CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC. et al v. TRUMP et al

Filing 3

LARGE ADDITIONAL ATTACHMENT(S) re 2 MOTION for Temporary Restraining Order filed by CABLE NEWS NETWORK, INC., ABILIO JAMES ACOSTA. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit 7, # 2 Exhibit 8, # 3 Exhibit 9, # 4 Exhibit 10, # 5 Exhibit 11, # 6 Exhibit 12, # 7 Exhibit 13, # 8 Exhibit 14, # 9 Exhibit 15, # 10 Exhibit 16, # 11 Exhibit 17, # 12 Exhibit 18, # 13 Exhibit 19, # 14 Exhibit 20, # 15 Exhibit 21, # 16 Exhibit 22, # 17 Exhibit 23, # 18 Exhibit 24, # 19 Exhibit 25, # 20 Exhibit 26, # 21 Exhibit 27, # 22 Exhibit 28, # 23 Exhibit 29, # 24 Exhibit 30, # 25 Exhibit 31, # 26 Exhibit 32, # 27 Exhibit 33, # 28 Exhibit 34, # 29 Exhibit 35, # 30 Exhibit 36, # 31 Exhibit 37, # 32 Exhibit 38, # 33 Exhibit 39, # 34 Exhibit 40, # 35 Exhibit 41, # 36 Exhibit 42, # 37 Exhibit 43, # 38 Exhibit 44, # 39 Exhibit 45, # 40 Exhibit 46, # 41 Exhibit 47, # 42 Exhibit 48, # 43 Exhibit 49, # 44 Exhibit 50, # 45 Exhibit 51, # 46 Exhibit 52, # 47 Exhibit 53, # 48 Exhibit 54)(jf)

Exhibit 24

Dishing up lies while proclaiming the love of facts, Trump and Sarah Sanders gaslight America - The Washington Post

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Democracy Dies in Darkness

Style • Perspective

Dishing up lies while proclaiming the love of facts, Trump and
Sarah Sanders gaslight America

By Margaret Sullivan
Media columnist
October 4
President Trump’s assault on truth — and would-be truthtellers — has hit a new low.
It may not seem possible, considering that this is a president who has misled or lied to the public thousands of

https://www.washingtonpost.com/.../10/04/c6505d62-c7cc-11e8-9b1c-a90f1daae309_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9ca661f8a7b3[11/12/2018 11:21:57 AM]

Dishing up lies while proclaiming the love of facts, Trump and Sarah Sanders gaslight America - The Washington Post

times.
But consider what happened in a White House news briefing Wednesday afternoon. Then consider this week’s
rushed and restricted FBI investigation of Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh. And, finally, consider the
administration’s response to the New York Times’s groundbreaking investigation of Trump family finances that
was published this week.
There can be no doubt: We’re in a whole new phase of the Orwellian nightmare in which black is called white, and
you’d better not dare object to that.
In White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders’s briefing Wednesday, she blatantly lied in describing
her boss’s ridicule, at a rally the night before, of Christine Blasey Ford. (Imagine the volume of lies we’d be
subjected to if these “daily” briefings happened more frequently than once every few weeks.)
Anyone who saw Trump’s performance could observe that he was cruelly mocking the California professor who
has accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were in high school — all to the delight of his
laughing and cheering crowd.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks at a news briefing
at the White House. (Jabin Botsford/The
Washington Post)

Michael Bromwich, one of Ford’s attorneys, aptly
described what Trump did as “vicious, vile and
soulless.”

But Sanders countered reporters’ repeated
questions about it by stating that the president was
merely reciting the facts of the case. She ignored the reality that the supposed facts he gave (for example, that
Kavanaugh’s accuser didn’t know whether the alleged assault happened upstairs or downstairs) contradicted what
Ford had said last week to a global audience under oath.
And — this was rich — Sanders offered the idea that facts, not emotion, should decide whether Kavanaugh should
be confirmed.
“A very contemptuous, evasive and unhelpful performance even by Sanders standards,” tweeted Daniel Dale,
Washington correspondent for the Toronto Star and one of the straightest shooters among those who cover the
White House.
Then — perhaps worse still — there’s the extremely restricted FBI investigation that, according to new reporting
in the New Yorker and elsewhere, did not include the testimony of knowledgeable people who wanted to cast light
on the allegations against Kavanaugh.
Sanders spouted the GOP line that the White House had given the FBI free rein.
But as The Washington Post reported: “Even before the investigation ended, several people who said they had
information that could be useful said they ended up mired in bureaucracy when they tried to get in touch with the
FBI.”
And the bureau was even reportedly restricted from exploring whether Kavanaugh had lied under oath about his
alcohol use.
The New Yorker’s Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer wrote that potential witnesses “have been resorting to sending
statements, unsolicited, to the Bureau and to senators, in hopes that they would be seen before the inquiry
concluded.”

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Dishing up lies while proclaiming the love of facts, Trump and Sarah Sanders gaslight America - The Washington Post

The fact that the report was completed well ahead of the one-week deadline adds to the undeniable conclusion
that this was far less a search for truth in a complex and perhaps unknowable situation, and much more an oldfashioned whitewash.
Yet we’re supposed to believe that any questioning of this amounts to “moving the goal posts.”
That’s classic gaslighting, which longtime Trump observer (and “Art of the Deal” ghostwriter) Tony Schwartz once
described as “a blend of lying, denial, insistence and intimidation designed to fuel uncertainty and doubt in others
about what’s actually true.”
The gaslighting extended, too, to Trump’s reaction to a meticulously reported and far-reaching New York Times
investigation of Trump’s crooked family finances.
The report was — according to Trump, his lawyer and Sanders — completely false and defamatory. They haven’t
addressed the specifics, except to say that a lawsuit against the Times may be forthcoming.
Add that to the list of things that are best not to believe. (My colleague Paul Farhi wrote about how often Trump
threatens to sue, and how little tends to come of those threats.)
Now add in the disparagement of reporters that we’ve seen worsen in recent days: Trump’s gratuitous insult of
ABC’s Cecilia Vega was another new low.
Each instance of gaslighting, each contemptuous denial of what we’ve seen or heard, each shameless lie threatens
to move us farther from the shared reality we need as functioning citizens.
“It’s all so confusing,” said the woman seated next to me on a flight from Texas last week as the Kavanaugh
hearings were concluding.
Predictable as all of this is, it’s deeply disturbing. Or it ought to be.
But it’s hard to maintain a sense of outrage, or certainty, when the lies and obfuscation just keep coming.
The sheer exhaustion — understandable as it is — might be the most dangerous problem of all.
For more by Margaret Sullivan visit wapo.st/sullivan

Margaret Sullivan Margaret Sullivan is The Washington Post’s media columnist.
Previously, she was the New York Times public editor, and the chief editor of the Buffalo
News, her hometown paper. Follow 

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