Nolte: Axios’ Leaked Vetting Docs Another Anti-Trump Nothingburger

The far-left Axios got its hands on leaked documents used by the Trump transition team to vet prospective hires for various positions — and what we have here is yet another Nothingburger being fake news’d into a phony bombshell.

Below is what Axios, which is co-founded by the far-left Politico’s Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, described as its “highlights.”

Stand back, y’all… Try not to get the bombshells all over you:

• Tom Price: “criticisms of management ability” and “Dysfunction and Division Has Haunted Price’s Leadership of the House Budget Committee” — hired as Health and Human Services Secretary (2017).
• Mick Mulvaney: said that Trump “is not a very good person” — Trump’s current acting chief of staff.
• Scott Pruitt: “allegations of coziness with big energy companies” — hired as EPA administrator (2017-2018)
• Rudy Giuliani: “foreign entanglements” – never hired as secretary of state, worked as Trump’s attorney during the media’s Russia Collusion Hoax, which Axios bought into wholesale and furthered.
• Gen. David Petraeus: “Opposed to Torture” — never hired.
• Rex Tillerson: “Russia ties go deep” — hired as secretary of state (2017).
• Laura Ingraham: said “people should wear diapers instead of sharing bathrooms with transgender people” — never hired.
• Kris Kobach: “white supremacy” — never hired.
• Gary Cohn: “Abrasive, Curt, and Intimidating Style” and “He Would Sometimes Hike Up One Leg and Plant His Foot on a Trader’s Desk, His Thigh Close to the Employee’s Face, and Ask How Markets Were Doing” — hired as economic adviser (2017 – early 2018).
• Nikki Haley: said Trump is what “we teach our kids not to do in kindergarten” — hired as U.N. ambassador (2017 – 2018).
• Ryan Zinke: said Trump is “un-defendable” — hired as interior secretary (2017-2018).
• Rick Perry: described Trumpism as a “toxic mix of demagoguery, mean-spiritedness, and nonsense that will lead the Republican Party to perdition” — Trump’s current energy secretary.

While no one is arguing the release of these documents and the leak itself are not news, of course this is news… The problem is Axios’ fake newsing the story into something it is not, which is *yawn* one more example of Chaotic and Stupid Orange Man Bad!!!!!!!!!!

Here’s the Axios “Why It Matters” spin: “The massive trove, and the story behind it, sheds light on the slap-dash way President Trump filled his cabinet and administration, and foreshadowed future scandals that beset his government.”

Yeah, except, no, it doesn’t.

To begin with, one thing we learned is that Trump is big enough to hire those who publicly criticize him, including Perry, Haley, and his own current acting chief of staff.

Secondly, other than Pruitt, nothing foreshadowed anything.

Finally, Axios spins its entire story in a deliberately dishonest way that leads you to believe this is all Unprecedented! because Never before in the history of the vetting process has a president ever hired someone with a red flag!

I can’t decide if that premise is as stupid as it is dishonest or as dishonest as it is stupid.

You know, all I’m asking for is one freakin’ adult in the establishment media to just once offer up a little context. Just one mature person who says, Hey, this is a pretty good story. Informative. Well done. Let’s not overplay it, though. Let’s not turn it up 11. Let’s not spread fake news by omitting crucial context, but this is good stuff.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that anywhere from 80 to 100 percent of the vetting files that have landed on the desk of American presidents have come with red flags, and…

I’m going to further guess that 80 to 100 percent of people eventually hired by presidents had red flags in their files.

What’s more, I’m gonna go ahead and guess that Hillary Clinton’s file landed on Barack Obama’s desk wrapped in a red flag, but she still became secretary of state, and lo and behold —  a secret server and Benghazi!

Oh, and here’s how “DC’s most wired reporter,” Mr. Mike Allen, covers the Clintons.

Eric Holder’s vetting also had to come wrapped in a red flag, but this one probably had a hammer and sickle on it.

Hey, this is how the world works… We all have red flags in our files, and no president can afford to throw out the good in search of the perfect.

If Axios wants to strut around because some disgruntled loser chose Axios to do his or her dirty work — fine. And again, there is a story here, but it is certainly not the one Axios — a site that has never once come close to living up to its swagger — is trying to peddle. Selling a 3.5 story into an 11 is not journalism; it’s partisan hucksterism.

This has been today’s episode of “Democrats Sure Got It Good!”

P.S. I do want to credit Axios for not disclosing personal information contained in these files, not just phone numbers and addresses, but what sounds like personal issues, rumors, and the like. However, I reserve the right to revoke this credit if Axios slips this garbage to another outlet to publish.

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.