January 27, 2018

"Fire and Fury" Michael Wolff author got people speculating that Donald Trump was having an affair with Nikki Haley.

Politico explains how this brilliant attention-getter did his slimy work:
[Wolff] dropped hints on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” last week when he said he was “absolutely sure” Trump is having an affair — just not sure enough to write about it in his book. Wolff went on to say that discriminating readers would be able to determine the president's paramour by giving his book a close reading: “Now that I've told you, when you hit that paragraph, you're gonna say, 'Bingo.'”
I love the way you have to buy his damned book and even read it — read every paragraph with an eye toward SEX!!! — to find the name he made you believe was there. And when you find it, you're gonna say "bingo!"
Readers quickly homed in on a single sentence in the runaway best-seller, which has been criticized for everything from sloppy copy editing to gross factual inaccuracies. Wolff writes, “The president had been spending a notable amount of private time with Haley on Air Force One and was seen to be grooming her for a national political future.”
Did these readers say "bingo!"?

It got bad enough that Haley actually responded:
“It is absolutely not true... I have literally been on Air Force One once and there were several people in the room when I was there... He says that I’ve been talking a lot with the president in the Oval about my political future. I’ve never talked once to the president about my future and I am never alone with him. So the idea that these things come out, that’s a problem... But it goes to a bigger issue that we need to always be conscious of: At every point in my life, I’ve noticed that if you speak your mind and you’re strong about it and you say what you believe, there is a small percentage of people that resent that and the way they deal with it is to try and throw arrows, lies or not.” 

97 comments:

AllenS said...

Wolff is part of the Democratic Party-Media Industrial Complex.

Beloved Commenter AReasonableMan said...

Trump and co. have a legitimate complaint here, but it is a much broader problem. As a policy, I don't believe anything anyone says about the Kennedy's. Some of it may be true, both positive and negative, but most is complete fabrication because people know that BS sells.

Wince said...

Another example of Trump being blessed by his enemies?

Put the focus on Nikki, less Stormy -- especially at home.

traditionalguy said...

Ah,ha. A Strong and good looking woman. Of course our super President tried to nail her, right after making her watch several Shark Tank episodes as foreplay. The CNN guys report Trump fears Mueller is a Shark in his tank, and therefore he needs a strong woman to assure him that it will be all right. More proof of criminal intent to fight back against shark attacks,and that is collusion and obstruction of being eaten by FBI Pirranah in that same tank.

Nikki did not stand a chance.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

A quick image search on the intertubes informs me that Nikki Haley's not all that bad looking and I get the impression that she might be disproportionately moist for her age.

tim in vermont said...

It would raise him in my estimation, but I doubt it’s true.

tim in vermont said...

We have posters here who are certain that Trump collaborated with the Russians to get elected. It’s amazing how wanting to believe something really badly morphs into certainty, without, you know, actual evidence that would allow you to publish.

Darrell said...

One lie out of a whole book of a Lefty's lies and fabrications. At this point, what difference does it make?

David Begley said...

1. Glad that Nikki pushed back hard on this slander.

2. Note well that Nikki picked the daughter of Power Line blog’s Scott Johnson to write the story. Eliana Johnson is smart, conservative and tough.

3. This sex stuff has gotten out of control. The way it is used here is that it is entirely believable - given his past and character - that Trump would hit on or have affairs with women in the WH. So this assumption is turned and Nikki is tagged as some one who slept her way to the top.

4. When would Trump have time for an affair? The guy has done more good in one year than Obama did in 8.

Humperdink said...

The Dems have have fired all their lethal bullets at Trump to no avail. Now they are reduced to shooting blanks. Yeah this'll work. Laughable.

Bob Boyd said...

I notice Wolff didn't choose to imply Trump was snuggling behind the cockpit with General Mattis.
Blatant sexism.

Owen said...

I would pay good money to watch Nikki Haley and Michael Wolff in a cage fight. I don't think he'd last 30 seconds.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
tim in vermont said...

