Comments

1
White House is probably talking about sending a special forces raid in.
2
*makes popcorn*

This is gonna be fun.
3
I'm not a cable TV subscriber. Is there any way to watch this live online? Is anyone live blogging? I'm looking to you, Mr. Savage.
4
Dang, 2005.
5
@4. Right?
6
@5

2017 - 2005 = 12.
8
@6: Math is hard.
10
@8

Easier if you use numerals; borrowing and carrying ones are trickier with words.
11
Genius move. Instead of just saying she got his 2005 returns (yawn) she got the entire internet talking about this, reigniting the question of just where Chump's taxes are.

And William dear, have you actually ever seen Rachel Maddow, let alone watched her show? Either you haven't, or you have absolutely no idea what a "bulldyke" is.
12
@9 you don't even use epithets correctly.
13
@11 @12

Probably comes from being so cocksure of what he actually has.
16
Rachel has been on this story and on this story and linking it all up. She is a wild and ernest journalist and I love her.
17
I trust Dan will update this post (or one later, or in the morning) with the pertinent clip, along with his musings. And the follow up from the driveling idiots at Fox & Friends or whatever lapdogs are marched out to spin this.
20
"The suspense is killing me---I hope it will last."
I want a Wonka bar!
GO, Dan Savage and Rachel Maddow! You both rock the house for making my week.
Slaying Trumpzilla in its gilded wallet and putrid, wrinkled Boca balls where it hurts it the most is the sweetest justice served.
22
William dear, you really are a special little snowflake, aren't you? I can tell that Mother never let you far from her sight......
23
But seriously, Rachel is great.

Strangely, MSNBC hasn't showcased Greta that much since she came over from Fox News.
24
This doesn't matter, except that unfortunately it showed he paid tax that year, so he can blame the media for obtaining something they shouldn't have, AND say "See! I pay taxes!".

The guy is President. He will be President for 4 years. We are already fucked, we cannot be unfucked. Paying attention to crap like this is just a useless distraction.
25
@19 what the fuck is your problem?
Rachel is a first class journalist and you would do well to shut your little homophobic mouth. And she's beautiful, bulldyke or not.
26
Sarah91@24. This is not going away, Trump's collusion with the Russians, his extensive financial ties to them and the world.
His corruption is in plain sight and the Republicans are under seige from their constituents. Russians with any link to this story have been dropping dead. The Russian UN Ambassador dropped dead in NY I recall,
in America somewhere, and the WH won't release his cause of death. Stuff is bubbling up all over. #resist must continue in all its forms, till America really dispels this poison.
27
#9 Please tell the audience what a "bulldyke" is. Sounds like something I heard in High School. She's a pretty smart cookie and I doubt she's what you call her. You sound like a homophobic right winger, what are doing stinking up this site?
29
45th's team leaks non-incriminating documents (and condemns its own actions) to try and defuse interest in pursuing incriminating documents.
31
It's just so depressing to see the Dems continue to deflate like a flabby balloon, while screeching into the heavens about TRUMP-HITLER! But the denial continues: some commenters here (e.g. @28 and @29) are convinced--"the fact that the returns show nothing is PROOF that OTHER returns will surely prove TRUMP-HITLER!! I will be really surprised if Slog is honest enough to post an article tomorrow called something like "We were totally wrong about our screechy heroine Rachel Maddow DESTROYING TRUMP-HITLER." As soon as I heard about this so-called scoop I knew it was going to be a Nothing-Gate, and sure enough it was. Will Slog writers be brave enough to say that instead of enjoying all the tasty popcorn they talked about, they instead threw it away in disgust?
32
There are only two logical reasons Trump is hiding his tax returns and his income sources:

1. They are illegal and/or damaging to his character.
2. He is doing it because he's being stubborn.

There's no other reason, correct? He may claim "no one cares" but even if THAT is true, then he should have no problem releasing them... because no one cares. His withholding of them is illogical, unless they contain something that puts him in a very bad light.

