On Monday, President Donald Trump shared a poignant clip of maligned hero Richard Jewell testifying before Congress in 1997 and demanding the FBI issue him a formal apology for falsely fingering him as a suspect in the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympic Games bombing.
The president approvingly quote-tweeted a post from the Twitter user &#8220;Steph,&#8221; who argued that Richard Jewell&#8217;s treatment at the hands of the FBI and the fake news media parallels President Trump&#8217;s own treatment. Steph denounced both organizations as &#8220;tyrants&#8221; and &#8220;criminal organizations.&#8221;
&#8220;This is Richard Jewell. Listen to him. President Trump could read the same statement,&#8221; said Steph. &#8220;The FBI &amp; their media partners are criminal organizations under the guise of &#8216;keeping us safe&#8217; They are tyrants and it isn’t new.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Wow! <a href="https://t.co/gYGUEKpGac">https://t.co/gYGUEKpGac</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1206590608586027013?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
In the two-minute clip, a noticeably shaken and timid Richard Jewell denounces his treatment at the hands of both the media and the FBI, taking specific aim at the government institution for actively seeking to ruin his life in spite of the truth. Here&#8217;s the full transcript:
<blockquote> I come before you today, not as a Republican or a Democrat. I have no political agenda. I come before you simply as an American citizen with rights just like everybody else. One year ago today, the FBI and the media joined together to launch an attack on me of unparalleled proportions in the history of this nation. An attack calculated to portray me to the world as some kind of abnormal person, with a bizarre employment history who was guilty of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing. It was all a lie.
Two days ago, the Justice Department issued a written report about its investigation into a few of the unlawful acts committed by the FBI in its investigation of me. While I have not had an opportunity to study the report in detail,  I did read a redacted summary yesterday. I submit to you that the Justice Department cannot be trusted to investigate itself because that report is also a lie. It is filled with false statements, half-truths, and gross distortions of the truth. Reading it reminded me of reading the FBI search warrant affidavit against me. Apparently, truth for the Justice Department is simply whatever the Justice Department wants the truth to me. Within a few days, after my name was leaked to the media, the FBI knew it had a public relations disaster on its hands. The organization that prided itself on being the best investigative agency in the world had quickly, and with the word watching, pointed the federal government&#8217;s finger of guilt at the wrong man and they knew it within days. Not only did the FBI accuse the wrong man — its agents in Atlanta, and officials in Washington, actively participated in publicly humiliating me.</blockquote>
Richard Jewell became a national hero during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, when he discovered a bomb planted in Centennial Park. Risking his own life, Jewell successfully helped to evacuate the area, saving countless lives before the bomb detonated. As a result of his heroic feats, only one person died in the blast (a second person later died of a heart attack) while 111 people were injured.
Though first hailed for his triumphant efforts, things quickly turned sour for Jewell the moment the media learned that the FBI was investigating him as a potential suspect, believing he may have planted the bomb himself in order to gain notoriety.
Director Clint Eastwood&#8217;s movie chronicling Richard Jewell&#8217;s harrowing fight went nationwide last Friday.

Richard Jewell (C) his mother Barbara (L) and att

WATCH: Trump Shares Richard Jewell Testimony Denouncing FBI, Fake News Media: ‘Criminal Organizations,’ ‘Tyrants’