“If I hadn’t of believed it, I wouldn’t have seen it.” - Yogi Bera

holdfast said...

Is Wolff’s mission to prove that Trump is right about reforming America’s whackadoo defamation laws?

iowan2 said...

President Trump spends 10 hours a day watching cable news,4 hours sleeping, 8 hours for gorilla tv and he is in public at least 2 hours. There is no time for pussy . So the media has the same problem again. All their stories cant work because the contradict themselves.

Like the Russia collusion fake news. The left wants to pivot to Obstruction. OK, go for it. With the full knowledge that President Trump is more than within his power to fire persons that are spending time they know is phony.
So the left cant have both stories working at the same time, because they both cant be true.

rehajm said...

Haley is nothing but professional and the right kind of boring. No way, and fuck you liberal assholes.

tim maguire said...

He's absolutely sure, but not sure enough to put it in his book? Given the sorts of things he was sure enough to put in his book, I'm taking that as an admission that it's not true.

cacimbo said...

This is an attack directed mainly at Haley.As Limbaugh says Democrats always let you know who they are afraid of. A brown female Republican is their worst nightmare. It takes away their two main lines of attack - that Republicans hate women and browns.This is an attempt to belittle her accomplishments by claiming she slept her way to the top - just like Hillary.

Professional lady said...

I'm starting to think that Trump is super human! He's in his 70s and in an extremely demanding and stressful job. Yet he has the ability and libido of a guy in his 20s! Where does he get all that energy?!!!!! Men of a certain age want to know!

rehajm said...

Haley would be the boring President Ann hopes for.

Hagar said...

It was a mistake for Haley to respond.

The Donald and Nikki Haley would be a very unlikely "odd couple," even if reality sometimes outdoes fiction.

AllenS said...

Hard to have sex when you have to drink a Diet Coke every thirty seconds.

David Begley said...

As CC noted above, the Left must destroy Nikki Haley. She has the potential to be bigger than Clarence Thomas. Look at the facts.

Non-white woman is elected governor of “racist” South Carolina.

She does well.

She is conservative.

Her parents are legal immigrants.

She is a woman who didn’t vote for Hillary.

With zero foreign policy experience she excels at the UN. Foreign policy expert Samantha Power presided over, and enabled, a giant war in Syria and the greatest migration since WW2.

Another high tech lynching of a non-white bitchy woman who escaped the Dem identity politics plantation.

wild chicken said...

She went a little too paranoid at the end.

No, it's not because you're a Strong Woman, but because you associate yourself with Eeeevil!

Owen said...

Haley for President 2024. Agree, that is Dems' fear. She has the complete game and they will use every opportunity to weaken and smear her. She needs to be ready for that and get others to protect her flanks, so she isn't seen as distracted or "punching down." Few can equal Trump in crushing dwarves.

tim in vermont said...

As a policy, I don’t believe anything anyone says about the Clintons. - Fixed it for you!

It IS a lot easier to be certain of stuff when you rule out whole classes of inconvenient facts. If the Clinton friendly media won’t print it, it must not be true! And we all know that the New York Times prints “All the news that’s fit to print”! So you are good to go!

David said...

Political opponents in South Carolina planted nasty rumors about Haley having an affair with another state legislator when Haley was first looking to run for statewide office. These accusations were well publicized, even in local mainstream press. There was the thought that "fundamentalist" South Carolina would never elect a woman (and mother) tainted with these accusations. Especially one with a "foreign" background. It was really vicious. Haley chose to deny rather than ignore the charges.

Haley won all her elections with solid majorities. It's unclear whether voters disbelieved the accusations or found them irrelevant. In any event Haley became a solidly effective governor. She helped to lay the groundwork for the economic boom that is rising in South Carolina. Her results were less solid in her substantial and consistent efforts to improve secondary and university education, and attack health and infrastructure problems. (Our roads are a mess.) This relative failure was due almost exclusively to the retrograde (Republican) state legislature. The SC legislature holds powers that in most states are reserved to the executive. They are minor managers and turf protectors extraordinary. It's embedded in the state constitution and very hard to change.

