Resident media whore Montel Williams is at it again — lying, that is.
The Mirror has had a magical hiatus from fighting with the washed up talk show host. As some may recall, we fought bitterly in 2014 when Williams tried to control The Daily Caller‘s coverage and insist that he hadn’t criticized President Obama. His flack called on me to apologize to veterans. Williams went on Twitter and preposterously declared that I was anti-veteran, the sole purpose being to rile up his Twitter constituency.
Team Montel Williams succeeded. I was called “a bitch,” a “whore” and a “typical libtard.”
But that’s par for the course in journalism these days, isn’t it? I look on the bright side. At least they didn’t threaten to take a chainsaw to my family.
The bout of harmony between Williams and I ended Monday night when Williams went on “CNN Tonight” with Don Lemon and lied about Donald Trump “snoozing” during jury duty.
Williams, clearly not a Trump fan, went on and on about how bad Trump would be for the country. It’s unclear why Lemon thinks the nation cares what Williams thinks about the presidential race.
So be it.
During the interview Williams announced that Trump dozed during jury duty, which, in fact, never happened.
A Daily Beast account of Trump’s jury duty from a fellow juror published Monday declared as much.
But Williams had no use for the truth.
On Twitter after the show, I congratulated him on his appearance and his earrings. I also pointed out that Trump did not snooze during jury duty.
“When I started looking at some of the sites that posted my video, I was disappointed to see that many of them claimed that my Snapchat showed Trump napping,” wrote David Hamburger in The Daily Beast. “The jury duty room is one of the most boring places on Earth, so it’s not uncommon for people to close their eyes and try to visualize a happier place. Trump closed his eyes from time to time, but I can definitively say he was never napping.”
Williams wasn’t having it. The truth, that is.
The Mirror: Hey @Montel_Williams nice trio of earrings tonight. But you’re not right about @realDonaldTrump ~ he wasn’t snoozing during jury duty.
Montel: Betsy what difference does it make?
The Mirror: Does what make? If he was snoozing? It’s just not right. Makes him seem lazy, disrespectful of court.
Montel: We all snooze in jury holding room it’s normal.
The Mirror: I’ve never snoozed in a jury room. Read Daily Beast story. Woman with him said there was no snoozing.
Montel: The fact he finally appeared for Jury [sic] duty is simply not newsworthy.
Here’s where Williams lost his footing. At this point in our conversation he accused The Daily Caller of taking money from Trump in exchange for favorable coverage.
Let’s follow Montel’s twisted logic here. He gets called out for being wrong. So he makes up yet another lie?
Let’s just say he’s right. Would Trump pay for this?
Montel Williams appears to have a bizarrely inflated view of his role in politics. He’s an activist for veterans on Twitter — that can’t be denied. But no, he doesn’t have President Obama‘s ear by any stretch of the imagination.
Last summer, American Urban Radio reporter April Ryan mentioned Williams at a White House presser, essentially asking, why hasn’t Obama consulted Williams on who he should choose for VA secretary? Press secretary Josh Earnest stumbled through the ridiculousness of the question well, saying, “We welcome the active interest of so many people in making sure we live up to that covenant.”
Williams, too, doesn’t seem to understand why he doesn’t figure more prominently into Obama’s decisions about vets, at one point grousing on Twitter that the “damn White House” won’t return his calls. He later insisted he was joking.
Do these tweets look like jokes?
The Mirror‘s original battle royale with Williams began in May, 2014. Williams went on FNC’s Neil Cavuto‘s program and ripped Obama’s policies toward veterans. So The Daily Caller went with this rather straightforward headline: “Furious Veteran Montel Williams UNLOADS on Obama.”
Williams grew hysterical, insisting that The Daily Caller “correct” its story, which he said was “distorted” and a “sucker punch.”
Oh really?
“The president just promised $5 billion for terrorists around the world?!” Montel asked angrily during the segment. “At West Point?! Where he could have used today to say, ‘I’m sorry! For the pain that I’ve caused you, the families! And I’m going to fix it today!'”
He went wild on Twitter. “Tucker, I love ya, but ur smarter than this,” he wrote. And he asked, “Want to kno why i dnt do Fox News more? knuckleheads [sic] like u cnt take yes for an answer & write accurate headlines when i do.”
Actually, no, no one wants to know why you don’t do Fox News more.
And no, Montel, no matter what your bio says, you’re still not the longest running talk show host in the history of television. Merv Griffin has you beat, as does Jerry Springer, Larry King, Phil Donahue and that relatively unknown woman named Oprah.
Hell, even Hee Haw beats you with a 24-year run.