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The &#8220;get woke, go broke&#8221; axiom may yet to be disproven, but that doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean movies with inarguable conservative leanings (not to mention a conservative director) will automatically score a winning goal. Witness exhibit A: Clint Eastwood&#8217;s &#8220;Richard Jewell&#8221; performed disastrously this weekend despite reliably positive mainstream reviews and some heavy championing in conservative media circles.
According to <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/box-office/box-office-clint-eastwood-suffers-worst-opening-in-four-decades-with-richard-jewell-1203438272/">Variety</a>, &#8220;Richard Jewell&#8221; marked the worst opening for a Clint Eastwood movie in four decades, pulling in a dismal $5 million from 2,502 theaters.
&#8220;It’s a disappointing result for Eastwood, marking one of the worst nationwide openings of the 89-year-old’s directorial career,&#8221; the <a href="https://variety.com/2019/film/box-office/box-office-clint-eastwood-suffers-worst-opening-in-four-decades-with-richard-jewell-1203438272/">outlet reported</a>. &#8220;His only movie to endure a worse fate was 1980’s &#8216;Billy Bronco&#8217; with $3.7 million. Should &#8216;<a id="related_article_link_richard-jewell" href="https://variety.com/2019/film/box-office/box-office-jumanji-opening-weekend-richard-jewell-flops-1203438161/" data-tag="richard-jewell">Richard Jewell&#8217;</a> come in ahead of expectations by even $200,000, that would propel it just barely above 1997’s &#8216;Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil&#8217; ($5.2 million) and 1999’s &#8216;True Crime&#8217; ($5.2 million) in terms of Eastwood’s inaugural outings.&#8221;
Worse still, the movie is expected to lose tens of millions of dollars in North America due to its $45 million production budget. Predictions cap the film&#8217;s box office earnings somewhere in the $25 &#8211; $45 million range.
Richard Jewell became a national hero during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, when he discovered a bomb planted in Centennial Park. Risking his own life, Jewell successfully helped to evacuate the area, saving countless lives before the bomb detonated. As a result of his heroic feats, only one person died in the blast (a second person later died of a heart attack) while 111 people were injured.
Though first hailed for his triumphant efforts, things quickly turned sour for Jewell the moment the media learned that the FBI was investigating him as a potential suspect, believing he may have planted the bomb himself in order to gain notoriety. Leading up to its release, the film faced heavy scrutiny for portraying journalist Kathy Scruggs of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a salacious reporter willing to trade sex for news stories. Neither Warner Bros. nor Eastwood nor screenwriter Billy Ray presented evidence to support that portrayal.
Writing at <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2019/12/14/friday-box-office-richard-jewell-clint-eastwood-black-christmas-adam-sandler-charlize-theron-margot-robbie-bombshell-uncut-gems/#69394a478907">Forbes</a>, Scott Mendelson argued that the controversy over Scruggs (who died in 2001 and could not publicly defend herself) may not have exactly hampered the film&#8217;s box office chances.
&#8220;It has damaged the otherwise pretty good movie’s standing in terms of how it’s discussed in the media. Granted, it probably didn’t impact the box office, and its biggest shot at Oscar glory remains a Best Actor nod for Hauser,&#8221; wrote Mendelson.
Screenwriter Billy Ray has since accused the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) of capitalizing off the one moment in which Scruggs flirts with an FBI agent in order stifle the conversation.
&#8220;This movie is about a hero whose life was completely destroyed by myths created by the FBI and the media, specifically the AJC,” Ray <a href="https://deadline.com/2019/12/richard-jewell-movie-controversy-reporter-kathy-scruggs-clint-eastwood-billy-ray-atlanta-journal-constitution-1202806453/?fbclid=IwAR1F3qnC58WALs1L-GVJZqTYq91HEk6l0EVPkEOEhwsxugqfJAScx6ZfZGw">told Deadline</a>. “The AJC hung Richard Jewell, in public.”
&#8220;They editorialized wildly and printed assumptions as facts,” Ray said. “They compared him to noted mass murderer Wayne Williams. And this was after he had saved hundreds of lives. Now a movie comes along 23 years later, a perfect chance for the AJC to atone for what they did to Richard and to admit to their misdeeds. And what do they decide to do? They launch a distraction campaign. They deflect and distort. They focus solely on one single minute in a movie that’s 129 minutes long, opting to challenge one assertion in the movie rather than accepting their own role in destroying the life of a good man.&#8221;

