All posts tagged "charlie sykes"

'This feels different': Conservative says new scandal knocked Trump off-kilter

Conservative writer Charlie Sykes claimed in a new article that President Donald Trump has been so unnerved by the Iran scandal fueled by his own administration's claims that he can focus on nothing else.

So far, only one of 17 intelligence agencies released reports on the possible effects of last weekend's bombing, yet the Trump administration continues to call it a raging success. When the press has questioned exactly how Trump knows Iran's nuclear capabilities have been wiped out, the president has been going ballistic.

At Wednesday's NATO summit press conference at The Hague, Trump claimed The New York Times, CNN, and MSNBC were out to disparage him and the brave men and women who defend the country.

"Trumpian rage rants are, of course, routine," Sykes wrote. "But Playbook suggests that this time feels different. 'The president posted 21 times on Truth Social yesterday about the supposed success of his military strikes. And at yesterday’s NATO summit — a moment specifically designed by the Western world for Trump to bask in the glory of a huge defense spending boost — he spent most of his public appearances repeating his assertions on Iran.'”

Sykes turned to Politico's reporting to find the reasoning behind Trump's "latest indignant frenzy."

"Critics see a president spooked by a bombshell leak that has undermined his authority," wrote Politico's Jack Blanchard and Dasha Burns.

"Supporters say Trump is genuinely outraged by what he claims is false reporting and wants the record corrected. Either way — he’s using every tool in his arsenal to push back hard: Witness the hammer-like repetition that sites were 'obliterated'; the plentiful use of surrogates like Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio; the vindictive targeting of the journalists and media organizations involved; the barrage of statements from both U.S. and Israeli intelligence chiefs yesterday that the initial report was wrong," the report states.

On CNN Thursday, former Trump official Alyssa Farah Griffin warned that the administration was making matters worse by fighting over how successful the campaign was when the full scope of the strikes still wasn't in.

Read the Charlie Sykes article here.

Trump's 'favorite poem' used against him by conservative writer

Conservative writer Charlie Sykes reminded Donald Trump about the "favorite poem" he kept quoting during his first campaign, and how its relevance was undeniable in the midst of the president's current feud with former "buddy" Elon Musk.

In a new piece on Substack, Sykes wrote that "The Snake," by civil rights activist Oscar Brown Jr., "seems relevant today."

According to The Independent, "'The Snake' tells the story of a woman who takes in a frozen snake she discovers on her way to work. After reviving the creature, it retaliates, giving the woman a 'vicious bite' and killing her." The moral of the story? Even though the woman showed the snake kindness, it remained a snake with a natural instinct to bite.

Trump had a history of repeating the poem at his rallies "to demonize immigrants," according to the outlet, reciting it again in Las Vegas last September when he changed the ending for effect to, "You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in!”

Brown's daughters sent Trump several cease-and-desist letters during the his first presidential campaign, accusing him of misrepresenting their father's message, saying, "The elephant in the room is that Trump is the living embodiment of the snake that my father wrote about in that song."

Which brings us back to Sykes's point: it has always been in Trump's nature to bite.

"It’s always possible that the two will kiss and make up," Sykes wrote of Trump and Musk. "Trump has a long history of taking enemies back into the fold. He also has a long history of scorched earth vengeance, and red lines were definitely crossed Thursday."

To recap, Trump threatened to "terminate Elon’s Governmental Subsidies and Contracts" after Musk criticized his spending bill as "abominable" and accused the president of lying to him about it. A whole host of threats followed until Trump on Friday said he "wasn't even thinking" about Musk anymore.

Sykes then examined the "obvious questions" left in the wake of the battle for the minds of MAGA.

"Will MAGA choose Trump or Musk?" Sykes asked and answered: "Spoiler: Trump."

"Will Trump follow through on his threats to cut Elon's contracts? (Probably.)"

And finally, "Are we five minutes away from Trump ordering the DOJ to launch a criminal investigation into Musk? (Likely.)"

