December 3, 2019

It depends on what the meaning of "know" is.

97 comments:

tim in vermont said...

Funny how that ABC reporter didn’t name check Trump, but did name check Prince Andrew and Bill Clinton.

Howard said...

Only Jesus Christ (peace be upon him) can truly know someone

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Guilty! Impeach!

J. Farmer said...

Loving Melania’s My Fair Lady look in that photo.

Nonapod said...

It turns out that you can totally meet a person just one time and instantly "know" them. Or at least evidently Trump can.

Seriously though, imagine how many people Trump (or any US President) meets and greets on a daily basis. Especially on an official state visit. How many dignitaries, functionairies, royals, officials, local celebrities, military officers, oligarchs, billionaires, and other general VIPs do you imagine that Trump meets with on such visits?

John henry said...

Did pdjt say he didn't "know" andrew or that they'd never met?

John Henry

rehajm said...

So it was it Trump and Prince Andrew having sex?

...will say anything to try to take the heat off First Laddie Bill Clinton!

Wince said...

Remember the idiom "know in the biblical sense"?

readering said...

Why does he say it?

robother said...

Goodnight tweet Prince Andrew, we hardly knew ye.

The Crack Emcee said...

I lived with a woman for 20 years and never knew her - it happens.

Dave Begley said...

Who cares about the royals? We fought a war to get rid of those freeloading idiots. And we won!

Freeman Hunt said...

I've had meetings with a great number of people I don't know.

Swede said...

I met the commander of the First Cavalry Division 4 times during one of my tours in Iraq.

I met the SECARMY twice.

I wouldn't say that I know them.

Or that we flew to notorious Democrat donor Epstein's island to fuck underage girls.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Without evidence.

Darrell said...

How many other people were at that breakfast?

Ann Althouse said...

There's the "know"/"acquainted with" distinction.

Did I know Justice Scalia? I sat next to him through an entire lunch one time and talked to him for much of it. There are pictures. I would never say "I knew Justice Scalia" as part of giving some sort of opinion about him. If I did, it sure wouldn't be out of honesty, and I would expect to be attacked for lying/bullshitting.

Ann Althouse said...

If the truth is I met him once (or twice), it's not right to say I know him. That's just common sense!

Jason said...


"You Never Knew Her."
El Rayo-X, with the great David Lindley.

Featuring one of the most perfect guitar solos ever put to a pop record. :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwcr8xCGxFw

Howard said...

J Farmer, fify: My Fair Trannie

Michael K said...

Flop sweat efforts by the left to get anything on Trump.

stevew said...

I interact with all you lovely folks here on a regular basis, but can't say that I know any of you.

Michael K has the gist of it.

Hari said...

The real intent of the question was to get Trump to answer yes, that he knew Epstein. So from there it would be easy for the press to imply that Trump knew about whatever crimes Andrew may have committed.

Darrell said...

I bought Bettie Page a hot chocolate outside McCormick Place in the early 1970s when she had become a Christian missionary/activist. She was warning people not to look at photobooks showing her pictures.

I don't know her, either.

Amadeus 48 said...


This is hilarious. I doubt Trump has ever called Prince Andrew on anything other than business, and vice-versa. Maybe Trump tried to get Andrew (a committed golfer and renta-royal) to open one of his golf resorts back in Trump's commercial days.

Does anyone know Donald Trump? He is the most enigmatic man to be president since Reagan.

The world is full of people I don't know, and I don't want to know.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I guess I know every person who has ever been in my vicinity.

narciso said...

of course Giuffre's affidavit, isn't brought up, because it would interfere with the narrative

Tank said...

The word pathetic comes to mind.

rhhardin said...

Context is everything. It can mean as little as knowing who he is, on up. The curious thing is that it's never a problem to figure out, except for headline writers.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Meeting and knowing. Two different things.

gilbar said...

if there's no sticky blue dress; it's safe to say, he Hasn't KNOWN him

J. Farmer said...

@Howard:

J Farmer, fify: My Fair Trannie

Hmm...I think the origianl Eliza Doolittle qualifies more for that description.

Bob Boyd said...

There are probably a lot of people who feel like they don't know Prince Andrew these days
and the rest are wishing they didn't.

Bob Boyd said...

"Andrew? Andrew who?" - the Queen of England

CWJ said...

"Yes, sir, but about Colonel Lawrence himself.

No, no. I didn't know him well, you know."

Howard said...

J Farmer She looks like a mouse with a very long neck. Never saw what people liked about in AH

wildswan said...

Apparently the Queen didn't know Prince Andrew. As she got to know him recently, she evicted him from Buckingham Palace.

daskol said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
J. Farmer said...

