The leftist media touted it as the biggest scandal since Watergate. And it would explain all we needed to know about President Trump’s complicity in arranging the “insurrection” of January 6, 2021, when his supporters staged a mostly peaceful protest and surged into the U.S. Capitol.
CBS and The Washington Post had unearthed phone logs that showed a “gap” of more than seven hours in Trump’s phone logs that day.
Except the “gap” wasn’t a gap at all. It was nothing.
To its credit, CNN reported the truth. The phone logs from that day were complete. Trump simply did not use the White House switchboard when he was not in the president’s residence.
Breaking BS
The tweets and reports from CBS and the Post were breathless. At long last, they were certain, we know that Trump tried to hide the truth about his role in the January 6 “insurrection” by erasing phone logs. It was Watergate all over again. A gap in the tapes.
“BREAKING: CBS News and the Washington Post have obtained White House records turned over to the House, which show a gap in President Donald Trump’s phone logs of seven hours and 37 minutes on January 6,” CBS tweeted.
Well, no, the phone logs did not show that. Just as the Steele Dossier did not show Trump’s “collusion” with Russia to defeat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
“The mystery of the seven-hour gap has fueled furious speculation as to why calls are missing. That includes allegations that Trump was using ‘burner phones’ (which he has denied) or that the logs were purposely suppressed,” CNN reported. “But the gap might have a less mysterious explanation.”
“Trump’s typical phone habits” explain the Big Gap:
He mainly placed calls through the switchboard when he was in the residence but rarely used it when he was in the Oval Office. The fact the log does not show calls on January 6, 2021, from the Oval Office is not unusual, said the sources, because Trump typically had staff either place calls directly for him on landlines or cell phones. Those calls would not be noted on the switchboard log.
The six pages of White House switchboard logs for January 6, 2021, are complete based on an official review of White House records, according to a source familiar with the matter. There are no missing pages and the seven-hour gap is likely explained by use of White House landlines, White House cell phones and personal cell phones that do not go through the switchboard.
The missing calls also underscore something more endemic: the imperfect and antiquated system of tracking a president’s communications.
The White House call log is generated by a switchboard system that dates back to the 1960s, according to the National Archives. The version installed in 1963 was already considered “somewhat outdated” just two decades later.
And it’s certainly not one suited for the era of cell phones and text messages or to a President well known for his efforts to circumvent official channels of communications.
There could be various reasons that explain the gap in the call log itself.
One possibility is that Trump was speaking to people from a cell phone. As CNN has previously reported, Trump had a habit of using his and other people’s phones to make or receive calls.
Another explanation could be that Trump had aides place direct calls from the Oval Office, bypassing the switchboard.
Trump’s predecessor, Barack Hussein Obama, did likewise. When he wanted to call out from the Oval Office, an aide placed the call then transferred it to him. The switchboard would not have a record of that call.
They’ll Never Give Up
CNN’s explanation of Trump’s calling habits goes on at some length. But the nut of the story is clear: The gap is not evidence that Orange Man Bad triggered and directed the “insurrection,” nor is it proof he organized and instructed the “insurrectionists” from behind the scenes during that seven hours.
The blown story is the third major embarrassment for the hate-Trump media in the last few weeks:
Two weeks ago, The New York Times confirmed the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which the media had called “Russian disinformation.”
And last week, the Federal Election Commission fined Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee because they lied about their payments to create the bogus Steele Dossier that Clinton, her torpedoes, and the leftist media used to smear Trump.
