BREAKING: Tailgunner Joe visits liberal cable!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2018

Tailgunner Rachel's prime target: We're often struck by Rachel Maddow's strong McCarthyite tendency. There's no one she pursues more strongly in this disreputable old way than she does Carter Page.

Has Carter Page been in league with the Russkies? Like Maddow, we have no way of knowing.

That said, Maddow loves to string Page up. Consider one of the ways she conned her viewers last night.

Maddow noted the fact that Page gave a speech in Moscow in the summer of 2016. Here's what Our Own Tailgunner said:

MADDOW (2/1/18): In July, now as an announced senior foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump, Carter Page took a trip to Moscow. And he gave what was basically an anti-U.S., pro-Vladimir Putin speech in Moscow at a Putin-connected university. He denounced U.S. sanctions on Russia.

He would later admit that while he was there, he met with high-ranking Russian officials, including the deputy prime minister of Russia, as well as at least one official from the Russian gas company Rosneft. He later admitted that he had those meetings when he went to Moscow that July, although he had initially denied them.

To watch this presentation, click here, move ahead to the 8-minute mark.

Let's try to ignore that Tailgunner language about giving an "anti-U.S. speech." Believe it or not, Page is entitled to his views about US-Russia relations. Some major figures on the left and the right agree with his general drift.

(We ourselves hold no particular views on such topics.)

Ignore that Tailgunner language. Focus instead on Maddow's claim that Page "would later admit that while he was there, he met with high-ranking Russian officials, including the deputy prime minister of Russia."

For what it's worth, there's no law against meeting with the deputy PM of the Russkies. That said, did Page "later admit" to such a meeting?

Well actually, no, he didn't. Consider the games Rachel played:

As Maddow made the statement we've quoted last night, the text shown below appeared on the screen. It comes from this news report in the Wall Street Journal:

ON SCREEN:
while in Moscow, be "briefly said hello" to Arkady Dvorkovich, depity prime minister of Russia, and met with Andrey Baranov, head of investor relations at Russian oil giant PAO Rosneft.

As these killing machines will happily do, Rachel transformed a "briefly said hello" into a "meeting." Meanwhile, just for the record, how brief was the "brief hello" which Page later "admitted?"

The Journal report is referring to Page's testimony before the House Intelligence Committee last November. He testified that the "brief hello"—a brief handshake on his way from the stage—lasted five to ten seconds, "probably closer to five."

(To read the testimony, click here, see page 38. That testimony is the "later admission" to which Tailgunner Rachel referred.)

The killing machines have played it this way all through the annals of time. Page testified to a five-second handshake; for purposes of locking him up, Maddow transformed it into a "meeting." In this way, she shows her contempt for her millions of liberal viewers, and her love of the age-old instincts of a Tailgunner Joe.

Rachel Maddow has terrible instincts, a fact she's good at hiding. She's extremely good at selling the car, and she shouldn't be on the air.

Was Carter Page allied with the Russkies? We don't know, and neither does Maddow. (Warning! Other sleights-of-hand occurred in last night's segment.)

We do know tailgunners when we see them. Maddow has played it this way, in various instances, down through the long clowning years. Her instincts tell her that The Bad People badly need getting locked up.