The “Sick Truth” behind the Columbus Donald Trump rally — are you ready for it?
(Thanks to Christopher Blake Carver and Michael Albertson for the head’s up on the Politico story.)
Just when I try to put this fire marshal BS behind me, two things happen. First, someone shares with me the image you see above followed by another person sharing an article from Politico.com.
Let’s start with Politico. Politico seems to have proven, without a doubt, that Donald Trump’s campaign knew four days before yesterday’s (Monday) event in Columbus that the crowd would be limited to 1000 people for safety reasons. If you have been paying attention, this is exactly what Columbus Division of Fire Assistant Chief Jim Cannell and Greater Columbus Convention Center GM John Page said immediately after Trump blasted them for playing politics. Here’s an excerpt from the Politico article by Nate Thayer:
The problem with Trump’s charges? His own senior campaign staff officials were fully aware and had agreed in writing that the Trump event in Columbus was to be restricted to a maximum of 1,000 people, according to documents signed on Friday, July 29, between the Trump campaign and Columbus Convention Center for the Monday event, and obtained by Politico.
The documents, provided by Columbus Convention Center officials and the city fire department, show that senior Trump officials agreed to the terms four days prior to Monday’s event.
The “event acknowledgement” document was agreed to by senior Trump campaign official John Hiller on July 29 and specified a maximum attendance of “800+ media (not to exceed 1,000 per Fire marshal and contract).” The document states the terms of the “by invitation” Trump “Town Hall” event was “Fire marshal approved.”
And guess what? If you go to the link for the Politico article you can actually see all five pages of the agreement that was signed by the Trump campaign. Actual evidence to go along with real facts.
Now, here may be the best part. More evidence. The Trump campaign even warned their followers in a tweet that there would be limited seating:
“The event in Columbus is a Town Hall so it is purposefully limited seating!” said a tweet from USAforTrump2016 early on Monday, hours before the event began. “Stay tuned and check the Live Stream!”
Now, back to the image at the top of this page. It’s from the Facebook page of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who has twice run for president. With the comment, “Hmmm”, Governor Huckabee assists in casting further doubt on the City of Columbus Division of Fire after the department’s run-in with Donald Trump.
The article Huckabee shared was published this morning by Kim Smith at conservativetribune.com. The headline reads “BREAKING: Sick Truth About Fire Marshal Who Shut Down Trump Rally Revealed.”
Wow! This must be really damaging for the fire department. Someone has the goods on Columbus Fire and how they sabotaged Donald Trump’s rally by not letting more people inside the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Apparently Kim Smith uncovered something Politico failed to find.
I admit I had only given the article a glance when it was sent to me by quite a few STATter911 readers early in the day. Now, with Mike Huckabee’s endorsement, it was clear I needed to investigate — to learn more about this “Sick Truth”.
Reading the article carefully, I immediately found something amiss. The picture of the person with Donald Trump is not the fire marshal. That’s actually Columbus Fire Chief Kevin O’Connor, spelled “O’Conner” for the article. Even though the article keeps referring to O’Conner as the fire marshal, I’m not going to let two little mistakes ruin the meat of the story. So, I read on to learn about the big “Sick Truth.”
Finally, I get to the smoking gun. And, trust me, it’s sick and it’s the truth. Here you go. Brace yourselves. Chief O’Connor’s boss is — get this — a Democrat. And this Democratic mayor actually attended a rally for Hillary Clinton, a candidate the mayor supports. There you have it. I told you it was sick and it was the truth. Kim Smith must have her own Deep Throat within Columbus Fire to get a scoop like that. Good for her.
I get it. If you are Mike Huckabee, or a reporter for conservativetribune.com, the horror of seeing a fire chief working for a Democrat is about as sick as it gets. I’m sure everyone feels your pain.
But speaking for the rest of us — the people who actually default to a position of not believing every fire chief who was appointed by a Democrat (or a Republican) is sick — don’t you think that’s a wee bit overboard?
Seriously, if the fire chief actually sabotaged Donald Trump’s campaign rally, I want to know about it. I promise you, I will be the first to share the article. It’s the type of juicy story STATter911.com was built on and was the stuff that I lived for as a reporter.
To Mike Huckabee: Do you think you can you be just a little more supportive of a fire chief or fire marshal doing their job? You are a political leader who talks constantly about the importance of family values. Isn’t one of those values looking for the good in people? How is helping to malign the reputation of a fire chief or fire marshal — with absolutely no solid evidence of wrong doing — a good family value?
For the readers of STATter911, as always, you be the judge. Decide who you want to get the “Sick Truth” from — Politico.com or conservativetribune.com. As for my judgment, I say the real “Sick Truth” is Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee working to destroy reputations of dedicated fire officials in a very bizarre and convoluted effort to win an election.
Oh, I almost forgot. There is one more thing you should know. Remember that other fire marshal Donald Trump made famous — Colorado Springs Fire Marshal Brett Lacey?
On Friday Donald Trump called Lacey “disgraceful” for limiting the number of people at the Colorado Springs event. Trump talked about Lacey’s incompetence and referred to him as probably being a “Hillary person” and a “Democrat.” Politico’s Nate Thayer discovered Lacey has been a registered Republican since 1993.