@Howard:

J Farmer She looks like a mouse with a very long neck. Never saw what people liked about in AH

Okay. Great for you. I never said anything about Audrey Hepburn. I was talking about the dress.

daskol said...

I once bumped into Giovanni Ribisi on the street, causing him to spill coffee on his overcoat. We had words: me apologizing, him grudgingly grunting acceptance. I know what he looks like when he's pissed off, and because I'm pretty good at mind reading when it's obvious. I'm pretty sure w he thought I was a clumsy asshole even though he merely grunted. Also he needed a haircut. I like to tell people about that time I bumped into Giovanni on 6th Avenue when I think they're name-dropping.

rhhardin said...

"To know someone is to know someone."

It seems to claim that any sort of knowing deserves the same respect as deeply knowing, the first know being taken broadly and the second know narrowly. Presumably this doctrine is the WaPo position.

The quote would be unambiguous but false; and it proves that the word moves all over under the influence of context and the need to make sense of it.

narciso said...

I met the latin version of genie francis, lupita ferrer, or sally field I guess, a few times when I worked a grocery store in south florida, she was more like Erica kane if you get my drift, the same for gaviria the former Colombian president, he's a cold fish,

Rocketeer said...

I had breakfast with Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld a few years back but I wouldn't say I know the guy.

daskol said...

I've given knowing glances, sometimes without realizing it.

Bob Boyd said...

I had breakfast with Mickey Mouse at Disneyworld a few years back but I wouldn't say I know the guy.

You're lucky. He's an asshole.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

My Fair Trannie

Now now. No reason to *drag* Michelle Obama into this.

SGT Ted said...

WaPo is chock full of stupid people who think they are smart.

Having contact with someone at a public function doesn't mean you truly knew them at all.

People need to quit being stupid and thinking it's clever. Especially Life Long Republicans.

Darrell said...

Never trust a titty twister or anyone advocating violence against women.

Bob Boyd said...

I cannot recount all of the times Trump has done it.

Oh, I bet you could.

TJM said...

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

YoungHegelian said...

To know, know, know him
Is to love, love, love him
And I doooooooo.

Ahh, who remembers The Teddy Bears?

J. Farmer said...

@Bill, Republic of Texas:

Now now. No reason to *drag* Michelle Obama into this.

Joan Rivers did a pretty funny riff on that once. And incidentally, the funniest joke I ever heard that used the word "tranny" was at the Joan Rivers roast when Kathy Griffin (the host) introduced Greg Giraldo, who replied, "Thank you, Tranny Bonaduce."

tim in vermont said...

Trump knows ever person whose hand he has shaken. And.....AND, he approves af all private and public conduct of each person.

Still the ABC reorter never name checked Trump. The biggest knock on Trump was that he didn’t perform a citizen’s arrest on Epstein in Palm Beach as a private citizen, and only banned him from his club.

tim in vermont said...

Barrack Obama gave seminars with Bill Ayers at U Chicago, and didn’t “know” him. It’s almost like there is a double standard...

Naaah!

tim in vermont said...

Trump should say that Epstein was “just some guy in the neighborhood."

stevew said...

This is a gotcha game, Trump knows it very well, and his chosen method of dealing with it is to say that he doesn't know the person in the way that the reporter is implying, thus denying the gotcha moment. Poor babies, need to do better.

narciso said...

guiffre's deposition, showed that trump was on his best behavior, in the brief time she was a hostess at maralago, yes he ran into him nearly 20 years ago,

Wince said...

"Before the cock crows..."

Matthew 26:34-35, 74-75; Luke 22:34,60-62; John 13:38 and Mark 14:30

n.n said...

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
- Sun Tzu

More than a fleeting glimpse, a passing profile.

Michael K said...

I cannot recount all of the times Trump has done it. Trump did it with Jeffrey Epstein, too, right?

Chuck is going for the asshole of the year award. Less than a month left for entries so we can expect more of this.

narciso said...

then you have rezko, the Syrian slumlord that funded obamas campaigns, it's rather extraordinary the lengths david garrett (sic) took to avoid the connections between the two, much less baath oligarch nahim auchi, or Iraqi power manager al sammarrai, the latter until he was arrested was why he kept voting for the troop funding,

Amadeus 48 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
elkh1 said...

Trump is the President of the United States, the star of the show. The guy next to him is a middle aged nondescript dude. Why would the President notice him?

Trump is always the center of his universe, the dude is what?

tim in vermont said...

"Chuck is going for the asshole of the year award.”

I think Josh Brolin has locked that up with his tweet about perineum sunning and a very painful sunburn in his “pucker place."