Since he is this country's employee holding the highest office, he must release them immediately. That, or he should be fired for insubordination. WE do not work for the president. The president works for US. The president, and the government, works for, and serves the citizens, not the other way around. The citizens, his bosses, are demanding he release this information. He should either obey his superiors or resign. Period.
33
Huh. Since nobody cares about Trump's tax returns, the only reason Rachel Maddow could bring the world to a standstill with a tweet and draw a record audience is people, folks they're just out for anything to break up the monotony. Yeah. That's got to be it. There's been too much winning! The whole country is tired of winning!

Yes that's it. It's so simple a child could understand. So sick of winning they will even watch Maddow! Why didn't I see it before. So simple. It all fits together perfectly. The fools that mocked me at the university I'll show them I'll show them all everything makes sense now can't you see! Can't you all see the winning it's all winning everywhere listen damn you all listen!
34
@26, yes, it's all seriously awful. But what do you propose we do?

And the Republicans' constituents are not pissed because of missing tax returns or Russians or he hasn't divested his businesses or any of that. They're pissed because it's finally dawned on them that they're going to lose their health insurance. They'll probably blame Congress for that instead of Trump. Fight back all you want; he will still be President 6 months from now and 6 months from then and on and on until January 20, 2021.
36
Dan seems to have jumped the gun majorly here.
Perhaps one of the sexperts he consults could do a guest article about how to deal with premature ejaculation....
37
There is no here here (except to affirm that Trumps paid a ton of taxes...) but if this non-story helps Rachael get back a little of the Smug Smirk Trump wiped off her face election night then perhaps some good was done.
38
"A text from a friend: "THIS IS THE KENNEDY ASSASSINATION OF OUR GENERATION!!!. 'Where were you when Maddow tweeted that she had Trump's tax returns?' OMFG."

omfg?

LOL is more like it.

Or even better; ROTFLMAO.

A text from a really really dumb really really credulous friend, that is.......
39
Anything that weakens him politically is good. Remember, we have 5 House seats up for election in 2017- 4 of which are held by the GOP. There's two gubernatorial sets up for grabs (one of which is Chris Christie's- yes, Christie's ass is up for grabs. Try not to retch). And there's a whole stack of mayoral seats across the country up for election, two of which are held by the GOP (Alburquerque and San Berdoo).

These numbers might seem small, but they're more than just the seats they represent. They're a referendum on Trump in the states that supported him last year. If they break away from the Orange One, it's possible we could hold that territory in 2018 when the legislative elections come.

Keep hitting him, from every angle. Tax returns. Russia. The emoluments clause. Pissgate. Just whale away at him until we knock him out.

Today is the Ides of March. If you've got anything devastating to expose, this is a very poetic day to do it on.
40
Oh yeah- I dunno if you're following the news in San Antonio, but the mayor there is an anti-gay bigot. She's up for re-election. Give generously to anyone who runs against her.
41
Weakens?
Not really....

All we now know that we didn't before is that Trump paid a lot of taxes in 2005.

The concensus on Morning Joe is that Trump probably leaked the return himself,
selecting a year in which he paid a lot of taxes;
and he can criticize the evil biased press for publishing stolen material.

Sounds like Madcow and Dan got played by The Donald in what is a win win win for him.....
42
So, yeah.
43
This defines 'non-story'.
44
News Reveals Pantheon Of Socialist Heroes Who Pay Little In Taxes! That man-of-the-people Bernie Sanders paid 13%? Really? Obama pays 17%? Seriously? Ever more hypocrisy from the Left.
45
Well, hopefully Rachael got a ratings bump from it.
This morning even her own network isn't giving it any coverage.
46
If Trump had paid maybe 140 million in taxes, I'd be impressed. Instead, the trustfund baby made a nominal payment, and had more money to spend on tacky furniture and prostitutes - both the live-in and urinating variety - and the rest of us are left with the bill.

