All it takes for people to ignore the truth is one damning tweet from conservative commentator Ann Coulter.
“Never happened,” she wrote, linking to my story about Politico chief political correspondent Glenn Thrush scrapping an interview with her several months ago because he couldn’t tolerate some of the remarks she made about Muslims and Mexicans.
c/o Off Message.
Coulter was a guest on a recent episode of his ‘Off Message’ podcast. The purpose was to promote her book, In Trump We Trust: E Pluribus Awesome! But the pair actually seemed to hit it off. As Thrush explained it IN HIS PODCAST, his thinking had shifted. He now admires her — in a sense. He now sees her as powerful within the confines of Team Trump. He now finds her charming, delightful and a great listener.
But several months ago his psyche about her was much different.
He previously, he couldn’t stomach the thought of sitting in the same airspace for an interview. Plain and simple, through her agent, who was organizing her Adios America book tour, he blew her off and pretended to be sick.
No matter that it was right there on the podcast for anyone to hear. No matter that this actually happened.
One pronouncement by Coulter and suddenly you have pro-Trump nutbags blindly believing her and spewing anti-Semitic slurs and ignorance my way. One of the bigger idiots even called for me to be sued.
On the bright side?
I finally got my first full dose of alt-right injected into my bloodstream. While it’s not pleasant, I also can’t take anyone seriously who is allergic to facts and has a penchant for telling me I lie because like a “typical Jew” I lied. Another told me if I had a good hair day it would be boring — whatever that means. I was also called “an oven dodger.”
To be fair, Coulter was called a “lying cunt” and Thrush was called a “stupid asshole.”
But truth be told, I’m more offended by the hair remark than the anti-Jewish slurs.
I was called anti-American. I was also ridiculed for what is apparently my “fake American girl” look (damned if you do, damned if you don’t, I guess).
Honestly, I don’t care what these morons have to say about my look, my patriotism, my last name or my religion.
But I care about facts.
No doubt Coulter has experienced far worse than Thrush abruptly canceling an interview with her. On the grand scale of fronts against Ann Coulter this seems rather small potatoes.
It’s not like Thrush called her a “cunt” as comedians did in a recent TV roast of Rob Lowe, which quickly devolved into an all-out Jihad against Coulter.
In the aftermath of all this nonsense, I approached both Thrush and Coulter.
Coulter told me that her tweet — “Never happened” — was referring to Thrush canceling an interview with her.
She reiterated that it never happened. She also had cogent advice for me about engaging with Twitter trolls.
The Mirror: “Not sure what you meant by this tweet yesterday (see attached). But I’m writing about it because you called my reporting into question. And now your crazy as fuck followers are directing all the anti-Semitic hate they can muster my way — so thanks for that. They are also questioning the patriotism of my hair… haha. Must be nice to be blindly believed — even when you’re wrong. So I’d like to ask what you meant by saying the story I wrote involving you and Glenn Thrush ‘never happened.'”
Coulter: “Don’t complain about Twitter trolls or you’ll sound like a Rick Wilson nut! No, I’m not calling your reporting into question. It’s perfectly obvious that you are accurately reporting what Thrush said. I’m claiming that what he said is not true. It’s not especially important — I gather he is trying to signal to his liberal friends that he’s still one of them, and he hated me too! — but I had no podcast scheduled with him or anyone at politico 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 or 9 months ago. It makes no sense geographically or professionally. Maybe he thought about it, but then hated me so much he canceled it from his thoughts, but he didn’t cancel any actually scheduled podcast with me for the simple reason that we had no scheduled podcast. P.S. I love your reporting and your hair.”
I asked Thrush about Coulter’s assertion, here’s what he had to say:
“The hour I talked with Ann was one of the most enjoyable and challenging of the podcasts I’ve done this year,” he wrote The Mirror. “I don’t give a damn about what any of my friends, liberal or otherwise, care about it. About a year ago, according to my producer, we had been scheduled to be part of her publicity tour for Adios America through a publicist. If memory serves, she said something in another interview that bothered me, and we begged off, claiming I’d gotten sick. I shouldn’t have done that — and I didn’t tell the story to claim superiority – but to point out how the experience of interacting with her differed from my preconceived notion. I’m glad she took the took the time last week.”
Let’s hope the budding friendship between Coulter and Thrush can survive.
