Washington Post’s Award-winning ‘Video Timeline’ Supported False Lafayette Square Narrative

breitbart ^ | 9 Jun 2021 | JOEL B. POLLAK

[MarvinStinson]

The Washington Post created the false impression that President Donald Trump ordered Lafayette Square cleared with “tear gas” to remove “peaceful protesters” for a “photo-op” last June 1.

Those claims have been definitively debunked by an inspector general’s report from the Department of Interior, which confirmed the Trump administration’s story: that U.S. Park Police had already planned to enlarge the perimeter around the White House after violent attacks by rioters on law enforcement, and cleared the park using pepper balls, not tear gas.

The report also confirms that it was the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, under the control of Democrat Mayor Muriel Bowser, who used tear gas at a different site nearby, after protesters had already been cleared from the park.

At the time, the Post‘s 12-minute “video timeline” was celebrated as an important piece of investigative journalism:

The Post reported that “police” had used tear gas, adding that “their actions cleared the way” for Trump’s “photo-op” holding a Bible at the St. John’s Episcopal Church, which had partly been burned by rioters the night before.

The video timeline does not distinguish between federal law enforcement forces and Metropolitan Police Department personnel. It also ignores the violence directed at law enforcement on the two nights prior to the park being cleared.

The Post noted that a tear gas canister was found, as if to dispute claims by federal law enforcement that they had used it. (Ironically, the Post also noted that Mayor Muriel Bowser called federal actions “shameful,” though it was her own city’s forces that had used the tear gas against protesters — an action that Washington, DC, is now defending in federal court.)

[MarvinStinson]

The inspector general’s report concluded:

We did not obtain evidence suggesting that the USPP cleared Lafayette Park so the President could visit St. John’s Church. Instead, we found that by approximately 10 a.m. on June 1, the USPP had already begun developing a plan to clear protesters from the area to enable the contractor to safely install the antiscale fence. … We found no evidence establishing that the USPP knew of any potential movement by the President through Lafayette Park until hours later.

[MarvinStinson]

False claims about Trump’s actions that day were repeated by Democrats and the media throughout the 2020 presidential election campaign. President-elect Joe Biden repeated those claims in blaming Trump for the Capitol riot in January.

[Gay State Conservative]

But when all was said and done they awarded themselves yet another prize.

[sauropod]

Bezos Post lies.

[HotHunt]

It is my considered opinion that this is a classic example of the very essence of what is wrong with our federal government.

Spending a year investigating something that amounted to a nothing burger to begin with to make the opposition (in this case, Trump, look bad) wasting not only taxpayers' money but the bureaucracy's time.

Never doing anything to benefit the public but instead to satisfy the personal and collective whims of the democRATS.

They treated the president like a common criminal for most of his term, making fools of themselves in an attempt to make Trump look like he broke the law but which they themselves are guilty of.

Makes an old man a skeptic and a cynic about the usefulness of the government and our leaders.

[airedale]

Shouldn’t thePost return this award for the highest level of Journalism or the Columbia School of Journalism ask for it back. If they won’t give it back perhaps it should be renamed The Walter Durante Award in Journalism.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Why should the Washington Post tell the truth about anything connected with/to Donald Trump? They spent 4 years telling us nothing but Clinton/Democrat/Steele lies about “Russian Collusion” and piss-parties and never recanted when the truth came out.

Reading the WP is like reading the daily news paper put out by inmates at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for the criminally insane editors and journalists.

Charlie Manson reportedly said that “I wish the Wash. Post had represented me in court over that “dinner thing”. I would have been acquitted.