Said Donald Trump to Kristen Welker in the unedited version of the "Meet the Press" interview.
Here's the transcript. Here's the video. And scroll down for the full text of the video, in which you can see how Welker — who is getting criticized for not inserting more fact-checking in real time — broke in to do what Trump called "sticking up for Biden."
Transcript excerpt:
KRISTEN WELKER:
Economists are looking at some of the figures right now, the fact that the unemployment rate is at 3.8%, and they say it looks like the U.S. may not dip into a recession. What do you make of that assessment?
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
Oh, I don’t know. You got — people are going to — they say that, and then you end up in a depression. They say you’re going to do great, you end up bad, and the opposite. These — most of them don’t know what they’re doing. It’s a touch. It’s a feel. And I predicted a lot of markets. I predicted a lot of things, frankly, you know? They say, “Trump was right about everything.” I think that the way it’s going now, you’re going to have to — things are not going, right now, very well for the consumer. Bacon is up five times. Food is up horribly, worse than energy. Energy is starting to go up at a level that we haven’t seen in a long time, meaning a couple of years — since he took over, because I had energy prices very low. I had gasoline very low. We have to get the energy down, which they will never do. And they kept it artificial because they took the strategic reserves, which I had a lot to do with filling up for the first time ever. They took the strategic reserves, and he issued it to everybody so that he could keep the gas prices down. Now, strategic reserves are at the lowest level they’ve ever been at, and we need that for war.
KRISTEN WELKER:
And there are a lot of factors —
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
We need that —
KRISTEN WELKER:
– that have contributed to that.
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
Well, no. The big factor is the fact that he took that oil —
KRISTEN WELKER:
Let’s talk about taxes.
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
– he took that and he let — he wanted to have low gas prices for an election. And now, we have nothing left.
KRISTEN WELKER:
Mr. President, there are a lot of factors, including global factors, that went into that. Let’s talk about taxes, though.
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
I don’t know why people stick up for him so much —
KRISTEN WELKER:
You had —
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
– when he makes bad decisions, like you.
KRISTEN WELKER:
You — Mr. President —
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
I don’t know why, and I have a lot of respect for you, and you were very fair in the debate. But I don’t know why you and other people say, “Oh, it’s okay that he’s destroyed the strategic —
KRISTEN WELKER:
No. Just —
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
– petroleum reserves.” I mean, why do you do that? Or, “It’s okay that he has open borders.” Somebody who was —
KRISTEN WELKER:
Mr. President —
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
– in your position, not quite as good, said this morning, “Oh, having open borders is a wonderful thing.” I don’t know why. And I think that’s why the media —
KRISTEN WELKER:
Not sticking up --
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
– has lost so much credibility.
KRISTEN WELKER:
– no, we’re not sticking up, Mr. President, we’re just having a conversation.
Posts
69 comments:
no, we’re not sticking up, Mr. President, we’re just having a conversation.
To the liberal, only conservatism is a bias. Liberalism isn’t a bias, it’s just plain common sense. One of the oractical effects of this attitude is that liberals are incapable of seeing liberal bias.
I say that as an explainer of why journalists say things like this. I don’t think she’s lying. I think she really believes it. She (along with most of her colleagues) really is this obtuse. She (and they) will never reform because they can’t grasp the problem.
Biden's been brain dead since he shut down the XL pipeline in the first day, I've always said, since people seem to have been sticking up for Biden on the matter.
Just having a conversation doesn't have anything to do with it. Sticking up for Biden is not excluded by having a conversation.
Trump was brilliant in that exchange.
They aren't sticking up for him, they just don't run stories that hurt him. They HIDE the truth, and call us conspiracy theorists, when what we are saying is true...and the truth WILL come out in the long run.. They LIE....just like Biden does.
There are never “a lot of factors” when it comes to Trump.
There is no nuance we must entertain.
There is just “the end of democracy”.
