Flynn Fired

Michael G. Flynn, son of Trump’s national security adviser choice Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, was let go by the president-elect on Tuesday, according to The New York Times.

Although it has not been officially confirmed what exactly led to Flynn’s dismissal, the newspaper cited two Trump transition officials who said it had to do with his role in spreading a fake news story which alleged that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex ring from the backrooms of Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington DC, a story which has been dubbed ‘Pizzagate.’

[...]

The fake news story led to a dangerous incident on Sunday, in which a man who believed the report began shooting inside the restaurant while “self-investigating” the situation. The story has also led to the restaurant’s employees and other nearby business owners receiving death threats.

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Just hours after the Sunday incident – and despite law enforcement confirming that there is no investigation taking place regarding any sort of child sex ring at the restaurant – Flynn took to Twitter to say that “until Pizzagate [is] proven to be false, it’ll remain a story…”

  RT

I know it can't be proved that he did it with the intention to cause immediate harm, but perhaps he should at least be fined as well as fired. Trump needs to get out in front of the shit his campaign riled up. This is a good opportunity for him to sue someone for talking shit that actually caused harm.

Flynn’s exact role in the transition team is a bit fuzzy. Despite reports that he had a team email address, Vice President-elect Mike Pence denied on Tuesday that Flynn had ever worked for the team, telling MSNBC’s Morning Joe program that he had “no involvement in the transition whatsoever.”

Yeah, under the circumstances, you would say that, wouldn't you?

Transition spokesman Jason Miller, however, later contradicted Pence’s statement, confirming that Flynn had worked for the transition team but that he was no longer involved.

Meanwhile, CBS News has reported that Flynn was not fired, but rather offered his resignation before he could be dismissed – possibly seconds before – after realizing that he had become a distraction.

Yeah, you would do that, wouldn't you?

A distraction. That's the backbone of the Trump campaign.

A BuzzFeed investigation found that many of the big fake news stories originated from a tiny Macedonian town known as Veles. There, young Macedonians have embraced “a digital gold rush” by setting up fake news sites and using Facebook as a platform to push their false stories, reaping the advertising dollars that come with the clicks and sharing.

Silverman and Lawrence Alexander wrote for BuzzFeed, “Several teens and young men who run these sites told BuzzFeed News that they learned the best way to generate traffic is to get their politics stories to spread on Facebook — and the best way to generate shares on Facebook is to publish sensationalist and often false content that caters to Trump supporters.”

[...]

Laura Sydell reported at NPR the experience of one fake news purveyor, 40-year-old Jestin Coler in California:



This isn't something that started with Trump. This is something that's been in the works for a while. His whole campaign was this thing of discrediting mainstream media sources, which is one of those dog whistles to his supporters.”

  Vox

To be fair, greedy idiots on Twitter and Facebook are not the only ones to offer fake news that leads to big trouble from Trumpettes. I'm looking at you New York Times.

This is my favorite excerpt from that New York Times link:

"Miller’s reporting was later revealed to have been based on faulty information. She’s now a contributor for Fox News."

Fox News, the granddaddy of bullshit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.