please. 

Donald Trump was found by a jury of sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll and ordered to pay five million dollars. 

Trump went on a rant against Carrol and another jury found him liable for defamation and ordered him to pay $83 million. 

Trump is appealing both judgments. 

The Judge in both cases, Lewis Kaplan, said that because New York State's criteria for what constitutes rape is narrower than in other states, the jury was forced to find that what Trump did was sexual abuse. 

However, the judge also said, 'the verdict did not mean that Carroll “failed to prove that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape.’ Indeed … the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.”

So why did ABC News settle when the facts seemed to be on their side?

It would have been better to use that $16 million to fight Trump Administration efforts to try and take their license away than throw Stephanopoulos and their other journalists under the bus.

The nation can not fight the MAGA effort to convert this nation to autocracy if wimpy News Executives bend the knee at the first sign of trouble and compromise their First Amendment freedoms. 

People like those at ABC News and other outlets that are making nice with the incoming MAGA Administration need to show some strength like they did during Trump's first four years. 

This cover from Vanity Fair should be a model for how all news organizations should treat Mr. Trump.

Editorial Cartoons for the Week

 

Editorial Poster

 

Surprise Surprise: Donald Trump is Not Going to Lower Consumer Prices

Told you so.

Despite campaign promises that he and his new administration would lower prices for the American People. 

Here he is on the campaign trail making that promise at a grocery store. 

https://twitter.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1867239979463717011

Well, now President-Elect Donald Trump is saying, not so fast. 

In an interview with Time Magazine, the person who set the record for lies told by an American Chief Executive while in office, said:

“It’s hard to bring things down once they’re up,” Trump says. “You know, it’s very hard.”

In the same interview, he said he would start the process of pardoning January 6 Domestic Terrorists within hours after his inauguration and that it would take more, again contrary to a campaign promise, than 24 hours to settle the war between Ukraine and Russia. 

He was also very vague about a ban on the abortion pill. 

Surprise, Surprise. 

Again, told you so. 

With Republicans in Congress along with MAGA allies seeking to extend the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy while looking to make cuts in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (Tamer variations of the earlier repressive Rick Scott wish list,) this country is about to take a ride on the plutocratic train and there is no room for middle and working class passengers.

Again, told you so. 

For Those Who Still Believe in Reality. Watch President Joe Biden Deliver Remarks on the United States Economy.

For those who still believe in reality. Watch President Joe Biden deliver remarks on the United States Economy. It is important to remember that historically speaking Reagan, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama won re-election with less impressive economic numbers.

What does that say about 77 million American Citizens who put misinformation and the lies of a twice impeached-34 times convicted failed President over the reality of the American Economy?

Very sad indeed.

“Will No One Rid Me of These Meddlesome Political Opponents?”

 In a play on the famous quote from Murder in the Cathedral when King Henry II of Britain, frustrated with Thomas Beckett, openly asks "will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?," Democracy's Docket's head Marc Elias and his team, after watching Donald Trump's Meet the Press Interview with Kristen Welker on December 8, 2024, cited that literary comment after hearing the 34 time convicted and twice impeached President-Elect say it is up to his Attorney General and F.B.I. nominees (Pamela Bondi and Kash Patel) to pursue investigations of his political opponents by writing in a daily release:

“Will No One Rid Me of These Meddlesome Political Opponents?”

Please watch the exchange between Welker and Trump below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnQcRfG7oo8

Talk about a wink and a nod. 

Does anyone really think Bondi and Patel are not going to be looking for payback on the people they feel wronged their dear leader? 

Come on. 

As Elias said in his daily email release, Trump, like Henry II, may not have given the order, but his people sure know what he wants them to do. 

Look for them to oblige him. 

The President-Elect also made news in that interview saying he could not guarantee prices would not go up for the American consumer if the tariffs he proposes are instituted. 

He also indicated he was leaning on pardoning the people who launched the Domestic Insurrectionist Attack on the Nation's Capitol in his name on January 6, 2021. 

He also said he wanted to help college graduate Dreamers while deporting the other ones with their parents. 

Please watch the full interview below. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UsHJWEAj_I

This is not what the people who were suckered into voting for him in November wanted. 

Do you think he or his people care about that?

If you think they do, I can tell you what Wednesday's winning Powerball numbers will be. 

Democrats and Republican Senators with spines need to oppose these dangerous picks and call for nominees that will put the law and country over retribution over imagined offenses and the soon to be Chief Executive Fascist Demagogue.

Editorial Cartoon for the Week