Read Charlie Sykes's Substack here.

'Karma catching up': Conservative says GOP media's conspiracy theories are now biting them

After decades of radicalizing and misinforming their audience, right-wing media outlets and pundits are finally starting to face some kind of consequence for their actions, conservative anti-Trump pundit Charlie Sykes told MSNBC's Alex Wagner on Friday evening — but that by no means puts America in the clear of their influence.

"The mendacity knows no bound," said Wagner. "Beyond the elegant theory that could be useful for Democrats, there's also the reality that these, these lies hang on Republican elected officials. If you follow them upstream, you get to sitting senators. You wrote a piece in The Atlantic today talking about the way in which the fake electors plot in Wisconsin leads us to Ron Johnson. And that is not good for him. Can you talk a little bit more about how you see those dominoes falling?"

"Well, I think the story you just told," said Sykes. "People need to understand what an integral role to convince people that the election was stolen. Spreading the COVID conspiracy theories. That's important because many of the Republican politicians have followed where the base went. They have been influenced by the D'Souzas and the Epoch Times. Steve Bannon is also going to jail. There's a great moment of feeling there's karma catching up with the mendacity that you've been documenting."

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However, Sykes added, "to your point, this is so deeply engrained now in the Republican Party, and a Republican Party headed by Donald Trump."

"I mean, I would love to spike the football and say that, you know, we're now seeing reality make a comeback," Sykes continued. "But the big asterisk there is, can reality make a comeback in American politics as long as Donald Trump is possibly going to be elected the next President of the United States? Because ... these things are not, they're not simply discrete. Donald Trump has worked very closely with each of these outlets. They are crucial cogs in the disinformation web out there."

"And as long as Donald Trump is there, and as long as you have elected officials like Ron Johnson who are willing to carry water for the Big Lie in these conspiracy theories, they can still do a lot of damage, and will do a lot of damage," he concluded.

Watch the video below or at the link here.

Charlie Sykes says "karma" is catching up to right-wing mediawww.youtube.com

'Mirage': Conservative Charlie Sykes says Trump's control of GOP is showing cracks

Former President Donald Trump appears to have an insurmountable grip on the Republican Party, emphasized by his easy victory for a third presidential nomination earlier this month.

But look closer, argued Trump-skeptic conservative analyst Charlie Sykes for MSNBC on Friday: the former president's grip on power is shakier than it appears.

"Trump’s outsize control in the party is formidable — but it’s far from complete. That means figures who could pry those fissures open — such as former congresswoman Liz Cheney and former Vice President Mike Pence — could have an outsize influence on the 2024 election," wrote Sykes. "An NBC exit poll in Ohio this week found that almost 1 out of 5 Republican primary voters — including nearly half of Nikki Haley’s supporters — say they will not vote for Trump in November."

ALSO READ: Here's why conservative elites are bailing on Trump now

"While 18% is not a majority, it’s not chopped liver either. And it’s consistent with what happened at ballot boxes across the country," he continued. "Even though Trump is running unopposed, large numbers of Republicans continue to refuse to vote for the ex-president. In Kansas, nearly a quarter (24.5%) of Republican voters came out to cast ballots for somebody else. In Florida, opponents who had dropped out of the race received 18.8% of the vote; in Ohio, it was 20.8%; in Illinois, 19.2%. And, in the crucial swing state of Arizona, 22.1% of Republicans voted for a non-Trump alternative, a result that led Haley’s zombie campaign to put out a congratulatory tweet."

All of this is occurring against the backdrop of Trump installing his own loyalists in the Republican National Committee leadership, and the party's new joint fundraising committee with Trump allows him to siphon off donor money for his legal expenses — an arrangement a large number of GOP officials had reportedly wanted for some time.

But a large number of Republican voters don't want it, Sykes said — enough that they could deny Trump victory in November. Particularly if disaffected GOP leaders like Liz Cheney step up and encourage it.

