"Quick story about govt. shutdowns and the theatrics behind them. One year when I was reporting at CBS News during a govt. shutdown..."

"... we were sincerely searching for real life impact. When we couldn't find any, *that* should have been part of the story. Instead, we kept trying to create the appearance of an impact. It wasn't really trying to be dishonest. It was, in my retrospective view, because the general editorial idea for the story was to show how bad the 'Republican' shutdown was for ordinary Americans, and the answer simply couldn't be that it wasn't.... [W]e were calling Ds and the Obama administration for ideas to report what was the real impact. Taking our cue, these officials fabricated impact that we could report. For example, they cordoned off outdoor public monuments in Washington DC. We knew and even discussed in the newsroom that this made no sense. These monuments weren't 'manned' to begin with. The only reason to cordon them off from the public was so that visiting tourists would see the 'impact' of the shutdowns and the news media would have something to take pictures of and interview people about...."

Tweets Sharyl Attkisson.

"Does dementia make you taller?"

Let me tell you what I really think. I don't have *any* inside info about this particular event. However, it is a fact that presidents have body doubles and decoys for security reasons. And, from a very reliable, firsthand source: To the extent our intel agencies (or whomever)… https://t.co/lAgeTIYQbm

— Sharyl Attkisson 🕵️‍♂️💼🥋 (@SharylAttkisson) July 26, 2024

"But then I also saw other cases where the individual was simply walking into the Capitol building with the permission of Capitol police officers..."

"... and had told the FBI that very same fact, and, on occasion, there was surveillance video to support it. Kind of seemed to me that it was a waste of our valuable resources to pursue even an interview with that individual if we had them on video not committing any crime and just walking into the Capitol building, which is their right to do as an American citizen."

From "FBI Whistleblower: Capitol Police Letting Peaceful Protesters Inside Building On January 6 'Smelled Like Entrapment'" (RCP).

"There’s three things the Amish don't like. And that's government— they won't get involved in the government..."

"... they don't like the public education system— they won't send their children to education — and they also don't like the health system — they rip us off. Those are three things that we feel like we're fighting against all the time. Well, those three things are all part of what Covid is.... When [the Amish] take communion, they dump their wine into a cup and they take turns to drink out of that cup.... The first time they went back to church, everybody got coronavirus.... It’s a worse thing to quit working than dying. Working is more important than dying. But to shut down and say that we can't go to church, we can't get together with family, we can't see our old people in the hospital, we got to quit working? It's going completely against everything that we believe. You're changing our culture completely to try to act like they wanted us to act the last year, and we're not going to do it.... Oh, we're glad all the English people got their Covid vaccines. That's great... good for you... Us? No, we're not getting vaccines.... We all got the Covid, so... all the Amish know we got herd immunity. Of course we got herd immunity!... We think we’re smarter than everybody. We shouldn’t be bragging, but we think we did the right thing."

Said Calvin Lapp, an Amish man, interviewed by Sharyl Attkisson, quoted in "How Amish Communities Became The First To Achieve Covid 'Herd Immunity' Without Higher Death Rate, Shutdown, Masks, Or Vaccines" (RCP).

"Sen. Grassley presses FBI on false testimony during Justice Kavanaugh confirmation."

Writes Sharyl Attkisson (with the full text of Grassley's letter).

The riot at your doorstep is an insurrection.

Any "riot" is bad. But while traveling across US, I hear some say Congress overreacted like little kings & their experience was far milder than what many went thru in the past yr without the same fervor for hearings, to prosecute, find organizers, etc. What do you think?

— Sharyl Attkisson🕵️‍♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) February 27, 2021

Is this elite? Or is this what elite people scoff at?

Attention Trump supporters:
Does this make you not want to vote for Trump?
Do Trump's enemies understand why you're voting for him? https://t.co/a4sBhPcSvC

— Sharyl Attkisson🕵️‍♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) September 20, 2020

ADDED: As noted on this blog back in 2017, there's a difference between elite and elitist: "I'm not elitist. I'm elite. There's a difference." I would suggest to McCaskill that Trump is elite but he is not elitist.

