Several news outlets are reporting on a story that Donald Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on August 14 to discuss the ongoing ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.
According to Axios, the story was supposedly confirmed by "two unnamed U.S. sources who were briefed on the call." "PBS Newshour" ran with the story with host Judy Woodruff claiming, "The reporting is that former President Trump is on the phone with the Prime Minister of Israel, urging him not to cut a deal right now, because it’s believed that would help” Kamala Harris.
If Trump had made the call, he would have been in violation of the Logan Act, which "prohibits unauthorized private citizens from negotiating with foreign governments on behalf of the U.S., according to Newsweek.
"Massive crime!" screeched political commentator and Democratic National Committee member David Atkins. Actor Steven Pasquale said it was "pretty balls-to-the-wall treason." The Lincoln Project wrote, "There's absolutely no line he won't cross."
But both Netanyahu and Trump deny the call ever took place.
Axios reported on the fictitious call on August 15. Netanyahu's office immediately denied it. Then, Woodruff repeated the lie on a broadcast on Monday. On Wednesday, Woodruff was forced to make a humiliating retreat.
“In the live TV moment, I repeated the story because I hadn’t seen later reporting that both sides denied it,” her statement said. “This was a mistake, and I apologize for it.”
The Trump campaign denied ever having spoken to Netanyahu about slowing down a ceasefire deal for any reason.
“The only thing President Trump has told the prime minister is ‘to get the war over with,’” said Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign communications director. “Any assertion otherwise is fake news.”
A spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu, Omer Dostri, said that reports that Mr. Trump had asked the prime minister to wait on a deal were a “total lie.”
Axios reported last week that the two had discussed the cease-fire in a phone call on Aug. 24, citing two unnamed “U.S. sources.” One of the sources said that Mr. Trump’s call was intended to encourage Mr. Netanyahu to take the deal. Reuters published a report about the Axios account.
A person close to Mr. Trump also denied that the two men had spoken since the July 26 meeting.
If the story rings a bell, you might remember the infamous "October Surprise," where Democrats accused Republicans close to Ronald Reagan, including George Bush and former Texas Governor John Connally, of being in contact with Iranian representatives, telling them not to release the hostages before the election.
The problem with this scenario is that the Iranian government only existed in theory. It was riven by several factions with literally no one in charge. The idea that one person could speak for the Iranian government at that time was ludicrous.
That's exactly what a task force created in 1992 by Democrats found after a year-long investigation.
Congressional Quarterly Almanac:
According to the thesis, Reagan campaign manager William J. Casey and other officials negotiated a secret arms deal with Iranian officials to induce Tehran to delay the release of the 52 American hostages until after Election Day.
The report of the 13-member task force unconditionally rejected the allegations, concluding: “There is no credible evidence supporting any attempt by the Reagan presidential campaign — or persons associated with the campaign — to delay the release of the American hostages in Iran.”
The report stated that there was “wholly insufficient evidence” that anyone associated with the Reagan-Bush campaign communicated with representatives of the Iranian government.
"The 968-page report was likely to be Congress' final word on the longstanding charges, which had been a thorn in the side of two Republican presidents. It went even further than an earlier Senate report, released in November, in spiking the allegations," concluded CQ.
The task force recommended perjury charges be filed against several witnesses. But in 2023, the New York Times resurrected the "October Surprise" by writing an article about Ben Barnes, the serial fabricator whose storytelling led to the formation of the task force.
Some lies never die. And when they involved a Republican presidential candidate possibly committing a crime, we can expect this lie to live on forever.
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