"Cheney and Pence are hardly alone. Just run through the extraordinary list of former Trump Cabinet members, chiefs of staff, defense secretaries and national security advisers who are refusing to endorse him," wrote Sykes. "Their warnings about the dangers of a second Trump presidency aren’t coming from Democrats or the hosts on MSNBC — they are coming from inside the house. And in a close election, that could make all the difference."

Trump's praise of Jan. 6 convicts gives 'a dangerous clue' about his plans: conservative

Will Donald Trump pardon the January 6 defendants who sprayed police with mace, or the ones who broke windows at the Capitol and threatened to kill Mike Pence? That's the question on the mind of conservative Charlie Sykes.

Sykes, the right-wing commentator who earlier this month traded pointed barbs with Donald Trump co-defendant Jeff Clark, called out Trump's habit of calling the Jan. 6 convicts "hostages" in a piece published by MSNBC.

"Trump’s reference to Jan. 6 insurrectionists being held in prison, most for violent crimes, as 'hostages' provides a dangerous clue to his White House plan," he wrote Sunday.

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Sykes goes on to question, with specificity, what Trump plans to do about those who violently attempted to overturn an election Trump lost.

"On Jan. 6, 2021, Julian Khater used a can of bear spray to attack Capitol Police officers who were trying to hold the line against attackers. One of the officers Khater sprayed was Brian Sicknick, who died the next day after suffering a stroke. Last year, Khater pleaded guilty to two counts of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon, and earlier this year he was sentenced to more than six years in prison," Sykes wrote. "Presumably, he is one of the 'Jan. 6 hostages' that Donald Trump says he will set free on his first day back in office, should he be elected in November, per a social media post that reads, 'My first acts as your next President will be to Close the Border, DRILL, BABY, DRILL, and Free the January 6 Hostages being wrongfully imprisoned!'"

Sykes goes on to list several other convicts and their role in the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt, ultimately declaring it "mind-boggling" that "Trump, the self-professed 'law and order candidate,' is planning to wipe out the 6 1/2-year sentence of Ralph Joseph Celentano III, who grabbed an officer at the Capitol and threw him over a ledge, an act the judge described as a 'truly cowardly and despicable thing to do.'"

"Yet if we are to take him at his word, these are the people Trump is promising to return to civilian society," the commentator said.

Read the full piece here.

'Wanna-be seditionist says what?' Right-wing commentator feuds with Trump ally Jeff Clark

Conservative commentator Charlie Sykes and Donald Trump co-defendant Jeff Clark traded some pointed barbs Sunday.

Former Justice Department official Clark, who was arrested along with Donald Trump for allegedly trying to use the Justice Department to lean on Georgia to block its electoral count, is no stranger to internet feuds. Late last year, legal experts piled on him after he lashed out against former acting solicitor general Neal Katyal over Burning Man.

Now, however, he is picking a different fight with Sykes.

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Clark on Sunday shared a post in which Sykes is quoted saying, "At the moment Steve Bannon is the id of the American right and, if we've learned anything in the last eight years, it's don't assume because somebody sounds extreme and unhinged that they will not be influential in this party."

The quote from Sykes continues:

"Donald Trump does not look at Steve Bannon and think this guy is unhinged; he's looking at Steve Bannon and saying this is exactly what I want to hear from my supporters. Steve Bannon knows what he's doing and he will act as a gravitational pull on the rest of the right because they have to match him.”

"I don't believe Charlie Sykes is a real conservative for a second," the criminal defendant wrote in sharing the quote. "Especially not because he ran as a Democrat. But if I did, he's the most pathetic dish towel conservative that's around. Of course he's triggered by Bannon, who's an alpha and whose career puts Charlie's to shame."

Sykes responded, "Wanna-be seditionist says what?"

Clark wasn't done.

"I'll put that in my defamation file, Mr. Wet Dish Towel. Enjoy your MSNBC gig, where real conservatives always go," he replied. "You're reminding me to write up a piece sometime about how the Left (where you're really situated) on X have only got shorthands like FAFO, says what?, or FU!"