I couldn't take my eyes off Bill. What's he thinking?!

What do you think the bubble above Bill Clinton's head says right now? https://t.co/p3efFzKAFK

— Sharyl Attkisson🕵️‍♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) September 5, 2020

They prefer to live somewhere that has died.

I'm not sure what "Death to America" really means to them, assuming these people are U.S. citizens. They want another country to take over? Which one? https://t.co/bM44z9aqvT

— Sharyl Attkisson🕵️‍♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) August 31, 2020

"Do you agree with this step, or do you feel like you should be allowed to read what you want and make up your own mind?"

Do you agree with this step, or do you feel like you should be allowed to read what you want and make up your own mind? https://t.co/SBOiWOWklp

— Sharyl Attkisson🕵️‍♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) July 22, 2020

Sharyl Attkisson picks a winning pro-Trump description of impeachment (and I guess there will be a winning anti-Trump description).

2-Winner: #1 Pro-Trump description of impeachment:
(Thanks for playing!) https://t.co/kyOo0RARQI pic.twitter.com/B3aZbEsyMo

— Sharyl Attkisson🕵️‍♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) January 19, 2020

Attkisson notes the incoherence of the Democrats' position.

It seems to me, factually, that while some Ds accuse Trump of turning to foreigners to investigate a rival for political purposes, *they* are turning to foreigners to investigate a rival for political purposes. And some Ds already were proven to have done that in 2016.

— Sharyl Attkisson🕵️‍♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) October 8, 2019

Twitter visibility.

This account's visibility on Twitter is down 50-70% in a month though supposed followers are up by several thousand. I can't explain it. Thanks for hanging in there and checking back! https://t.co/tWkSrBFB9k

— Sharyl Attkisson🕵️‍♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) December 29, 2018

"Mexico will deport Central American migrants who attempted to storm the US border, its interior ministry said."

"The group, part of the migrant caravan heading towards the US from Central America, was rounded up after trying to cross the border 'violently' and 'illegally' on Sunday. Video footage shows dozens of people running towards the border fence near the city of Tijuana. US border officers used tear gas to repel them."

BBC reports.



Remember all the concern that if the U.S. opposed the storming of our border it would mean shooting and killing people?

ADDED: Trump's reaction:

Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are stone cold criminals, back to their countries. Do it by plane, do it by bus, do it anyway you want, but they are NOT coming into the U.S.A. We will close the Border permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 26, 2018

ALSO: Another point of view:

I'm surprised the US would use pepper spray and smoke pellets with all the baby carriages and moms around. https://t.co/fZm3pCBFGo

— Sharyl Attkisson🕵️‍♂️ (@SharylAttkisson) November 25, 2018

AND: I watched the video that Attkinson passed along, and I didn't see any "baby carriages." I don't know who the people in the video really are, but I note that no one is carrying luggage. Maybe 20% have small backpacks — less full than what you'd see on a school child — and the rest are carrying nothing at all. These don't look like migrants. They look like protesters — and nearly all young men. They are actively breaking through, bending a gate in a wall. Don't American police use tear gas on American protesters who are this disorderly? I don't understand Attkisson's surprise.

OKAY: In the comments to her own tweet, Attkisson tweets, "I was being sarcastic; I don't see any baby carriages."

"Why is (almost) nobody talking about Trump-Russia collusion? I'm ok either way, I just would like to know..."

"... why it was the #1 most important story in the world for so long and now it's not."

Tweets Sharyl Attkisson.

So far...

So far, law enforcement says they aren't "explosive devices." Hoax devices made to appear dangerous. https://t.co/Nh8EJQzllm

— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) October 25, 2018

"What exactly might an 'insurance policy' against Donald Trump look like? He would have to be marginalized at every turn."