As Dorothy Parker said, the rich should be taxed for being alive.
47
I miss Joseph Stiglitz.
48
46
Cat.
You seem to be a little bitter lately.
Is there anything we can do?

We're listening......
49
Let us be the first to wish Ruth a Happy Birthday,
and hope it is her last.
Surely she won't be tacky enough make us wait too long to cash in another one of our Supreme Court chits....
50
Jeffereson dear, thank you for your concern, but as such a very new member of Our Little Slog, perhaps you don't know: My contempt for the rich is my north star. Especially those who have inherited wealth, for they are the true welfare queens.

Sufficent numbers of uneducated and/or greedy in the flyover states have foisted this fraud upon us. We can't start too soon to clear that land and leave it to the robot farmers.
51
RED HOT TAKE INCOMING: Reince Priebus leaked the 1040 in order to distract Donald Trump from Comey's report. Better to have Trump making demented tweets about Rachel Maddow than the FBI.
52
Well, you guys got duped. This was basically the newsy version of Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone's vault on air.
53
50
Well, OK.
However, whatever part of the bill for keeping up Melania we pay is money well spent in our book.
Yowza!
54
Jeffereson dear, you really should aim higher. But if that's what you want, just go to Canlis during happy hour. There's plenty of women holding down the barstools that would fill that ticket, and most of them are younger than her. But you have to have the bank if you want to get that swank.

55
So a rich guy made a good deal of money in 2005 and paid good deal of taxes in 2005.

Did anyone actually look to see what the returns said before the BREAKING NEWS happened? Because this is some real weak tea right here.

People are going to start getting numb and tired to this hysteria if the media can't find some meat on that bone for them.
56
@53: Why do you always do that royal "we" thing? You would probably be a more effective troll without that little textual tic that makes it really obvious who you are.
57
54
Oh, we're fine, thanks.
It just gives us a warm feeling all over having such a classy elegant First Lady.
.....sigh.......
.

56
Why would we mess with a good thing?
Thank you for your input, however.
58
But since our cover has evidently been blown, we would caution you to enjoy The Troll while you can, once the tech stooges sober up in a few hours we will no doubt be deleted. again. for the 14th time.

The message used to say "this account has been suspended. email us if you want to talk about it"
they never did. want to talk about it, that is. we never got a reply.

Now the message says "this account has been suspended and cannot be activated (...wtf?!?) Please e-mail us to see what's up with that."
Evidently Dean Wormer put us on Double Secret Probation.
The Irredeemable Troll, as it were.

Alas, when you email to see what's up with that? you get no reply.

What's up with that?

Dan should definitely look into it when he gets back from Austria.
59
@58: Well, that is kind of what I am saying. You may have better luck if you stopped making it so obvious that you are the same person over and over.
60
The Truth can not be hid,
nor should it be.
61
@38 I think you put your finger on something really important that I've been saying and observing for a while: one of the essential problems of so many angry lefties today is activism envy and historical envy. It's why so many Congresswomen wore white at Trump's speech, in memory of the suffragettes--from 100 years ago. It's why BLM believes that every day is the Edmund Pettus bridge from 60 years ago, feminists believe that there is more misogyny than ever and "the Patriarchy" is all the more sinister for not being readily observable. Your friend epitomizes this, as do so many Slog commenters, desperately wanting their own JFK day that they can reminisce about and relive forever, to feel part of something. There's no concrete plan, no sense of how these tax returns will actually do anything, just as the Women's March and A Day Without a Woman was just about "solidarity," not doing anything in particular. In the meantime, so many embrace illiberal things like Islam, Maoist student violence and the suppression of ideas. There are ways to fill the void inside and make life meaningful without Trump Outrage ("Pissgate," @39, really?), trying to relive struggles of the past, and sympathizing with illiberalism.
62
good god, the trump team leaked this and you all fell for it. hard. dan, for a dude over 50 you are still very immature.
63
Returns from 2005? I haven't been this underwhelmed since Al Capone's vault. On the bright side for Comcast owned, MSNBC. Maddow probably got a ratings boost.
64
Yet another hilarious red pill.
65
It's like Trump is playing 3D Chess and the Howling Mob Leftist Media are playing TicTacToe.

