Donald Trump’s most loyal supporters, who stayed up until the middle of the night last night hoping to hear of the demise of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, remain outraged over the scam they were subjected to by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Several right-wing commentators had reported that Assange was about to deliver an “October Surprise” – the release of secret documents that would obliterate Clinton’s campaign for the presidency.
Instead, when the WikiLeaks press conference finally took place at 3 a.m. this morning, what viewers saw was Assange and other WikiLeaks officials railing against “neo-McCarthyist hysteria,” blasting the mainstream media, and appealing for donations as they plugged their books (“40 percent off!”).
According to The Washington Post, what the Trump faithful didn’t get was any new information about Clinton. The event was essentially an infomercial for WikiLeaks on the 10th anniversary of the rogue group’s founding.
Assange, who has spent four years dodging arrest on a rape charge, was behind the trove of hacked Democratic National Committee documents on the eve of the party’s convention this summer. The Post reported that this morning he summarily dismissed the idea that anyone should have expected any news at his news conference.
“If we are going to make a major publication about the U.S., we wouldn’t do it at 3 a.m.,” Assange said at one point, referring to the Eastern daylight start time for the event.
On full display were strange similarities with two of Trump’s most outrageous campaign actions – his 3 a.m. Tweetstorm last week about a 1990s beauty queen, and his September “press conference” about birtherism that consisted mostly of a promotion for his newest hotel plus kudos for the unorthodox candidate offered by former military officers.
Perhaps no one was more upset with Assange’s bait-and-switch than far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who went on a rant on his program when it became apparent that he and many others were had.
Jones and his frequent guest, Roger Stone, the sleazy former Trump aide known for his past campaign dirty tricks, had predicted for weeks that WikiLeaks hacker Assange had information that would end Clinton’s campaign.
Even Fox News, which had bought into the hype, chose a reasonably appropriate headline: “WikiLeaks October Surprise fails.”
Photo: Wikipedia
