WashPo explains its 20-man army dishing dirt on Trump

The Washington Post just can't get enough of this guy (Photo: Twitter)

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos' newspaper, the Washington Post, has an army of 20 reporters and researchers tasked specifically with scouring the life of Donald Trump – but while the publication claims it has just as many staffers investigating the past of Hillary Clinton, the newspaper's recent headlines tell a different story.

As WND reported, Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward told the National Association of Realtors Convention in Washington Wednesday: "There's a lot we don't know. We have 20 people working on Trump. We're going to do a book. We're doing articles about every phase of his life."

Woodward said he has been investigating Trump's real-estate deals in New York. "The New York real-estate world is more complex than the CIA," he said.

He also claimed the Washington Post is seeking to get the "essence" of Hillary Clinton. But, despite an active FBI probe into the issue, Woodward dismissed concern about Hillary's use of a private email server to send classified information, according to a report in the Washington Examiner.

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WND asked the Washington Post: "Exactly how large is the team your paper has tasked with thoroughly investigating Hillary Clinton's background and associations? Are there at least 20 people tasked specifically with digging through her past and finding details in 'every phase' of her life?"

Washington Post Vice President of Communications and Events Kristine Coratti told WND that Woodward was referring to a large team of two-dozen reporters and researchers working on "a special book project" examining Trump's life.

Why a book on Trump and not Hillary and her 22 biggest scandals?

Hillary Clinton

"[W]e have years and years of reporting on Hillary Clinton to draw from, including her last presidential campaign, her time as secretary of state, and her position as U.S. senator," Coratti explained. "Because Trump's involvement in political life is far more limited, the Post newsroom decided to embark on a book as a special project. In order to complete the book in a timely fashion, reporters from throughout the newsroom have been assigned to work for a brief period on particular aspects of his life and career."

Coratti claims the Post has the "same number of people" on staff investigating Trump and Clinton for its news coverage. She said the Post is planning a series on "the life and career of Hillary Clinton," which "launches in just a few weeks." Coratti wouldn't provide any further details about the upcoming series.

So WND asked if she could point to any investigative stories on Hillary's past that the Post team has published in the last month.

That's when Coratti stopped responding to WND's requests for comment.

WND reviewed the Washington Post's headlines concerning Hillary from the last month and found the following news articles. Some read somewhat like campaign promotions ("Beyonce and Hillary Clinton, powerful women who've both made lemonade"), but none takes an investigative look into Hillary's involvement in recent scandals involving "Emailgate," the Clinton Foundation, her acceptance of nearly $75,000 from Justice Department employees while under FBI investigation, the recently released Office of Independent Counsel internal memos showing Hillary was "guilty of criminal fraud" in the Whitewater affair or the numerous women from Bill Clinton's past who are filling news headlines with their claims that Hillary used threats, violence and intimidation to silence them.

Rather, recent Washington Post headlines concerning Hillary include the following:

• "Hillary Clinton to support Federal Reserve change sought by liberals" 
• "Hillary says she supports statehood for DC" 
• "Hillary Clinton wants you to know what she thinks about animals" 
• "Hillary Clinton launches campaign team for DC primary"
• "Hillary Clinton: 'Trump's economic plans: if he wins, you lose"
• "The conservative media's obsession with Hillary Clinton's coughing"
• "Where Democratic voters don't like either Hillary Clinton OR Bernie Sanders"
• "If you want to buy Hillary Clinton's old car, now's your chance" 
• "Clinton pledges that no family pays more than 10 percent of income on child care"
• "Clinton aide Cheryl Mills leaves FBI interview briefly after being asked about emails"
• "For Clinton, the general election is about married women. Starting in swing state Virginia" 
• "Charles Koch suggests that another Clinton in the White House might be better than Trump or Cruz" 
• "Hillary Clinton has hot sauce in her bag (for health reasons)"
• "Clinton's wonky policies of fine-grained complexity contrast with rivals' grandiose ideas" 
• "The village that helped Hillary Clinton move past Bill's infidelity"
• "Why is Hillary Clinton doing worse among whites now than in 2008? Racial attitudes."
• "Beyonce and Hillary Clinton, powerful women who've both made lemonade" 
• "Donald Trump's chances against Hillary Clinton look far worse than Ted Cruz's" 
• "Donald Trump's ridiculous claim that Hillary Clinton started the birther movement" 

Trump lashed out at Bezos on Thursday, claiming he was using the newspaper as a tool to influence corporate-tax policy.