Actually Trump is just a egomaniacal blowhard but when matched up with the can't-shoot-strait buffoons trying to bring him down he looks like Machiavelli and Sun Tzu all rolled into one...
66
Womp Womp Womp
67
Jeffereson dear, I think the proper spelling of the word "classy", at least as far as the current First Lady is concerned, might be "Klassi" (with a heart over the "i")

If she really does thrill you that much, there's probably an inflatable version out there somewhere. Just look around.
68
@24 : Um, no, Sarah. Trumpzilla is NOT my President and never will be.
@46 Catalina Vel-DuRay: Thanks for making my week. I KNEW I liked Dorothy Parker!
@58: *yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn....................
69
Sorry, Auntie. Yes he is. Deal with it, and get out the vote.
70
68
You should pay attention, Rip;
snoozing thru the election is what got you in this pickle.

67
Come on now,
we always thought of you as classy too.
71
Meanwhile, Trump (e.g., 9 golf trips in 7 weeks) and family (e.g., Melanie and young master Trump maintaining residence in Trump Tower in NYC ) are fleecing the taxpayers and virtually no one blinks.
72
Rachel got snookered, it'll make her tougher.
73
I don't understand how any reasonable person (well, that may be the problem right there) could possibly interpret this as "Maddow got PWNED!" just because she put on display a copy of two pages from a 12 year old return. The point isn't the return itself or what it does or doesn't show, but simply that the returns CAN be obtained; if this one can be, then so can those from any other year. SCROTUS hasn't played anyone if in fact these "leaked" from the White House; he's only dug himself a deeper hole (big surprise) by opening the door to even more questioning from the media "if this, then why not all?" If his aim was to make the media look bad, presumably by handing them a scrap of red meat and then crying "foul!" (or in this case "fake news!") in an effort to discredit them, I would say the tactic has - again unsurprisingly - backfired spectacularly.
74
We've been asking for his tax returns for so long, and he's been promising them for a long time, and now we've got two pages from 2005 that he probably leaked himself. I call "smoke screen." This is a diversion from the hellacious so-called healthcare package he and his cronies are trying to foist on us.
75
COMTE@73, yes, but only in hindsight. It was the trumpeting that has caused the response. Rachel will learn from it and go back to uncovering more of this scandal of epic proportions.
76
Racheal can't help herself.
The next time Trump tosses a crumb her way she'll be panting and jumping up and down and wagging her tail just like last night.
77
Jeffereson dear, we're learning so much about you in the very short time you've been part of Our Little Community here on Slog. It's so special of you to be so open and vulnerable, and sharing so much about yourself. You get a blue star for participation!!!
78
from the AP:

Maddow: People Disappointed By Trump Story Expected Too Much
(what were they wanting; news? Ha ! suckers....)

"NEW YORK (AP) — Rachel Maddow says that if people felt let down by her story about President Donald Trump's 2005 tax document it's more because of the weight of expectation than anything she did.

The MSNBC host found herself in the odd position Wednesday of defending herself from criticism following one of the biggest-ever scoops for her show. Maddow's show revealed, through reporter David Cay Johnston, two pages of tax return information that showed Trump earned $150 million in 2005 and paid $38 million in income taxes that year. Trump has steadfastly refused to release his tax returns.

Maddow's tweet less than 90 minutes before her show that "we've got Trump's tax returns" set off a social media frenzy. Although a subsequent tweet specified it was only two pages from one year's returns, expectations were sky high.

Maddow told the AP that she never misrepresented what she had.