Would any rational person assert that America is in a good place today? Of course not. But the MSM refuses to report the facts. If the media was doing its job, it would go after Biden with hammer and tongs.
Trump said this about the six week abortion ban DeSantis signed: “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,”
Trump was asked if he’d sign federal legislation that would ban abortion at 15 weeks, Trump said no, and said he’d seek to negotiate with Democrats on the issue.
The obvious follow up would have been, "So why did you say there should be criminal punishment for women who have abortions?"
"Mr. President, there are a lot of factors, including global factors, that went into that. "
Apply that to any domestic situation as an excuse for a President:
- Mr. President, there are a lot of factors that went into rising unemployment, including global factors
- Mr. President, there are a lot of factors that went into the U.S. involvement in war, including global factors
- Mr. President, there are a lot of factors that went into the U.S. depression, including global factors
...
"I'm not defending him, we're just talking."
Lol.
..."not quite as good" ...
I love that he has manners while he eviscerates her.
Yes, please. More real time fact checking.
Welker attempted to dismiss the FACT, the Strategic Oil Reserve is strategically empty. Trump in real time nailed it. Biden flooded the market with the SOR to depress gasoline prices for the election.
Welker looked the fool by handwaving it away because... reasons.
The spread between Trump and DeSantis continues to grow. Trump adds to his numbers, and DeSantis looses his support. I like DeSantis, but he aligned himself with GOPe. Not friends of Conservatives (See what the Bush clan attempted with Paxton in Texas)
Journalism is a self-selected profession.
If you are a conservative in journalism and you let that be known through your writing, through story-selection, your take on the issues, etc. then you just DO NOT ADVANCE in that profession. Conservatives, surrounded by these sorts of people (complete sycophants), opt out and go on to other careers they CAN advance in. Careers that reward merit.
This has gone on for 200 years. What we're left with is what we have today: A completely biased news media, totally in the bag for the Democrat Party for a wide variety of reasons, but mostly because that's the only way you can make money being a journalist. It's the only way you can raise a family, have a mortgage, pay the bills, etc. You're either an out-and-proud Democrat or the 6 billionaires who own all the media in the United States will ensure that you don't progress in your career.
That's all legal, by the way. Nothing wrong with it. Free press and all. People should just understand what it is and cease giving it any value in their lives.
Trump's failure is his failure to own media. He thought he could get it done by putting his name on crappy hotels and buying up fading golf courses. If you want to succeed in changing the United States you have to OWN the media. You have to BE the sword of Damocles ... not the guy under it.
Journalism is a self-selected profession.
If you are a conservative in journalism and you let that be known through your writing, through story-selection, your take on the issues, etc. then you just DO NOT ADVANCE in that profession. Conservatives, surrounded by these sorts of people (complete sycophants), opt out and go on to other careers they CAN advance in. Careers that reward merit.
This has gone on for 200 years. What we're left with is what we have today: A completely biased news media, totally in the bag for the Democrat Party for a wide variety of reasons, but mostly because that's the only way you can make money being a journalist. It's the only way you can raise a family, have a mortgage, pay the bills, etc. You're either an out-and-proud Democrat or the 6 billionaires who own all the media in the United States will ensure that you don't progress in your career.
That's all legal, by the way. Nothing wrong with it. Free press and all. People should just understand what it is and cease giving it any value in their lives.
Trump's failure is his failure to own media. He thought he could get it done by putting his name on crappy hotels and buying up fading golf courses. If you want to succeed in changing the United States you have to OWN the media. You have to BE the sword of Damocles ... not the guy under it.
"Stick 'em up!"
Disarming Trump is not an easy task. It's not a good thing when people think you're stuck up.
For all his wealth, Trump doesn't seem to be perceived as "stuck up" by my proletarian fellow citizens. Mitt Romney? Not so much. Hence, our present condition.
He is so good at this.
Reagan won over the media. GWBush cowed the media. Trump dismantled the media.