"Strategies would encompass politics, the courts, opposition research and the media. He’d have to become mired in lawsuits, distracted by allegations, riddled with calls for impeachment, hounded by investigations. His election must be portrayed as the illegitimate result of a criminal or un-American conspiracy.... Once Trump is in office, a good insurance policy would call for neutralizing the advisers seen as most threatening, including his attorney general. The reigning FBI director could privately send the implicit message that as long as Trump minds his own business, he won’t be named as a target. When the president asks the FBI director to lift the cloud and tell the public their president isn’t under investigation, the FBI director could demur and allow a storm of innuendo to build. Idle chatter benefits the plot. There would be rampant media leaks, both true and false, but none of them would benefit Trump. All would be well unless the president removes the FBI director. Then, a rider on the insurance policy would kick in...."

Writes Sharyl Attkisson at The Hill.

Also at The Hill: "The handwritten notes exposing what Fusion GPS told DOJ about Trump," by John Solomon.

... Fusion GPS founder Glenn Simpson — paid by Hillary Clinton’s campaign to find dirt on her GOP rival — met secretly with [then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Bruce Ohr], right after Trump won the 2016 election. And all of it was captured in the official’s handwritten notes — a contemporaneous record that intelligence professionals tell me exposes the flaws plaguing the early Russia collusion case....

Early on, Ohr’s notes detail, the conversation focused on a theory apparently offered by Simpson that revolving Trump team members — former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, followed by informal adviser Carter Page, then personal lawyer Michael Cohen — forged a secret channel with Moscow to hijack the election. All three men long have been cited in the Russia investigation; each denies any coordination with Russia. But Ohr’s notes are the first to quote Simpson as suggesting the three essentially were shark-tooth spies who replaced each other in a secret plot....

The Ohr interview and many other now-public actions in the Russia collusion case are “breaking every protocol at the fundamental level of intelligence gathering,” one highly decorated intelligence professional told me....

"Strzok isn’t just any rank-and-file guy spouting off in one ill-advised email. His fingerprints were on every FBI investigation..."

"... that stood to impact Clinton’s presidential candidacy or to hurt Trump before and after the 2016 election. He was chief of the FBI’s Counterespionage Section and number two in the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. He led the team of investigators in the Clinton classified email probe and led the FBI investigation into alleged Russian interference in the election. He was involved in the controversial anti-Trump 'Steele dossier' used, in part, to obtain multiple secret wiretaps. He was the one who interviewed Trump adviser Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who pled guilty to lying to the FBI only to later learn that agents reportedly didn’t think he’d lied. And Strzok was the 'top' FBI agent appointed to work on the team of special counsel Robert Mueller to investigate alleged Trump-Russia collusion. The earth-shattering finding on Strzok by the inspector general (IG) confirms a citizenry’s worst fears: A high-ranking government intel official allegedly conspired to affect the outcome of a U.S. presidential election...."

Read "What did Peter Strzok do?" by Sharyl Attkisson.

"Was Lynch coordinating with Comey in the Clinton investigation?"

Asks Sharyl Attkisson (at The Hill).

Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch knew well in advance of FBI Director James Comey's 2016 press conference that he would recommend against charging Hillary Clinton, according to information turned over to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Friday.

The revelation was included in 384 pages of text messages exchanged between FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, and it significantly diminishes the credibility of Lynch's earlier commitment to accept Comey's recommendation — a commitment she made under the pretense that the two were not coordinating with each other.

And it gets worse. Comey and Lynch reportedly knew that Clinton would never face charges even before the FBI conducted its three-hour interview with Clinton, which was supposedly meant to gather more information into her mishandling of classified information...

Read the whole thing.

Tweets about the 2 investigations.

WOW, @foxandfrlends “Dossier is bogus. Clinton Campaign, DNC funded Dossier. FBI CANNOT (after all of this time) VERIFY CLAIMS IN DOSSIER OF RUSSIA/TRUMP COLLUSION. FBI TAINTED.” And they used this Crooked Hillary pile of garbage as the basis for going after the Trump Campaign!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 26, 2017

You know about the @realDonaldTrump - Russia probe. But there's another Big Investigation that appears to be claiming scalps you haven't heard as much about. https://t.co/DWkN7kNUA1 https://t.co/6TVmgnnytt

— Sharyl Attkisson (@SharylAttkisson) December 26, 2017