Do not underestimate Nikki Haley.

Temujin said...

She IS a strong woman. A proven leader. Elected as Governor of her state. Appointed as US Ambassador to the UN where she has shown herself to be a star. Not since Jeane Kilpatrick have we had a woman in a major position surrounded by enemies of our country, standing up and looking them in the eye and telling them what no one previously had the nerve to tell them: the truth. Compare her to the skulduggery of Samantha Power and/or the formal lying of Susan Rice, the idiocy of Madeline Albright, sharing champagne with Kim Jong Il as he gets his money and continues to build the bomb.
We have always been told by Dems about how they promote strong women, while they push the Hilary Clintons and now Kamala Harris's (a flaming moron) in our face. But every time an actual strong woman is in their presence they want to throw trash on her and break her down.
With Haley they could have a very real problem. So, yes, they will believe whatever is put on their plate. As for Michael Wolff, did you know he likes small Bangladeshi boys? It's true. I read it on the internet.

mockturtle said...

She would have been better served by saying, simply, "Fake news".

Phil 314 said...

per ARM
Trump=Kennedy

mockturtle said...

Per iowan2: President Trump spends 10 hours a day watching cable news,4 hours sleeping, 8 hours for gorilla tv and he is in public at least 2 hours. There is no time for pussy . So the media has the same problem again. All their stories cant work because the contradict themselves.

When fake news collides!

traditionalguy said...

The Essence of Fake News: They just make it all up. The result is that the USA becomes a banana Republic where the CIA Regime Changes us at will.

readering said...

Are we sure the rumors weren't started by John Miller or John Barron? Haley should consult with Bruni.

tim in vermont said...

As a policy, I don’t believe anything anyone says about Democrats.

That’s what you were getting at.

tim in vermont said...

How’s your 401K doing readering?

Inga...Allie Oop said...

No way, Nikki isn’t his type.

Sebastian said...

Sure, feeding the MSM anti-Trump, anti-con, anti-GOP frenzy with baseless smears agains a rising star is "brilliant."

MayBee said...

It is tiresome to see smart, qualified women get slandered with the "she's sleeping with him" line.
They did the same to Condoleeza Rice and George W Bush.
People should be very conscious of what they are doing when they say this. (although, I think Hillary and Huma have something going on, so I am not pure)

readering said...

Tim, thanks for asking. Doing great for nine years.

David said...

"When would Trump have time for an affair?"

There is always time for an affair, if you decide to have one.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Keep in mind that this guy's a Republican, so his incompetence is either:

1. Deliberate, to make claims so outrageous as to discredit anti-Trump claims generally.
2. Inherent to his kind - whether anti-Trumpers or not.

I think it's the latter.

Either way, Stormy Daniels has more credibility than him and Trump combined.

Leland said...

"But it goes to a bigger issue that we need to always be conscious of: At every point in my life, I’ve noticed that if you speak your mind and you’re strong about it and you say what you believe, there is a small percentage of people that resent that and the way they deal with it is to try and throw arrows, lies or not."

Certainly true. I'm just happy she was gender neutral about it. I'm tired of hearing this only happens to women, because the response is about a story of her and Trump, a woman and a man.

Her preceding comment is equally impressive, because she's doing awesome work at the UN, and it suggests she is making the decisions mostly on her own.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Their disgusting playbook never changes. Republican women are either airheads or evil scheming sluts, according to the elite media. They were so afraid of Palin they threw both charges at her full speed and damn the contradictions. Of course they do this to Haley: she's effective and effectiveness in a strong conservative woman is what scares the Left more than anything.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

We have always been told by Dems about how they promote strong women, while they push the Hilary Clintons and now Kamala Harris's

Yes another irony of modern myth-making laid bare. Especially like your mention of Kamala Harris, a pleasant-looking doofus who DID sleep her way to the top with the most powerful men in Sacramento, and is more dependent on the teleprompter than Obama was. Rising star indeed!