She interrupted him a LOT. I know the man appears to ramble, but why do they not let him answer?
wait a minute..are there people on earth, that DON'T think (KNOW) that Biden emptied the Strategic Oil Reserves to lower prices before the election??
what DID you think happened then?
oh *i* see! he didn't empty the reserves JUST to reduce prices before the election..
he emptied the reserves to provide oil to his bosses in China!!!
now i have it!! a LOT of factors
I noticed he was using his linguistic kill shots (in Scott Adams parlance).
He never said DeSantis it was always "DeSanctimonious".
He called the indictments "Biden indictments". Which is genius. It simultaneous brings to mind Biden being in trouble and Biden orchestrating things behind the scenes. Would any other person be able to do that? Would Mitt Romney or Bill Clinton have been able to do that?
It was so devastating Welker had to follow up from the anchor chair about how they asked the White House to confirm that Biden hadn't talked to Garland about the indictments. Although I wish I could find the exact language they used because it was full of wish-washy language that tells me we are going to find out that the White House was actually consulted in some way.
Kristen was desperately trying to change the subject and Trump wouldn’t let her. Typically a Lefty’s next gambit is to talk loud and fast, but I guess the situation wouldn’t allow for that.
Kristen, an interview is not the same as a conversation.
Citing the unemployment rate as an economic indicator by itself is misleading. One could argue economic illiteracy of the 'journalist' set but I'm inclined to believe it is a deliberate deception.
So Trump says "We have to get energy prices down, which we will do." But he criticizes Biden for releasing part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after 2020 which had the effect of keeping prices down.
Trump claims, "– he took that and he let — he wanted to have low gas prices for an election. And now, we have nothing left."
That's stupid, and wrong. Biden released less than 20% of the SPR. He did just about all of those releases before June of 2022. The midterm election was in November of 2022. A midterm election, where Biden was not on any ballot, and which was notoriously dominated by abortion and by lingering disputes over the Big Lie. (Both losing causes for Republicans.) Trump, during his presidency, made several smaller releases from the SPR. So it's not like he never touched it either. Energy prices had crumbled at the end of his presidency because the world economy had crumbled under the pandemic, and so demand for oil had crumbled. The reviving world economy as the pandemic eased dramatically increased demand at a time when production had shut down and refining costs had increased dramatically.
One thing I want to know is who is Trump referring to when he said, "I don’t know why, and I have a lot of respect for you, and you were very fair in the debate. But I don’t know why you and other people say, 'Oh, it’s okay that he’s destroyed the strategic petroleum reserves. I mean, why do you do that? Or, 'It’s okay that he has open borders.' Somebody who was in your position, not quite as good, said this morning, 'Oh, having open borders is a wonderful thing.' I don’t know why."
A. Biden did not "destroy the strategic petroleum reserve." That's a lie.
B. Who, exactly, said, "It's okay" that Biden destroyed the SPR? That's a pure fiction.
C. Who, exactly, said, "Oh, having open borders is a wonderful thing"? I want a quote, a link.
I just read the transcript of the Matt Taibbi / Walter Kirn podcast (?) from this week, post-the memo from Sams to all the major media outlets instructing them not to run impeachment stories or, if they must, to be certain to frame the narrative appropriately, subtitled something like State-Run Media's Coming Out Party. They were predictably disgusted by their profession.
Welker? This is when that ferret smirk of Chuck Todd would be employed.
The ongoing failures of Democrat regimes compels them.
Inflation is ALWAYS the result of government policy. The covid spending laws of 2020 and the Fed's rapid expansion of the money supply goosed demand for goods and services while the supply of goods and services was undermined by government lockdowns. So prices skyrocketed.
The Fed has been holding the money supply nearly constant since Jan 2022, but the budged deficit is still dumping money into people's pockets without increasing supply. In fact, Joe "China owns me!" Biden has been doing everything he can to hobble production with his nonsensical new regulations.
