OPINION:
What does it say about the State of Journalism in America today that when some kook wants to smuggle a bunch of Russian flags into the highly secured U.S. Capitol to throw at the president, he dresses up like a reporter?
And it works!
You can just see Capitol Police giving him a thorough going over to make sure everything was in order for him to go join his fellow scribes in the media.
Pen and pad? Check.
Anti-Trump steam rolling from his ears? Check.
Crazed eyes swirling up nonsensical conspiracy theories? Check.
Fistfuls of Russian flags? Right here.
“Let him through.”
“Take the elevator to the third floor and go down the hallway, sir.”
Playing his part to the hilt, the James Bond journalist even mingled with actual reporters interviewing senators in the hallway during the morning.
Later in the day, he blended in with reporters gathered outside the Senate chamber to watch President Trump walk into the weekly Republican work luncheon, where Republican senators routinely devise plans to get beaten by Democrats in the minority.
As Mr. Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell swung the turn in the wide hallway, James Bond threw the little desktop flags at the leader of the free world and screamed, “Trump is treason!”
OK, that part really did sound like an actual reporter.
And then, “This president has conspired with agents of the Russian government!”
OK, that also might have been one of the reporters. Or all of them gathered there.
Really, the only thing that gave the guy away was that he threw something. In the American journalism world, that’s a real no-no.
He has heard those very same “questions” so many times he didn’t even know anything was amiss until Capitol Police intervened to haul the guy away.
Anyway, Mr. Trump was unfazed. Smiled and gave a thumbs up.
Across town at the White House on the same day, nobody snuck into the press briefing room to pose as a James Bond Journalist. But the result, predictably, was about the same.
Of the 33 questions asked, 21 obsessed over infighting among Republicans upset at Mr. Trump.
Nothing about recent huge successes over ISIS. Just one about the president’s tax cut plan.
Remarkably, there was actually one question about the Clinton conspiracy with Russia to give 1/5 of America’s uranium to our greatest nuclear rival. But nothing about the Clinton conspiracy with Russia to dig up dirt on Mr. Trump during the election.
At least nobody threw anything at anybody.
• Charles Hurt can be reached at churt@washingtontimes.com and on Twitter via @charleshurt.
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