Smackdown: Meryl Streep, U.S. intelligence challenge legitimacy of Trump presidency

by WorldTribune Staff, January 9, 2017

Can one be nominated for an Emmy for a Golden Globes presentation performance?

Many of Meryl Streep’s elite cohorts in Hollywood are praising the venerable star after her smackdown of President-elect Donald Trump on Jan. 8 in remarks that did not mention him by name.

Meryl Streep skewers President-elect Donald Trump at hte Golden Globes. /NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Meryl Streep skewers President-elect Donald Trump at hte Golden Globes. /NBCUniversal via Getty Images

Streep’s performance at the Golden Globes came only days after the U.S. intelligence community likewise implicitly challenged the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency by claiming the GOP candidate directly benefited from alleged Russian hacking.

The events have in the words of a Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty report “cast a pall over Trump’s November 8 electoral win over Democrat Hillary Clinton.”

The Jan. 6 intelligence report’s findings reinforced earlier U.S. assessments that Russia’s government backed hackers to intrude on computer servers of U.S. political parties.

But the report went further in assigning blame, saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin personally ordered the hacking campaign to help Trump and influence the U.S. election.

Streep blasted Trump for allegedly mocking disabled reporter Serge Kovaleski in November of 2015 during a campaign rally.

“That instinct to humiliate, when it’s modeled by someone in a public platform, it filters down into everyone’s life because it gives permission for others to do the same,” Streep told an audience packed with Hollywood A-listers. “Disrespect invites disrespect, violence incites violence. When the powerful use their position to bully others we all lose,” she said.

Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, appearing on Fox and Friends on Jan. 9, returned fire.

“My initial reaction is I’m glad Meryl Streep has such a passion for the disabled because I didn’t hear her weigh in and I didn’t hear her use her platform last night to give a shout-out to the mentally challenged boy who last week was tortured live on Facebook for half an hour,” said Conway.

Conway noted that it was “four African-American adults” that were “screaming anti-Trump expletives” who carried out the horrifying attack in Chicago.

“So I’d like to hear from her today, if she wants to come and continue her platform on behalf of the disabled,” said Conway, adding that Trump has debunked the claim that he was mocking the reporter countless times in the past.

Trump responded by tweeting: “Meryl Streep, one of the most overrated actresses in Hollywood, doesn’t know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes.” Trump also called Streep a “Hillary flunky who lost big.”

Streep was a vocal Hillary Clinton supporter throughout the 2016 campaign and even introduced the presidential nominee when she appeared via video feed from her home in New York on the second night of the Democratic National Convention. She is also close to the Obamas, being one of the lucky few invited to the current president and first lady’s final White House gala.

In her Globes speech, Streep also called for the press to stand up to the man elected to be the 45th president of the United States. Streep said the Hollywood Foreign Press and actors present were part of “the most vilified segments in American society right now … Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners and if you kick them all out, you’ll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts.”

Other “one-percenters” praised Streep: “We will need a lot of people as clear and brave as Meryl Streep if we are going to fight the corruption, bad ideas and lies of Donald Trump,” tweeted Judd Apatow. Orange Is The New Black star Uzo Aduba tweeted: “Meryl Streep. It’s this same level of bravery that she has offered us, freely, again and again.”

Non-coastal elites weren’t having it:

Twitter user Deplorable P Kelly posted: “#MerylStreep dont u get it? There r ppl out here that make less in a year than celebrities spent on their gown tonite? They need an escape.”

Before the intelligence report was issued, Trump dismissed the assessments on Russia’s activity, telling The New York Times on Jan. 6 that focusing on Russia’s involvement is a “political witch hunt” by adversaries who are embarrassed they lost the election. “They got beaten very badly in the election,” Trump said.

On Jan. 7, Trump repeated past statements about wanting to work with Moscow. “Having a good relationship with Russia is a good thing, not a bad thing. Only ‘stupid’ people, or fools, would think that it is bad!” Trump tweeted.

“We have enough problems around the world without yet another one. When I am President, Russia will respect us far more than they do now and both countries will, perhaps, work together to solve some of the many great and pressing problems and issues of the WORLD!” he said.

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