Amadeus 48 said...

David at 7:51. As I recall, the perpetrator was a sleezebag GOP has-been/never-was who together with others was trying to torpedo Haley's rise in SC state politics. It was unsettling because it was so brazen. Fortunately, as you say, voters didn't believe it or didn't care.

Professional lady said...

I believe that Palin was subjected to especially vicious and unrestrained personal attacks from certain quarters because she was so "stupid" and such a "traitor to women" that she welcomed and cherished her youngest child.

narciso said...

So Michael wollfs is a low level weasel than Ron sisskind a fabulist who apprenticed as Paul o'neill's ghost.

steve uhr said...

Ann-- I hope y ou were able to return the book for a refund.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Leftists lie and leftwing hiveminders BELIEVE IT.

Virgil Hilts said...

Per CNN - "Despite this, talk that this daughter of Indian immigrants will become the first woman president of the United States has filled the airwaves. To her foes in the administration, that is only reason to keep the poison flowing."
I want to think the people who lose the most sleep about her are those on the left (what a nightmare opponent she would be for then), but then I try to envision the situation where she can be the rep POTUS candidate in 2020 and worry CNN may be correct.

wwww said...


Michael Wolff sure knows how to sell his book. Slimy Slimy Slimy.

But I kinda thought he was implicating Hope Hicks, not Haley, in his interview.

JohnJMac862 said...

The way the media handled "Clinton Cash" (they either ignored it or tried to discredit it) vs. the way they handled Wolff's loose compendium of second hand gossip is a case study in bias. Wolff got saturation exposure for a week, and, as far as I recall, only Meghan McCain called him out, as she at least had some personal history with lying sleazeball hit pieces on her father.

Mark said...

I also understood he was saying it was Hope Hicks. Brilliant move by Haley and the Trump-bots to deliberately misunderstand that.

Claim your opponent accused someone else. By the time that is corrected everyone wants to move on from that story and its onto today's red meat.

Jupiter said...

I confess it had not occurred to me until Wolff began his attacks, that Nikki Haley may well be the next President of the USA. How did I miss that one? She'll have my vote. And she'd better have Madeleine Albright's. Or there'll be Hell to pay.

Bay Area Guy said...

On a substantive level at the UN, Nikki Haley has done a lot of good work.

I dunno, but maybe little Beta Male Michael Wolffe should do some of his hard-hitting reporting on that...,

320Busdriver said...

Three dimensional chess indeed. They'll never catch up to see all of the losing they're suffering. Fun to watch.

Birches said...

so where is the paragraph that implicates Hope Hicks?

chickelit said...

How much longer is "fish lips" Wolff going to captivate Americans? Are you still enriching him?

Otto said...

Ann got a two for one with the word slimy. She "trashed" the book and the author. Slimy is not usually used to describe a book , it is usually used to describe the characteristic of a person. But she got her two points across with one word. Effective writing.

n.n said...

Who was it that observed the Wolff who cried boy in progressive succession?

Kevin said...

“It is absolutely not true...

New media meme: Trump has been having sex with Haley WITHOUT HER CONSENT!

William said...

Some Fox News host should invite all of the women who have ever dated Michael Wolff in for a round table discussion. I bet it would be really edifying. I would like to hear all the intimate details of his sex life. There's so much bad publicity about show biz and media figures who make clumsy or coercive moves. It would be good for the American public to learn of a media figure who acts like a gentleman. I don't know if there's a wealth of women who have actually gone to bed with Michael Wolff or who would want to go in television and admit it, but maybe if they up the appearance fee.

chickelit said...

@William: Good call. I too would like to hear from the women whose lips his lips have touched.

Original Mike said...

”Wolff writes, “The president had been spending a notable amount of private time with Haley on Air Force One and was seen to be grooming her for a national political future.””