Kristen Welker is a mushroom farmer. Donald Trump wouldn't be silent so she attempted to shut him up. Didn't work. What we have now is a Mushroom Media Conspiracy, trying to keep everyone in the dark and feeding them b.s. about how Joe "China owns me!" Biden is crapping his pants with everything he does and says.
Multiply-indicted criminal, drama queen, and daughter-groomer Trump left America with record job loss, mass COVID death, forced birth, the Jan 6. insurrection, book banning, soreloser election denial, tax cuts for billionaires, record corprare welfare, record deficits, no border fix, no infrastructure bill, record mass shootings, and climate change denial.
Biden made record working class infrastructure and manufacturing investments, to create:
- record low unemployment
- record job growth
- 4 million more jobs than existed pre-COVID
- working class wage growth outpacing white collar wage growth
The choice is simple, except for the angriest, most intransigent rightwingers.
Multiply-indicted criminal, drama queen, and daughter-groomer Trump left America with record job loss, mass COVID death, forced birth, the Jan 6. insurrection, book banning, soreloser election denial, tax cuts for billionaires, record corprare welfare, record deficits, no border fix, no infrastructure bill, record mass shootings, and climate change denial.
Biden made record working class infrastructure and manufacturing investments, to create:
- record low unemployment
- record job growth
- 4 million more jobs than existed pre-COVID
- working class wage growth outpacing white collar wage growth
The choice is simple, except for the angriest, most intransigent rightwingers.
~250 million barrels of oil dumped into the U.S. in 2022.
Nearly halved the SPR levels.
Just a note for those thinking that's alot of oil - it's about 12 days worth of U.S. consumption in normal times. So while the SPR holds usually the equivalent of about a 3 week supply, we took that down to about 2 weeks worth left.
It's a good thing to be talking about, especially right now as gas prices post-summer surge at escalating to record levels - which is both inflationary(drives up price of products in which energy is a meaningful cost) and counterinflationary (consumption goes down in other areas as people have less money to spend).
"Not sticking up"
LOL. But in a way, it's true. In the MSM prog bubble, no criticism penetrates, nothing needs defending, and as long as Biden carries prog water, attacks are ipso facto deplorable. Under prog hegemony, Biden needs no sticking up for. Progs are effectively immune. It's only when annoying Trump pricks the bubble that some self-justification appears.
She interrupted him a LOT. I know the man appears to ramble, but why do they not let him answer?
They keep telling us that Trump is a complete idiot who can't string two thoughts together, yet they desperately try to prevent Trump from actually speaking that I suspect they don't really think he is dumb.
Dudkembro is getting inebriated on his own bovine-produced stockpile.
Meet the Press used to allow the guests to answer the questions. How immature a person do you have to be to not let someone state their case as best as they can? NBC interviewers think they have to weigh in, lie even, during these sessions, lest their audience get the impression that the guest makes a lot of sense.
That interviewer was juvenile and simply ridiculous: Plz answer this question - interrupt, interrupt, interrupt - Ok, now let’s get back on track. WTH.
"To the liberal, only conservatism is a bias. Liberalism isn’t a bias, it’s just plain common sense." and the conversation about that common sense is always conducted in the present tense, with being encumbered by the consequences down the road. And discussions about consequences (predicted or in progress) is one that is avoided at all costs.
The Strategic Petroleum reserve, by the way, is not an underground tank that is emptied and refilled. It's infrastructure that decays with each draining cycle, because the oil that is drained is replaced by water, which is destructive to the cavern. So our usable capacity today is quite a bit less than it was before Biden began The Great Drawdown. We won't find out how severely degraded it has become until we attempt to fill it back up again. You notice it hasn't been refilled at all, no attempts have been made - right?
Brian said...
I noticed he was using his linguistic kill shots (in Scott Adams parlance).
...
