AOC: Powerful people are trying to bribe Trump to go to war with Iran – John Sexton

There is apparently nothing AOC can say that is so dumb her thousands of fans won’t like and retweet it as if it were sage wisdom. Today the Washington Post published a story about one particular guest who stayed at the Trump Hotel in Washington, DC. He’s an Iraqi who worked with the CIA during the Iraq war and now wants to see the fall of the Iranian Mullahs. Here’s AOC’s take:

Sure looks like powerful people are trying to bribe the President into war. https://t.co/e4L4YcrGKp

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) June 7, 2019

If you actually read the story she’s talking about, it says this:

In July, a wealthy Iraqi sheikh named Nahro al-Kasnazan wrote letters to national security adviser John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urging them to forge closer ties with those seeking to overthrow the government of Iran.

Kasnazan wrote of his desire “to achieve our mutual interest to weaken the Iranian Mullahs regime and end its hegemony.”

The State Department said it wasn’t aware of the letters.

Four months later, he checked into Trump International Hotel in Washington and spent 26 nights in a suite on the eighth floor — a visit estimated to have cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Kasnazan claims he is in the US for medical treatment at Johns Hopkins. In any case, many paragraphs later you get this additional caveat:

The company, which runs the hotel, declined to answer questions about how much Kasnazan paid for his stay, or whether it had informed anyone at the White House about the sheikh’s long visit. The company said it donated the profits of his stay to the U.S. Treasury as part of a voluntary policy aimed at countering claims that the president is in violation of the emoluments clause.

Put aside the fact that the Iranian regime is a truly awful theocracy and the leading state sponsor of terrorism around the world. Put aside that Iran was responsible for directing EFP roadside bombs for use against our soldiers in Iraq and may have killed as many as 200 Americans and maimed hundreds more a little over a decade ago. And put aside that they routinely chant “Death to America” as if it were the national motto. According to the story AOC is reacting to, Trump didn’t profit from his stay.

This isn’t the first time where it seemed as if AOC tweeted something without reading it. Here’s what I think happened in this instance. She read the tweet promoting the story and imagined Trump getting a call on a secret phone that leads directly from his hotel to the White House residence, a call that went something like this:

Trump: Yes, what is it?

Trump Hotel: Sir, sheikh Nahro al-Kasnazan has been staying with us for 26 nights.

Trump: So what?

TH: Sir, he wants you to order a strike on Tehran.

Trump: What?!

TH: Sir, he’s spent tens of thousands of dollars on a nice room and cleared out the mini-bar twice. You owe him at least a cruise missile.

It’s bad enough that a congresswoman is implying the president is a traitor who would start a war over a $45k hotel tab. It’s even worse that the story she’s using to imply said bribery says he didn’t profit from the hotel stay at all. But what’s really sad is the thousands of dopey AOC fans who praise her for this nonsense. No doubt these are some of the same people who think Democratic Socialist is a terrific idea.