"Because I have information about the president doesn't mean that it's necessarily a scandal," she said. "It doesn't mean that it's damning information. If other people leapt to that conclusion without me indicating that it was, that hype is external to what we did."

Her story was derided as "a big nothingburger" by Fox News Channel's Steve Doocy on Wednesday. There were unflattering comparisons to Geraldo Rivera's opening of Al Capone's vault, television shorthand for an anticipated event that doesn't meet expectations. The White House's pre-emptive step of issuing a statement with Trump's income and estimated taxes for that year before Maddow's show started also took air out of the story.

Maddow's nearly 20-minute explanation of why seeing the president's tax returns is important and all of the things they could reveal — before telling what the 2005 documents actually showed — may have felt familiar to her regular viewers but a long tease for those enticed by the advanced advertising.

Tweeted ESPN's Bob Ley during the show: "If you have news, Rachel, please tell us. Soon. I'm not young."

"My priority is to get the story right and put it into proper context, and explain the weight of it and why it is important," Maddow said. While she didn't reveal the income figures immediately, she did tell viewers at the top of the show the exact documents that were obtained and how they came to light, she said.

The fact that the material was leaked — and the Trump administration contended that it was illegal for Maddow to publicize it — is as important as what it revealed, Maddow said. If it happened once, it's likely to happen again, she said.

"This is a super interesting first window into his finances, and the question of his finances is a legitimate scandal," she said.

While Trump called NBC News "fake news" in a tweet Wednesday, he didn't mention Maddow specifically. His son, Donald Trump Jr., did that in a tweet: "Thank you Rachel Maddow for proving to your Trump hating followers how successful #realDonaldTrump is and that he paid $40mm in taxes."

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Wednesday that he'd have to follow up with the president's lawyer when asked if any legal action is being contemplated against NBC.

He denied that Trump himself was behind the leak to Maddow and said that it was offensive even to be asked the question. Maddow and Johnston speculated on Tuesday's show about whether Trump had something to do with the document turning up in Johnston's mail.

"It's despicable and reprehensible and they should be ashamed of themselves as to how they conducted themselves regarding this entire episode," Spicer said.

Johnston noted in a tweet Wednesday that the White House had confirmed what Trump had called "fake news." And he said that Trump fans had harassed his wife and one of his children by phone. "Sad!" he tweeted. "Let's have open debate, not threats."

Maddow said she didn't feel that the White House had undercut her story by releasing the tax information early, noting that it was important to get confirmation that the story was right.

Some Trump supporters found the revelations a positive, given that critics of his failure to release taxes had suggested the president wasn't as rich as he let on, or that he paid little in taxes. Maddow even faced some criticism within the family: a commentary by Jay Yarow on sister station CNBC's web site that was headlined, "Donald Trump just got a nice victory, thanks, of all people, to Rachel Maddow."

"I don't really care," Maddow sniffed....
"It is funny to me that a president would spend this much energy and political capital to keep secret his finances and his taxes specifically and simultaneously would want to brag about how much money he made. If that's really what he wants the story to be, he can release all of his taxes and we can all glory in his immense wealth.""
79
77
Don't tease us, Cat;
you'll make us crazy.
we have a weakness for platinum blondes with flawless skin.
80
78
our favorite snippet:

Tweeted ESPN's Bob Ley during the show:
"If you have news, Rachel, please tell us.
Soon.
I'm not young."


And if you are being mocked by Steve Doocy?
It literally doesn't get any lower...
81
Jeffereson dear, you've learned how to copy and paste! I think we may just have to up that blue star to a silver star! In the T-ball game of Slog, you've made us so proud.....
82
81
Catalina, you're breaking our heart-
nagging shrew is not your best look....
83
Now now Jeffereson, dear. I'm only trying to help, and that's because I care. You are special, you are valued.
84
Well, OK.
But hugs are better than sarcasm.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.