He called the indictments "Biden indictments". Which is genius. It simultaneous brings to mind Biden being in trouble and Biden orchestrating things behind the scenes. Would any other person be able to do that? Would Mitt Romney or Bill Clinton have been able to do that?
He called his indictments "Biden indictments," which is a pure lie.
Would Mitt Romney have done that? No, because Mitt Romney is a lawyer, and honorable man, and a Republican steeped in the party's law and order history. Trump is none of those things. Trump is a fucking idiot (according to his own former cabinet members), a fantastically dishonest maniac (according to his former Attorney General), with basically zero history as a Republican (go ahead, name for me a Republican whom Trump has not insulted at some point).
Meet the Press is a joke run by silly people.
Susan Rice and the Benghazi episode made that clear.
“Sticking up for Biden” is a brilliant way to put it.
Trump hits two birds with one stone. Rattle off a laundry list of bad Biden moves while putting the media on the defensive having to deny and say they don’t do exactly what they do six ways from Sunday of sticking up for Biden.
When does a conspiracy become so widespread and so all embracing that it reaches critical mass and thus is no longer a conspiracy but a consensus.....Academia, show business, the news media, and the high reaches of government bureaucracy have now arrived at the consensus that Donald Trump is the worst human to ever walk the face of the earth and that he must be stopped by any means available. There are efforts in some quarters to bring back crucifixion as the preferred means of execution....I wish America as a whole had the kind of consensus that exists among these groups, but it doesn't. I must say, however, contra Trump, that it is extremely difficult for a President to win an election and even more difficult to govern if all those institutions listed above are hell bent to portray him as the anti-Christ. The news media and the entertainment industry are fun house mirrors but that's where we go to see our reflections.....Maybe Kamala won't be so bad. The Brahmins governed India for many centuries. It worked out very well for the Brahmins, though not so much for the Untouchables. Perhaps it's time for America to be governed by Brahmins. At any rate, the Brahmins and not the working class are now the vanguard of the revolution. Up the Brahmins.
Trump isn’t wrong on this. Oil about to bust $100 and Biden has drained the SPR. So, so stupid.
Trump said this about the six week abortion ban DeSantis signed: “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,”
Trump was asked if he’d sign federal legislation that would ban abortion at 15 weeks, Trump said no, and said he’d seek to negotiate with Democrats on the issue.
The obvious follow up would have been...
No need for any follow-ups. We learned all we need to know (but actually, Trump has been throwing off signals in that direction for a while now).
"They keep telling us that Trump is a complete idiot who can't string two thoughts together, yet they desperately try to prevent Trump from actually speaking that I suspect they don't really think he is dumb."
They keep telling us that Trump is divisive and widely disliked, yet they desperately want to prevent Trump from actually being on the ballot that I suspect they don't really think he won't win.
Fascinating that when Trump started talking about election rigging that she was so desperate to change the topic. From a journalistic standpoint getting Trump to talk election rigging is gold. It is afterall, the biggest topic of the day and the subject of two indictments. I would spend the entire interview on the topic if he stayed there.
@dudeKembro
lies, damn lies, and statistics. (ht Clemens)
- working class wage growth outpacing white collar wage growth
And as blue-collar workers have seen their wallets thicken, highly educated white-collar workers’ wages have grown more modestly. USA today Aug 8...
2019!
- 4 million more jobs than existed pre-COVID
Growing population means growing job amounts. However, job participation rate is lower today than pre-Covid. Participation rate grew every year under Trump prior to Covid.
- record job growth
Record job growth is meaningless under the context of Covid. There was a huge depression of jobs so Biden inherited record underemployment. Record job growth would be almost impossible not to achieve.
If some Biden loyalist could give me an intelligent defense of what's going on at the border, I'd love to hear it, because short of Cloward-Piven or "Great Replacement" conspiracies, I sure as hell can't make any sense of it.
I mean, the border crossing numbers come from the administration itself, and they're horrific. Mayorkas' babblings in front of Congress and the press sure don't help.