Trump told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that Bezos is wielding power he has from owning the influential newspaper.

"Every hour we're getting calls from reporters from The Washington Post asking ridiculous questions," Trump told Hannity. "And I will tell you, this is owned as a toy by Jeff Bezos ... Amazon is getting away with murder, tax-wise. He's using The Washington Post for power so that the politicians in Washington don't tax Amazon like they should be taxed.

"He thinks I'll go after him for antitrust," Trump said. "Because he's got a huge antitrust problem because he's controlling so much, Amazon is controlling so much of what they are doing.

"He's using The Washington Post, which is peanuts, he's using that for political purposes to save Amazon in terms of taxes and in terms of antitrust."

Bezos, CEO of retail giant Amazon, a Democratic Party donor and the world's 19th wealthiest man, purchased the Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million.

Coratti said Bezos – chief of both the Post and Amazon – didn't specifically order the Post's Trump probes, despite the Washington Examiner report stating, "[Woodward] said that Bezos has urged the Post to run as many stories on Trump and the other candidates so that voters can't say they didn't know about the eventual president."

She said, "Jeff [Bezos] has nothing to do with the decision [to] publish a Trump book or the Trump reporting. Those decisions are made by our newsroom."

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But Trump, possibly concerned that Bezos' paper might publish pieces aimed at him, specifically accused the Seattle billionaire of buying the paper to increase his political influence.

"[Bezos] bought the Washington Post to have political influence," Trump told supporters during a February rally in Fort Worth, Texas. "I gotta tell you, we have a different country than we used to have. He wanted political influence so that Amazon will benefit from it – that's not right."

Trump continued, "And believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems. They're going to have such problems."

Later in the same speech, Trump said, "When they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money."

Watch video of Trump's statements on the mainstream media and Jeff Bezos: 

On Tuesday, the Post featured a story on Trump's sex talk with Howard Stern when the billionaire was a guest on his show between 1990 and 2005.

Trump reportedly told Stern he could have had sex with Princess Diana and would have bedded singer Mariah Carey.

"Although Trump promises to be 'more presidential,' his past statements have contributed to high negative ratings from women," the Post stated. "Democrats see Trump's history as a potent weapon to use against him and other Republicans this fall."

The paper continued, "The contrast between Trump's past and present behavior underscores the extent to which he has shaped and reshaped his identity as he has moved between business, entertainment and politics. And it points to a fundamental question about his candidacy: Which version of Trump might America send to the Oval Office?"

Other recent Washington Post headlines concerning Trump include:

• "Donald Trump's delegate ineptitude stumbles into white nationalism"
• "The new Donald Trump should scare the hell out of the GOP establishment" 
• "Trump's false claim that 'there's nothing to learn' from his tax returns"
• "Trump and GOP leaders might never be on the same page"
• "Donald Trump is building a giant, beautiful wall between America and his tax returns"
• "Donald Trump has discovered one weird trick for getting people to agree with him"
• "Is Trump the last gasp of Reagan's Republican Party?"
• "67 percent of Americans have an unfavorable opinion of Donald Trump"
• "How Donald Trump is running to the left of Hillary Clinton" 
• "Donald Trump's secret for avoiding hard questions"
• "Donald Trump on education: Wrong, wrong and wrong"
• "This Donald Trump interview should set off all sorts of alarm bells for the GOP"
• "Has Donald Trump stolen Paul Ryan's party out from under him?"
• "'They don't need the baggage:' White supremacist resigns as Trump delegate"
• "Donald Sterling, the 'girlfriend from hell,' and why Donald Trump distrusts the media"

On April 27, the Post's editorial board published a scathing attack on Trump, urging the Republican Party to "reject" him as its nominee.

"He is a unique threat to the Republican Party and to the country," the Post warned. "The party should reject him as a nominee, using any and all legitimate means to do so. ... Mr. Trump degrades people, serially insulting women, Latinos, Muslims, immigrants, Jews and others. He erodes the discourse, frequently and flagrantly lying about things such as whether 'scores' of terrorists have recently entered the United States as migrants – one of numerous false claims he made in a speech on foreign policy Wednesday. Where his policy agenda is not thin, it is scary, such as his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States. In short, he should inspire fear that someone so lacking in judgment and restraint could acquire the powers of the presidency."

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