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

guilt by association only applies to Trump and R's.

Did Clinton ever meet Prince Andrew? did he know him?

narciso said...

well let us say josh brolin, doesn't have to act to play cable, thanos or the corrupt cop in American gangster,

Roost on the Moon said...

I believe the Epstein-was-murdered conspiracy stuff. And, because of the Clinton angle, a lot of Trump supporters do too. Without that, I think they'd be defensively skeptical. It amazes me that they aren't already. They know about Epstein's private plane, his fourteen- and fifteen-year olds. They're appalled, of course.

But then consider they must have at least heard this stuff, too:

1990s: Epstein is a regular at Mar-a-Lago. There is buddy-buddy footage of Trump and Epstein from 1992, commenting on women, whispering to each other, and laughing.

2002: "I’ve known Jeff for fifteen years. Terrific guy,” Trump told New York Magazine that year for a story headlined “Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery.“He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side. No doubt about it — Jeffrey enjoys his social life."

Ah, the social life.

2005: “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy, you can do anything.”

2008: Epstein gets a strangely cushy plea deal cut by Alex Acosta.

2017: Trump gives Acosta a cabinet position.

2019: When new charges against Epstein surface, Acosta quickly resigns with no admission of wrongdoing. Claiming they didn't want a distracting media circus. They seem to be fine was with most media circuses. Trump's a fighter who goes to the mat. But they cut and run on this one.

2019: Epstein "commits suicide."
_

It's very strange to look at that, along with Trump's well-established history of trashing his vows, and think, sure, Bill Clinton would do that. Prince Andrew would do that. All these rich egomaniacs, of course they would do that. But Trump?

Sure, he'd lie about being friends with Epstein, and he'd lie about knowing Prince Andrew. That's just Trump being Trump, nothing wrong with that. Of course he'd cheat on his wife, pay hush money to porn stars. You need to know how to run a tabloid catch-and-kill, when you're doing a bunch of normal stuff. Who among us.

When the dirt comes out, we're going to see an insane implosion of denial that it happened, and then denial that anyone could have suspected, what with the media bias and all, and finally, for some very special ones out there among you, denial that there's anything wrong with any of this.

Yancey Ward said...

Having been asked this question more than few times, I always answer, "No, I don't know them," when asked if I know someone who is just a superficial aquaintance. Indeed, I often won't know someone I have met on multiple occasions, and I won't remember people if I have met them once or twice when you ask me about it a year later unless that person was directly connected to some particularly memorable event.

Amadeus 48 said...

Trump: I don’t know the man.

See! See! He’s quoting St. Peter! He thinks he’s St. Peter! He does know the man because he said he didn’t! There’s a picture He’s hiding something and he thinks he’s St. Peter. Impeach!

Sheesh.

Temujin said...

It's hard to keep the Royals straight. Harry, William, Andrew, Charles, Edward I.

Yancey Ward said...

Chuck isn't going for asshole of the year award- it is a permanent award.

Michael K said...

Sure, he'd lie about being friends with Epstein, and he'd lie about knowing Prince Andrew. That's just Trump being Trump, nothing wrong with that. Of course he'd cheat on his wife, pay hush money to porn stars. You need to know how to run a tabloid catch-and-kill, when you're doing a bunch of normal stuff. Who among us.

Lefty delusions are kid of amusing. Nobody has ever seen anything about the "porn star" except one photo at a golf tournament. No mention of throwing Epstein out of Mar a lago. Your guy, Billy Jeff, left DNA evidence. When you find DNA evidence on Trump, we'll talk. Mean while, the cows like that bullshit you are spreading but there are no cows here.

Curious George said...

"And incidentally, the funniest joke I ever heard that used the word "tranny" was at the Joan Rivers roast when Kathy Griffin (the host) introduced Greg Giraldo, who replied, "Thank you, Tranny Bonaduce."

His follow up was great too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYabFRDN9ls

Francisco D said...

Chuck isn't going for asshole of the year award- it is a permanent award.

That is why we should simply ignore his desperate bleatings.

Ralph L said...

"I don't know X" is also a social putdown, like cutting someone in public or not receiving them at home.

J. Farmer said...

I have yet to figure out why people think calling Trump a liar is some kind of slam dunk criticism. Of course he's a liar. He's a politician. That's what they do. They're professional liars. Nobody cares.

Roost on the Moon said...

When you find DNA evidence on Trump, we'll talk.

But I don't want to talk to a sick little puppy with a politics-poisoned brain. I'm just observing you now, and maybe again later.

"I didn't literally see the semen" is a great snapshot of before. I'd predict that it will shake out to "who could've possibly suspected" after.