Bueller? Bueller?
That exchange is why people are Always Trump.
"She interrupted him a LOT. I know the man appears to ramble, but why do they not let him answer?"
I can't listen to these things. The amount of interruptions is annoying:
KRISTEN WELKER:
I want to stay focused on you, for the purposes of this interview –
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
Okay.
KRISTEN WELKER:
– okay? Because it’s important that we hear from you about all of this. Tell me –
FMR. PRES. DONALD TRUMP:
Well, I’d like you to, but you keep interrupting me.
Wow. How exhausting and utterly useless. Remarkable how ignoring facts and reason became a whole political party. MAGAts in all serious discussions, come off like petulant children, stomping their little feet and shrieking; whenever reality interferes with their delusional world views.
VA Lawyer Mark: "No need for any follow-ups. We learned all we need to know (but actually, Trump has been throwing off signals in that direction for a while now)."
Your very incomplete partial mini-quote in no way is representative of that full discussion.
As a lawyer and an opponent of Trump, I can see why you did it.
As always, the rules for NeverTrump and legacy media and leftist "characterizations" of what Trump said, how he said it, what he meant etc, is always return to the video of the full conversation and see it for yourself.
VA Lawyer Mark did not recommend for the reader to do that.
Always a tell.
--- We won't find out how severely degraded it has become until we attempt to fill it back up again. You notice it hasn't been refilled at all, no attempts have been made - right? [Aggie]
Very interesting point. I do believe our Beloved Leader has been refilling the petroleum reserve, however; pretty sure I read that he had put a full tank in there. Not that 16 gallons is all that much, really, but it does enable BL and his press agent to tell us he is actively refilling the SPR. Because BL's administration is very careful to handle all U.S. resources wisely and well.
Here's another interesting Trump quote from that longer discussion that VA Lawyer Mark didnt think was fit to be included in his Trust Me This Is All You Need To Know post:
“The radical people on this are really the Democrat that say after five months, six months, seven months, eight months, nine months, and even after birth, you are allowed to terminate the baby,” he said. “You have a Virginia Governor, previous governor, who said after the baby is born, you will make a determination and if you want, you will kill that baby. The baby is now born.”
"Trump said this about the six week abortion ban DeSantis signed: “I think what he did is a terrible thing and a terrible mistake,”
Trump was asked if he’d sign federal legislation that would ban abortion at 15 weeks, Trump said no, and said he’d seek to negotiate with Democrats on the issue.
The obvious follow up would have been..."
While Progressives have many irrational blind spots that can never be defended from critical questioning, this is the blind spot of many Conservatives. Very few question the integrity of the moral belief that abortion is wrong and should never happen. Not everybody respects it, but its foundation as a belief is not challenged very often. It is a truly-held belief for many.
But in order to govern, one first has to win. As we have seen in 2022, the positions on abortion were used to divide the voters in order to claim votes, successfully in many places. The polling on the subject is crystal clear: An overwhelming majority want abortion kept legal, infrequent, and subject to moderate controls.
This presents a choice. If you want to attain political power and the authority to make the policy rules, you have to be elected first. If you want abortion to be made illegal or effectively unattainable, then reality dictates that you probably are not going to win elections.
It is the irreconcilable distinction that the issue presents to Conservatives.
Please note that I have not stated my position on abortion.
She's had some work done.
I don't know why people stick up for Trump so much.
Good interviewers allow the interviewee to completely state his answer. A good interviewer then asks relevant follow-up questions, not make bald assertions themselves. You don't argue with the interviewee- it isn't a debate, it is an interview. As an interviewer, you can disagree with the viewpoint and answers, but you don't contradict them by assertion- you ask follow-up questions that go the heart of what you think is the weakness in previous answers, and you let the interviewee's answers speak for themselves to the audience.
