WASHINGTON – (Newsblaze) The White House on Monday waded into the “Pizzagate” story indirectly by reacting to the Sunday shooting by a North Carolina man at the upper Northwest Washington Comet Pizzeria. They said “Fake News” was to blame and blasted the relatives of Trump Administration National Security Council Designate Michael Flynn as “irresponsible” for their beliefs that the pizzeria was connected to a child sex ring that involved major Washington power players such as Clinton Campaign Manager John Podesta.
“I think there’s no denying the corrosive effect that some of these false reports have had on our political debate. And that’s concerning in a political context. It’s deeply troubling that some of those false reports could lead to violence.” remarked Obama Administration Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
Earnest continued on by saying the actions of Edgar Maddison Welch the 28 year old North Carolina man involved were “unclear” who walked into Comet Pizza to “self investigate” the swirling internet controversy. By late Monday, according WUSA 9 DC Police were saying “nothing to suggest” that it had anything to do with Pizzagate.
Pizzagate entered the American political lexicon late in the 2016 Presidential campaign in hacked email dumps of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta. Many observers digging through his emails noticed language and symbols of pedophila that match FBI manuals on the subject for identifying the criminal behavior.
Critics contend the Pizzagate story is actually pushed by “Fake News” outlets. The same critics say Russian hackers cost Hillary Clinton the presidency, and that found many sympathetic voices in the White House Press Corps on Monday. One of those was The New York Times’ Gardiner Harris. With an impassioned voice, Harris queried the White House Press Secretary, asking if there was really a moral equivalence between Middle Eastern Jihadis and people interested in the Pizzagate controversy.
“The administration has gone to Silicon Valley and had conversations with Twitter and social media companies about making sure they crack down on these jihadi threats. You had an entire set of businesses up here on Connecticut Avenue for months getting direct death threats, and they said that nothing was done about them. Is it only a priority if these are jihadi threats? And is it not a priority for this administration if businesses and normal people are getting death threats and being terrorized for months with no action on the part of this administration? Help me understand the difference there,” Harris asked.
Josh Earnest spent much of his time on Monday on the subject praising the actions of DC police by saying “Well, let me start by complimenting and crediting local law enforcement here in the Washington area who responded with a lot of professionalism to that situation in preventing any bloodshed. So this is just another example of how our men and women in blue never take a day off from keeping us safe. We owe them a debt of gratitude, and that certainly applies to the brave men and women who serve in the Metropolitan Police Department here in Washington, D.C.”
The White House also found itself critiquing National Security Advisor Michael Flynn’s family. Flynn’s son’s Twitter account supported an inquiry into the Pizzagate controversy although Earnest did deflect an opportunity to take a direct shot at Flynn.
Earnest did say “I think we all hold a responsibility, regardless of whether or not we are planning to serve in a government position or if one of our family members is planning to serve in a government position, that we shouldn’t be propagating false things that could inspire violence.”
Just as a matter of interest, fake news is also protected by the 1st Amendment,Gordon Jeremiah Berry says. Even so, there are exceptions. He says “Situations that would not be covered under the 1st Amendment under legal terms would be found by one of the following: libel, slander, defamation, fighting words, obscenity, and what is referred to in legal circles as the Brandenburg test.” [Fake News, Hate Websites, and the Law]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj7PBaKGtyo