Roost on the Moon said...

(what with all the media bias)

Dust Bunny Queen said...

You can meet a lot of people, know OF them, but not really know them.

I once met with Clint Eastwood in Carmel. There is even a photo of me with him that my father has. Know Clint Eastwood? Hardly.

Birches said...

Not the Babylon Bee.

Michael K said...

But I don't want to talk to a sick little puppy with a politics-poisoned brain. I'm just observing you now, and maybe again later.

Does Ritmo have another fake ID ? Blank profile like all the trolls.

Drago said...

stevew: "This is a gotcha game, Trump knows it very well, and his chosen method of dealing with it is to say that he doesn't know the person in the way that the reporter is implying, thus denying the
gotcha moment. Poor babies, need to do better."

Precisely.

Remember when LLR Chuck and all his lefty pals tried to say that major corrupt democrat bundler Jack Abramoff was actually a GW Bush guy just because there was a single photo of Abramoff standing way in the back of the room where Bush happened to be?

Chuck and his lefty pals are just up to their old "cover for the dems" tricks.

MayBee said...

It cracks me up how hard people are working to make Epstein about Trump.....and ignore the Clinton in the room (and on the plane!).

Drago said...

It was literally just yesterday that Biden claimed to have spent "alot of time with Kim Jong Un"...even though he has actually never met him.

Biden's clear mental collapse is the primary driver for the left/LLR-left panicked continuation of the hoax collusion/fake impeachment effort.

Its the only thing the dems and their LLR lap poodles have left.

Gospace said...

In the troop scrapbook there are pictures of me at Scouting events that I would tell you I've never been to - because I have no memory at all of being at them.

I can't begin to tell you haw many more people know me then I know them.

I would have to read the whole thing to determine whether he simply can't recall, or if he's declaring Prince Andrew inconsequential. I don't much care either way, so I won't. This sin't like the 1500s where he might be able to get away with killing the 6 or 7 people ahead of him in line for the throne. He is, ultimately, an inconsequential spare.

Anonymous said...

I’m sure down at The Bulwark Cuck’s comment is VERY IMPRESSIVE but alas all of us know Cuck far better than Trump knows Andrew.

Seeing Red said...

Meghan Markle knows Randy Andy better.

Seeing Red said...

Meh. The Secret Service was along for Bill’s rides. They knew. So did Hillary. And she was SOS.

narciso said...

well Abramoff was a young republican type, but by the 00s, he was branching out to the likes of harry reid aka mr. clean face, of course there was a strain of bds back then regarding a competitor in the casino biz, gus boulos, there was less than met the eye to that,

The Crack Emcee said...

MayBee said...

"It cracks me up how hard people are working to make Epstein about Trump.....and ignore the Clinton in the room (and on the plane!)."

Yep. If you've been following this open secret for all the years I have - which is at least 10 or so - then all you're waiting for is Bill Clinton's entrance. Trump doesn't even figure into it.

The media's focus on Trump is just other examples of their stupid herd mentality and how badly they mangle their jobs these days.

Anonymous said...

Btw Crack Emcee good to see you back

Left Bank of the Charles said...

Epstein didn't kill himself.

Jon Ericson said...

le chapeau

JaimeRoberto said...

I met Arnold Schwarzenegger in a restaurant in a small town outside of Vienna many years ago, but I can't say I know him.

rcocean said...

Just the MSM trying to make Trump look bad AGAIN for the 1000th time. GO READ THE TRANSCRIPT!

Long press conference. with mucho hostile questions for Trump and the other person the head of NATO basically ignored by the Press twerps. Trump has had enough and is wrapping things up and someone asks an irrelevant question about "Prince Andrew" - Trump just blows him off. Here it is:

Mr. President, do you have a comment on Prince Andrew stepping down from his royal duties?

PRESIDENT TRUMP: On who?

Q Prince Andrew stepping down from his royal duties.

PRESIDENT TRUMP: No. I don’t know Prince Andrew. But it’s a — that’s a tough story. That’s a very tough story. I don’t know him. No.

Okay. Anybody else? Thank you. So we’ll see you during the next two days. Interesting, right? Huh? A lot of money. A lot of money. Okay. Bye, folks.

The Vault Dweller said...

I don't know the particulars of this case, but I don think it can help to think of it from the opposite direction. If someone asked you, "Can you think of any person or persons that you have met, that you would still say you don't know?" I suspect almost everyone would have a list of people they can name, or perhaps not even name, just describe.

Jim at said...

And if Trump said he knew Andrew, the same people would be screaming it's impossible to know someone by simply having breakfast with them.

It's just so tedious.