Here is the problem with most of today's interviewers in the media, and this applies to both sides- they are too stupid and ignorant to do an effective interview. They don't have any idea how to identify the true weaknesses in an answer, and thus no way of knowing what a proper and effective follow-up question is.
Here is the truth about Welker- and it applied to Chuck Todd, too- both have, at best, average IQs and average intellectual curiosity. It is basically impossible for either one to effectively interview anyone, even people they agree with 100%. Had Welker interviewed Biden this weekend, the interview would also have been terrible, with Welker interjecting about how right Biden is about everything and asking Biden to elaborate on his wonderfulness.
It takes a certain amount of intellectual distance from subject to conduct an effective and informative interview- you have to be willing to let the interviewee speak his mind on the topics, even if you vociferously disagree with the answers. Welker couldn't do that- it why she kept up the constant interruptions- she just couldn't tolerate the fact that Trump's answers disagree with all her priors.
Trump was asked if he’d sign federal legislation that would ban abortion at 15 weeks, Trump said no, and said he’d seek to negotiate with Democrats on the issue.
Democrats refused to negotiate with Trump on DACA; why does he think they’d negotiate on abortion? Oh, and now a federal judge has ruled that DACA is illegal. Okay, Hispanics, your knee-jerk support for Democrats bought you what, precisely?
Per US EIA, the US from 2019 to 2022 has lost the capacity to produce 900,000 bbl/day in refined oil products. That’s almost a 5% drop in refining capacity in the US and the trend is expected to decline. On Jan. 29, 2021, the SPR had 638 million bbls of crude oil. Last week, it had 350 million barrels of oil. By the end of 2021, the pandemic was essentially over and we still had just under 600 million barrels of oil. We’ve burned through a quarter of a billion barrels in less than two years. We have not been at war during that time nor had a major natural disaster. For point of comparison, 20 million barrels were released for Katrina and 18 million barrels for Desert Storm. Our energy reserves are depleted. Our capacity to produce energy is declining. The media doesn’t even discuss this or allow Trump to discuss this.
Chuck: per eia.gov, the strategic petroleum reserve was in thousands of barrels 634,967 in January 2020. It was 347,158 in June 2023. That is a 45.3% reduction in the SPR under Biden, not 20%. As usual, the facts don’t support you narrative.
Chuck said...
So Trump says "We have to get energy prices down, which we will do." But he criticizes Biden for releasing part of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after 2020 which had the effect of keeping prices down.
Trump claims, "– he took that and he let — he wanted to have low gas prices for an election. And now, we have nothing left."
That's stupid, and wrong. Biden released less than 20% of the SPR.
Easily disproved lies are easily disproved. Current stocks are About 54% of what they were in June 2020. The SPR is at it's lowest level since about August 1983.When it was still being initially filled and stockpiled.
https://www.eia.gov/dnav/pet/hist/LeafHandler.ashx?n=pet&s=mcsstus1&f=m is the source.
IG: @DudeKembro
"Biden made record working class infrastructure and manufacturing investments,"
You know, of course, using tax payer money is not an investment. Right?
I skip Chuck, but I see many people discussed what I was writing in comments but in response to him. So I read his program diatribe. Just a few more numbers for EIA on the SPR inventory over time:
3 Jan 2020. 634,967 thousand barrels
11 Nov 2020 638,706 thousand barrels
29 Jan 2021 638,086 thousand barrels
14 Jan 2022 592,034 thousand barrels
18 Nov 2022 390,518 thousand barrels
6 Jan 2023 371,589 thousand barrels
8 Sep 2023 350,630 thousand barrels
Since the election of 2022, SPR has been cut by 10%. Can anyone name the emergency during that time that needed 40 million barrels of oil, more than any previous emergency in the SPR history? Point of fact, the highest previous emergency was the US portion of oil to support the International Energy Agency (IEA) request for oil during the Libyan civil war in June 2011 that fell Gaddafi. The US released 30 million barrels. 50% more than needed post-Katrina or any other SPR release ever for any reason.
