Searching for John Miller.

Hi, Field Negro is not with us tonight; this is his publicist, Fidel Negron.

I just wanted to say a few words about how wonderful Field is, and how informative and insightful his incredible blog is.

The man has won numerous awards, been featured in various other books and media outlets, and has accumulated over seven million hits since the inception of his blog. He has influenced hundreds of African American bloggers and co-founded the Afrosphere collective, which was featured in WikipediA  as the group primarily responsible for black thought in the blogging world.

Thank you Fidel, you are doing a bang- up job as my publicist.

Ok that was me. I don't have a publicist named Fidel Negron. In fact,  I don't currently have a publicist at all.  But, unlike a certain presidential candidate, I am not lying about it.

"Donald Trump said Friday that a newly resurfaced recording of a man who sounds like Trump posing as his spokesman isn't him — even though he has admitted in the past to posing as his own publicist under a pseudonym.

"It was not me on the phone," Trump told NBC's "Today" show when the recording was played for him during a live interview. "And it doesn't sound like me on the phone, I'll tell you that, and it was not me on the phone."

NBC was asking Trump about a Washington Post report published earlier Friday that claims Trump routinely made calls to reporters in the 1970s, '80s and '90s posing as a publicist named John Miller or John Barron, advocating for himself and answering questions about his personal life and business dealings.

 

The man in the 14-minute recording sounds much like Trump, and the Post pointed to Trump's long appreciation of the name Barron, including the name of his youngest son.

 

The Post also cited 1990 court case testimony in which Trump testified, "I believe on occasion I used that name" when asked about Barron. CNN has obtained a copy of Trump's testimony during that case.

On "Today" Friday morning, Trump at first said he didn't "think" it was him on the recording.

"This sounds like one of the scams, one of the many scams, doesn't sound like me," Trump said. "I don't think it was me, it doesn't sound like me."

 

When pressed by the anchors, Trump explicitly said it wasn't him.

And then he testily told the journalists to move on.

 

"You're going so low to talk about something that took place 25 years ago whether or not I made a phone call?" Trump said. "Let's get on to more current subjects."

 

Thomas Owens, a New Jersey-based forensic audio specialist, told CNN Friday that based on several criteria -- including pitch, tone and cadence -- Miller's voice in the audio obtained by the Post is consistent with Trump's in the early 1990s.

 

"I can conclude with a fair degree of scientific certainty that it is Donald Trump's voice," Owens said, though he noted that due to the recording's quality, he wasn't able to use biometric analysis that would make him absolutely certain.

 

Friday afternoon, Washington Post reporter James Hohmann tweeted that Trump's telephone line "went silent, then dead, this afternoon when WaPo asked: 'Did you ever employ someone named John Miller as a spokesperson?'"

 

"WaPo reporters were 44 mins into a phone interview w Trump abt his finances when asked about John Miller. The phone went silent, then dead," Hohmann added."

 

John Miller? Ok, if you are a trump supporter I suspect that you do not believe that he is lying about the aforementioned John Miller.

 

So here is the deal: To put all this to rest John Miller should produce his birth certificate, forthwith. I mean if he was trump's publicist he should come clean to prove that his former boss isn't lying. 

 

This would clear up a lot of the uncertainty about John Miller and whether such a person actually exists.

 

Look, we know that this was 25 years ago, and some guy calling into a radio show to promote himself with a false name is kind of creepy, but certainly not disqualifying for the guy to be our president. Barack Obama snorted coke for crying loud. But he owned up to it and kept it popping.

 

What's scary about this entire episode is how trump just flat out lied on national television to two reporters when pressed if he was in fact John Miler. I mean do we really want to put a psychopath in the most powerful position in the world?     

 

Rhetorical question of course. Half of the country clearly does, and they don't care if the guy makes "suggestions" instead of taking policy positions, or if he tells the country that knowing what his tax returns looks like is "none of our business". 

 

Anyway, twitter is now, of course, having a ball with this.

 

"Aliases @realDonaldTrump considered besides #JohnBarron -Ronald Flump -Von Mogul -Richie Goodman -Cash Banks -Penny Sacks -Scrooge McSmuck

 

Jay Cost ‏@JayCostTWS 4h4 hours ago

Jay Cost Retweeted Jay Cost

 

Also, just to be clear, I'm also #NeverMiller and #NeverBarron.

 

6h6 hours ago

Oh, come on. Who among us has not called a reporter pretending to be your own publicist?

 

More to come. We have seven months to go.   

 

*Pic courtesy of twitter.