“Richard Jewell” Atlanta Screening

Eastwood’s ‘Richard Jewell’ Flops Amid Controversy

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Clint Eastwood’s new movie “Richard Jewell” tells the true story of a heroic security guard wrongly accused of a 1996 bombing by the FBI and wrongly convicted by an out-of-control news media.
When left-wing critics previewed the movie, they were appalled.
“‘Richard Jewell’ is the Movie America Doesn’t Need Right Now,” was the headline on the review by Will Bunch in the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Bunch wrote: “At some point during those two hours in the dark – maybe the attack on the FBI as a rogue outfit using trickery to frame innocent people, or the depiction of journalists as amoral enemies of the people, or the swelling agitprop of applause lines about common folks under attack ‘from our two most powerful forces – the United States government and the media’ – that I’d began to wonder if I’d made a wrong turn. Was I really in a Philadelphia multiplex, or had I wound up at President Trump’s lie-larded Hershey rally taking place at exactly the same time?”
Likewise, left-wing outlet The Daily Beast said Eastwood’s movie “channels Trump talking points.” 

But here’s my question. Since Trump is never mentioned in the movie, and since the movie only dramatizes a completely true story, what made these critics think of Donald Trump when they saw a man being unfairly abused by the FBI and the press? What on earth, pray tell, brought President the Donald into their squeaky clean minds?
Of course, we know the answer. As much as they deny it, distort it, and lie about it, the Department of Justice Inspector General report on the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s non-existent collusion with Russia absolutely destroys the work and credibility of Obama’s FBI leadership and the news media that reported on it. It’s the “Richard Jewell” story on steroids, and if the press didn’t know it, they wouldn’t protest so much.
Despite what virtually every left-wing commentator has said, the IG report is not a “Rorschach Test” that can be read two ways. It crucifies James Comey’s FBI – and not like Jesus was crucified, but like the thieves beside him who were “condemned justly.” The feds lied. They cheated. They wrongly spied on Americans. They wrongly spied on an opposition presidential campaign. And while IG Michael Horowitz makes plain it wasn’t his job to question their motives in doing so – and while he allows they had the “quantum” of justification required to open the investigation – he specifically comments on the low standards of that requirement, and then goes on to outline behavior so bad, he himself won’t try to explain the reasons behind it.
And in showing the FBI misused its mighty power, the report also underscores the dreadful, immoral, and dishonest behavior of the news media. The two and a half years of breathless Russia collusion reporting based on anonymous leaks from spies trying to cover their butts was, like the reporting on Richard Jewell, an unforgiveable disservice to the American people. No wonder “journalists” don’t want to see Eastwood’s movie. They are so steeped in ideological corruption, they can’t stand the sight of themselves.
Put Donald Trump aside for a moment, if that’s possible. Consider only this. George Stephanopoulos worked for Bill Clinton during the 1992 election. Part of his job was silencing and discrediting women who accused Clinton of rape and sexual abuse. You can see him in action in the documentary “War Room.” Stephanopoulos is now the chief newsman at ABC News. A whistleblower recently released video showing that ABC News spiked the story about Clinton friend and child rapist Jeffrey Epstein during Hillary Clinton’s campaign. When the video went public through Project Veritas, ABC started a hunt – not for the evildoer who spiked the story – but for the whistleblower! CBS helped ABC by firing a woman they wrongly thought guilty. And, of course, over at NBC, they did everything they could to kill the investigation into Clinton supporter and accused rapist Harvey Weinstein.
Our journalists cover up for probable rapists in order to protect powerful Democrats. Let me repeat that: our mainstream journalists cover up for probable rapists in order to protect powerful Democrats – and then they cover up the cover up.
That’s who they are. That’s what they do.
If I were they, I couldn’t look in the mirror either.

Trump with press.