Finally, the last time the SPR had less than 350 million barrels was in 1983, when it was being filled to its Cold War high of 590 million barrels by 1991. Post 9-11, the “full” level was raised another 100 million barrels. It may take a decade to refill what Biden has used in less than 3 years. Again I ask, can anyone name the national emergency that needed that much oil?
My 20% reduction number was for June '22. "Before the election," per Trump.
All your arguments about where the SPR is now are well taken by me. I won't challenge the numbers. So then, we agree that Trump is completely wrong about the SPR being "gone." It is more than 50% of the max. During Trump's Administration it was never at 100% of max.
Yancey Ward said...
Good interviewers allow the interviewee to completely state his answer. A good interviewer then asks relevant follow-up questions, not make bald assertions themselves. You don't argue with the interviewee- it isn't a debate, it is an interview...
I happen to think that these are valid points that should all be taken seriously. Were I an editor or a network executive, I would recite them as I announced a decision that my staff would not be inviting Trump for any interviews. For the reasons stated.
Trump is too toxic for standard interviewing.
Critter: "Chuck: per eia.gov, the strategic petroleum reserve was in thousands of barrels 634,967 in January 2020. It was 347,158 in June 2023. That is a 45.3% reduction in the SPR under Biden, not 20%. As usual, the facts don’t support you narrative."
Remember, LLR-democratical Chuck loudly and proudly proclaimed his only reasons for posting at Althouse blog were:
1) Smearing and lying about conservatives and Trump
2) to drive a wedge between Althouse and her readers
LLR-democratical Chuck's lies about the SPR fit neatly into that framework and is consistent with everything he has lied about and mischaracterized for the last 8 years.
Of course, LLR-democratical Chuck is joined by fellow faux "LLR" operators Rich and lonejustice.
LLR Rich's serial lies about Elon Musk/Ukraine/Starlink kerfuffle over the last several is of a piece with the other LLR losers who concoct fabrications against anyone not aligned with the dems.
I suspect this activity will increase given the electoral schedule.
Trump said:
"And I predicted a lot of markets. I predicted a lot of things, frankly, you know? They say, “Trump was right about everything.” I think that the way it’s going now, you’re going to have to — things are not going, right now, very well for the consumer. Bacon is up five times."
--------------
Well, I paid $2.99 for a pound of bacon at my local Hy-Vee grocery store here in the Midwest 2 days ago, so I'm not sure what universe Trump is talking about. So bacon was 60 cents a pound when Trump was president?
Chuck trying to slip a spitball past the umpire? No kidding!
This much is clear, you're not going to gain pro-life votes by (a) supporting killing babies at any stage or (b) by insulting them. The electorate deserves at least one of the major nominees not being in favor of baby killing.
"Trump is too toxic for standard interviewing."
The people must not hear what Trump has to say because democracy.
Apparently these days, "toxic" = "says things I don't like".
Bender: "This much is clear, you're not going to gain pro-life votes by (a) supporting killing babies at any stage or (b) by insulting them. The electorate deserves at least one of the major nominees not being in favor of baby killing."
Seen online today in a similar back and forth: "What are you going to tell God when he asks why you kept paying your taxes even though tax dollars are used to fund DOD abortions? Come on big man, let’s hear your answer."
"C. Who, exactly, said, "Oh, having open borders is a wonderful thing"? I want a quote, a link. "
https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/john-kass/ct-prem-biden-border-crisis-john-kass-20210324-s6nxh76uofgs3n53xtxcmdpjty-story.html
Note: "Asylum" landing begins long before the USA for the majority of "migrants".
For newbies, a needed framework for all posys Chuck(!).
Chuck said...
"I am afraid you are mistaking me for someone who has an interest in fair treatment of Donald Trump. I'm not your guy. I am interested in smearing him, hurting him and prejudicing people against him."
3/4/16, 4:46 PM
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