“Haley actually responded: “It is absolutely not true... I have literally been on Air Force One once and there were several people in the room when I was there... He says that I’ve been talking a lot with the president in the Oval about my political future. I’ve never talked once to the president about my future and I am never alone with him.””


So Wolff just made it up. Shockers.

Earnest Prole said...

The women Trump fucks are a well-known type, and it's neither dark-haired nor over 40 -- just ask Trump's now-47-year-old wife.

Ken B said...

Fake news. Happily spread by those who angrily deny they do so.

virgil xenophon said...

I'm sure somebody has already mentioned this, but has anyone noticed that Wolff looks like a clone of Mike Meyers' "Dr Evil?" (and talks like him as well)

Chuck said...

It’s as bad, as somebody dabbling in baseless rumors that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, or was otherwise not qualified under the Constitution to be president. That The facts of Obama’s birth might be “the greatest scam of all time.”

Big Mike said...

@Chuck, but can you prove to me Obama's parents were legally married at the time of his birth?

wwww said...

@Chuck, but can you prove to me Obama's parents were legally married at the time of his birth?


?? Citizenship of an American mother always transmits to the baby upon birth.

The father can be a sperm donor, a guy at a gang bang, or an alien from Mars -- doesn't matter, baby is always American.

She can be legally married, or she can be a swinging single living in a group household with multiple partners. She can give birth on a boat or on an airplane. Does not matter -- baby is American if mother is American.

wwww said...

so where is the paragraph that implicates Hope Hicks?


I haven't read the book, but you can google this on the internet and see the passages if you want. It's all at the level of rumour; it is what it is.

Michael Wolff does not shy away from being gossipy or slimy in the book. But boy oh boy does he know how to sell books.

Yancey Ward said...

Sheesh, didn't we see this exact same kind of accusation with Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush? Wolff isn't even all that creative, is he.

Jim at said...

It was a mistake for Haley to respond.

Nope. Look no further than George W. Bush as to what happens when one lets the vicious left lie with impunity.

Punch back twice as hard.

Bad Lieutenant said...


Blogger virgil xenophon said...
I'm sure somebody has already mentioned this, but has anyone noticed that Wolff looks like a clone of Mike Meyers' "Dr Evil?" (and talks like him as well)




Crossed with Geoffrey Holder and Dimitri Yezhov, perhaps.

JAORE said...

As they say in Hollywood, based on real events!

Like:
The President's plane IS called Air Force One!
Nikki H appears destined for a national political future!
Nikki Haley is attractive and Trump (that DOG!) likes attractive women!

What more proof could you want?

Chuck said...


Blogger Big Mike said...
@Chuck, but can you prove to me Obama's parents were legally married at the time of his birth?

No. And I don’t care. But if you care, I suggest that you send your own investigators to Hawaii, where I am sure they “will find out things they can’t believe.”

https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_57dc3bffe4b04a1497b46da1/amp

Krumhorn said...

..what David Begley said

- Krumhorn

Etienne said...

You don't have to buy the book.

I can email you a PDF I got from wikileaks. P.S. I haven't read it, and have no plans to, as I only have one eye, and don't want to wear it out.

chuck said...

> It was a mistake for Haley to respond.

From the same school of thought that told flyers not to resist hijackers. That was then, now is a different galaxy, far, far away.

Gahrie said...

I confess it had not occurred to me until Wolff began his attacks, that Nikki Haley may well be the next President of the USA

The ticket I wanted in 2016 was Bolton/Haley.

At this point I am eager to support a 2024 Haley candidacy. Look for her to get promoted to Sec of State or NSA in a second Trump administration.

Kevin said...

It’s as bad, as somebody dabbling in baseless rumors that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, or was otherwise not qualified under the Constitution to be president. That The facts of Obama’s birth might be “the greatest scam of all time.”

(slow clap)

I have a question for you, Chuck.

What does that have to do with Nikki Haley?

Because a real LLR would know she was the target here, not Trump.

Drago said...

