Golf.com article/podcast: The story behind our Trump golf story (and a certain explosive quote)

[highplainsdem]

Including nasty phone calls from Hope Hicks, trying to quash the story:


http://www.golf.com/tour-news/2017/08/02/story-behind-our-trump-golf-story-and-certain-explosive-quote

Of the 7,424 words in Alan Shipnuck's deep dive into President Trump’s ties to golf in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated, seven words have caused a media frenzy:

That White House is a real dump.

According to Shipnuck's reporting, Trump uttered that line to several members of his Bedminster, N.J., club before playing a round of golf there recently. A White House spokesperson denies this ever happened, but in a podcast published on GOLF.com Wednesday, Shipnuck explained his reporting; joining Shipnuck on the podcast was his SI colleague Michael Bamberger, who also contributed reporting to the piece. Below is a transcribed excerpt of that part of the conversation, which begins around the 3:10 mark.

-snip-

Michael Bamberger: -snip- Well, I figured it was (NBC broadcaster) Dan Hicks. I figured he must have been mentioned in the story. There must have been some sort of problem, so I called back and got a young woman’s voice. I said, "Oh, hi. It’s Michael Bamberger. Is your dad around?" I was confused, because I thought I was calling Dan Hicks. Ms. Hicks said, "No, you haven’t called Dan Hicks. You’ve called Hope Hicks," who is one of President Trump’s longtime advisors and spokespeople. Anyway, she was calling to complain about two words in the story that are getting a lot of attention where Donald Trump is quoted as saying "The White House is a real dump." Ms. Hicks told me that that was a "lie and that Sports Illustrated is not in the business of publishing lies."

-snip-

ALAN SHIPNUCK: Yeah, I had a conversation with Ms. Hicks as well, which was quite enlightening -- the confrontational and rude tone of the phone call. They definitely don’t waste any time trying to be charming or friendly, these people in the White House communications department. She tried the same line on me, "That’s a lie and needs to be retracted." I explained to her: It’s not a lie. The president said this in front of eight or nine members and staffers at (Trump) Bedminster. It was his first visit to the club after he had been residing in the White House. It was a moment of candor. Someone who was a part of that conversation relayed it to me. I found this person to be an extremely credible source on any number of topics.

The week of the U.S. Women’s Open (in July), I heard the same story told by two or three different other sources. This is certainly a moment that has already passed into legend at Trump Bedminster. It might be inconvenient for her boss and she might wish he didn’t say it, but it’s not a lie. It was a little insight into how the Trump media operation works coming out of the White House. As a courtesy to the office of the president, we did put in the digital version a parenthetical statement that says, "a White House spokesperson denies this incident ever took place." I forget the exact wording. Of course it did take place but we were just being nice by offering in their two cents. I got a similar nasty phone call. It’s a little insight into how the modern media works. This is a highly-nuanced, deeply reported, 7,000-word story and there’s been a lot of play about one sentence in it.

-snip-

[Ilsa]

1. Trump is a feral dog running loose, barking, yapping at

anything that moves. The Rs in Congress and the Generals are finally coming out with a collar and long leash, but it may be too late. He may be rabid and might soon bite someone.

[highplainsdem]

3. True.

[syringis]

6. A muzzle too

It would be not superfluous...

[VOX]

13. Definitely RABID.

Absolutely a paranoid nutcase. Seriously, this guy is a waddling, undulating DSM-5.

[demmiblue]

2. K&R

[catbyte]

4. The reason this story rings true is it's exactly what I'd expect that

garish, vulgar, classless, tasteless cretin to say. Anything subtle, understated, and not decked out in gold paint would be "a dump" in his eyes.

What a colossal asshole.

[iluvtennis]

7. You said my thoughts well - thank you. nt

[niyad]

11. AND, it does not have his name on the entrance.

[demmiblue]

12. Shite, I would be surprised if he didn't say something like that! n/t

[DK504]

5. " Ms. Hicks told me that that was a "lie" ...

"That’s a lie and needs to be retracted."

Ms. Hicks needs to realize that SI doesn't deal in lies like The National Inquirer, they are a big, big business and if they traffic in lies. They actually have to report the truth. If they didn't, they would be out of business, no one in the Sports world as no one would ever talk to them again.

They haven't had to redact many stories and when they do they make it well know. They are better jounalists in my eyes than most of the MSM.

[gratuitous]

9. "It might be inconvenient for her . . . but it's not a lie"

And President Trump comes off as the peevish, needy little man everyone thinks he is.

Interesting how quick Hope Hicks is to call something someone else says a lie (when she wasn't even there), but the White House can't bring itself to call Trump's stories about the fawning phone calls he never received from the Boy Scouts or the President of Mexico a lie. Instead, they run to the magical realm of alternative facts.

[Victor_c3]

8. Regardless of whether or not the quote is true, it still sounds like something he'd say

That fits right in line with his personality. If Obama supposedly said the same thing, nobody would believe - the same thing with w. bush. It's totally against anyone attempting to be a respectable person's personality.

[airmid]

10. This is who he is. There are literally decades of print, photography, audio, video, etc.

of Trump displaying what a despicable excuse for a human being he is. And he has had years to grow in experience of even further ways to be despicable.

[Awsi Dooger]

14. Those are two very well respected writers from Sports Illustrated

Laughable that Trump thinks he can walk over them. And quite revealing that he let the hatchet woman Hicks make the attempt, instead of doing it himself. Trump has a long association with Bamberger and undoubtedly knows how that would go if he tried to challenge Bamberger directly. Instead of the story dying it would receive additional treatment with further damning details.

Trump once tried to convince Bamberger that he shot 68 at the famous Bel Air course in Los Angeles, while playing with wingnut Al Michaels and two others. Bamberger contacted someone else in the group who wouldn't answer whether Trump even broke 80. He said it was impossible to tell because Trump broke every rule so often.