Pence scolds jailers of journalists while Team Trump works to protect those that murder them
newsdepo.com
Since Donald Trump is still pouting in the White House, it's fallen on toady Mike Pence to attend the international summits that Trump just skipped out on. Part of his job is to convince leaders in Myanmar to respect the rights of the free press, but rest assPence scolds jailers of journalists while Team Trump works to protect those that murder them
Since Donald Trump is still pouting in the White House, it's fallen on toady Mike Pence to attend the international summits that Trump just skipped out on. Part of his job is to convince leaders in Myanmar to respect the rights of the free press, but rest assured he's not taking the job seriously and there's not a damn person on the planet who thinks he is. Foreign-policy analysts say Trump’s persistent attacks on news outlets, combined with his embrace of authoritarian leaders such as Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, have emboldened repressive governments to ignore U.S. pressure. Just to paint the picture here, Mike Pence is off lecturing human rights abusers about the necessity of the free press while 1.) his administration flagrantly and openly lies about the actions of a member of the U.S. press, using those lies as pretext for barring him from White House reporting and 2.) the Trump administration is caught offering up a trade to Turkey: You agree to play down your concerns about the U.S. resident journalist tortured and murdered by the Saudis, and we'll deliver up a U.S. resident that you have been itching to torture and/or murder yourself. So no, Mike Pence doesn't have a stitch of credibility on the worldwide human rights scene, not when his officemates back home are probing whether they can defuse the crisis caused by the murder of one dissenter by giving the other side a torture-worthy dissenter of their own. Mike Pence is a worldwide laughing stock; Mike Pence will be lucky if he gets through his not-Trump trip without having a shoe store thrown in his general direction. The more central problem, of course, is that Donald Trump is getting people killed. His repeated declarations that the free press is «the enemy of the people» is becoming a rallying cry for other authoritarian shouters peeved at receiving objective scrutiny. His team's plain frustration at the thought of having to hold the Saudi government to account for a murder, and their frantic efforts to avoid doing so, are another clear signal to future assassins that These Things Will Pass, so long as there's something in it for your good friend Donald Trump. Read more