Vichy Chuck: "It’s as bad, as somebody dabbling in baseless rumors that Barack Obama was not born in the United States,..."

Is it as bad as dabbling in rumors about a 10 year old boy?

Drago said...

Kevin: "What does that have to do with Nikki Haley?

Because a real LLR would know she was the target here, not Trump"

I'll have you know that LLR Chuck is a strong defender of republican women from unfair attacks by dems.......(wink wink)...

chickelit said...

Chuck's political loyalties are so outed they're prolapsed. Someone please stuff them back in him.

dwick said...

wwww said 1/27/18, 12:37 PM...
"...Does not matter -- baby is American if mother is American."


I'm not sure that's always so. Winston Churchill's mother (Jennie Spencer-Churchill) mother was American but Churchill was never a US citizen.
(And no, the honorary citizenship eventually conferred by JFK doesn't count...)

mockturtle said...

Chuck's political loyalties are so outed they're prolapsed. Someone please stuff them back in him.

Heh!

iowan2 said...

Chuck said...
It’s as bad, as somebody dabbling in baseless rumors that Barack Obama was not born in the United States, or was otherwise not qualified under the Constitution to be president. That The facts of Obama’s birth might be “the greatest scam of all time.”

Yea, Clinton's wife was a real piece of work, huh?

Earnest Prole said...

The ticket I wanted in 2016 was Bolton/Haley.

His walrus mustache would have proved irresistible to America's ladies.

Gahrie said...

His walrus mustache would have proved irresistible to America's ladies.

I think he would have been the "polite Trump" that everyone is apparently searching for.

Gahrie said...

Does not matter -- baby is American if mother is American."

Not necessarily or automatically. The only thing that grants automatic citizenship at this point is birthright citizenship created by abusing the 14th Amendment.

Earnest Prole said...

Not necessarily or automatically.

You are mistaken. To cite a single data point I know quite well, my wife's father was American and her mother a foreigner, yet at the moment of her birth she was an American citizen despite being born in her mother's country.

chickelit said...

@prole, earnest: I sincerely doubt whether that birthright existed at the moment f birth. Rather, it was extended retroactively upon registration of that birth.

I, too, married into a band of foreign, non Americans.

95% + of Ameicans -- including some who post here -- are clueless about what determines citizenship in this of that country. It's a bit like the average American's opinion about learning a foreign language. Sad.

Kevin said...

To cite a single data point I know quite well, my wife's father was American and her mother a foreigner, yet at the moment of her birth she was an American citizen despite being born in her mother's country.

A citizen for sure, but what kind is the question.

I believe yours is the correct interpretation. However, the Supreme Court has never ruled on what it means to be a natural-born citizen. Children born here are natural citizens, and children born abroad to US citizens have citizenship conferred to them through their parents due to their foreign birth. But there has never been a definition of "natural-born" through case law.

The point being that the child would grow up to have no greater loyalty than to the US. Would a child born to one American patent but raised overseas her entire life - say France - speaking only French and knowing only France as the DREAMers do of America, still qualify for the US Presidency due to her "natural-born" US citizenship?

I don't think the framers mean that to be the case. And therefore, there is a credible argument to be made.

The issue for Obama is that it would have been made while in office, and could have swayed enough voters to deny him a second term.

The Clinton camp raised issues about John McCain's brith to two Americans because he was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Ted Cruz's foreign birth was also an issue in 2016, and had he been nominated I believe he would have moved to have his status resolve proactively rather than have it raise doubts within his supporters.

master cylinder said...

It's Hope Hicks, not Nikki Haley.

Earnest Prole said...

Rather, it was extended retroactively upon registration of that birth.

There was never a "registration" of her birth. There is in fact no such "register" in the United States.

Earnest Prole said...

"The Supreme Court has never ruled on what it means to be a natural-born citizen" is much like the Emoluments Clause arguments against Donald Trump. You can spin out an argument for why Ted Cruz or John McCain are not natural-born citizens, but there is not a chance in a million that the Supreme Court would ever rule that way.