Our Journalists Are Not As Bad As In ‘Richard Jewell’ – They’re Much Worse

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You ready to start fighting back?” Sam Rockwell asks the title character that question deep into “Richard Jewell.”
The Clint Eastwood film recalls how the FBI and media aligned to punish a security guard who saved lives at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Only the film feels like Eastwood is channeling a certain Commander in Chief.
Conservatives have spent the last three years fighting against a culture calling them racist, sexist, homophobic and more. They’ve been maligned for wanting to keep the borders secure and jobs from fleeing overseas. Reporters and celebrities alike led the charge against Red State America, <a href="https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/richard-jewell-press-reckless-corrupt-immoral/">forgoing the truth</a> for progressive narratives.
It’s well past time for a Hollywood movie to take their side. Only a rebel like Eastwood could fight back in Oscar-worthy fashion.
“I, Tonya” standout Paul Walter Hauser is Richard Jewell, a portly soul who pines to protect and serve. He’s stuck “serving” as a security guard at a university, a task he takes far too seriously, according to one supervisor.
Richard ends up on the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Summer_Olympics">Summer Olympics</a> security force, getting paid to hear Kenny Rogers serenade the crowd. One fateful night he spots a duffel bag left under a bench. His crude Spidey Senses tingle, and he alerts his fellow guards about its potential danger.
We know what happened next. Eastwood knows what we know, and he masterfully conducts the bombing with that in mind.
The press initially dubs Richard a hero, and he’s curious about the trappings of instant fame. That doesn’t last long.
The FBI, personified by a smug Jon Hamm, think Jewell planted the bomb himself to fulfill his hero fantasies. Hamm’s character shares that “tip” with journalist Kathy Scruggs (an occasionally over the top <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivia_Wilde">Olivia Wilde</a>), and suddenly Richard’s insta-fame turns into a 20th century nightmare.
Richard was an overweight white male who owned guns and had no girlfriend or wife. Or, as Kathy puts it, “He’s a fat f*** who lives with his mom. How did we miss that?”
Our culture abhors racial profiling, unless the suspect ticks off those boxes, and then it’s game on. Richard found that out the hard way.
“Richard Jewell” plays out like a conservative’s dream assault on our corrupt media. The film weaponizes press clippings and news bytes from the era to state its case. Under Eastwood’s direction, “Real” news becomes an indictment of 21st century Fake News.
It’s impossible to read it any other way.
“Why did Tom Brokaw say that about you?” a marvelous Kathy Bates, playing Richard’s Ma, asks after the anchor convicts Richard on live TV. Never mind that the FBI had no true evidence against him save that damning “profile.”
Eastwood and screenwriter Billy Ray (“Captain Phillips”) conspire to drag the press two decades before the institution disgraced itself on a weekly basis. The FBI prove equally inept here, rushing to judgment while tearing an innocent man’s life down in the process.
Hamm corrals his character’s ego, to some extent, channeling his outrage over a bombing happening on his “watch.” Wilde isn’t as fortunate.
Eastwood’s populist bent gets the better of him now and again. He fights against that instinct here, but he fails in two small scenes involving Wilde’s reporter.
It’s still telling when Kathy “prays” to be the one to find the bomber and that he turns out to be “f***ing interesting.” Praying for the victims isn’t high on her priority list.
Hauser’s Richard remains terminally clueless about the odds stacked against him, often siding with the forces out to take him down. The actor plays that balancing act without a hint of artifice. He’s a simple man, a decent soul who loves his Mamma and ain’t afraid of hard work.
Bring it, he says.
It’s why he stayed at his post the night of the bombing despite serious intestinal distress. You’re given a job. Do it, and do it well. It’s a quiet message that reverberates through the movie.
Once again, Eastwood knows his audience.
Compare that to Hamm and Wilde’s characters. Both toil in respected positions yet each is eager for something greater. More fame. More power.
Ray’s exceptional screenplay suggests Kathy slept with Hamm’s agent to snare information on Richard. Early media reports say that’s false, and Scruggs is no longer here to defend herself.
If “Richard Jewell” got that fact wrong, it’s both unfair and avoidable. Wilde could have played a composite character representing journalistic malpractice.
Hollywood remains liberal to the core, but flickers of Red State awareness can’t be contained. Ray’s script offers a prime example.
Several, actually.
At one point Richard wonders why being a legal gun owner makes him suspect. The Second Amendment has his back, right? “Is the NRA a fringe group?” Richard asks.
In other sequence, Watson’s assistant Nadya (Nina Arianda), in a thick Russian accent, weighs in on the case against Richard.
“Where I’m from, when government says you’re guilty, you’re innocent.”
The line, like so many here, packs more than one intention.
Jewell is no sanitized hero. He’s a Momma’s boy who doesn’t know when to shut his big yap. He’s got a curious background, from trying too hard as a college security guard to other dubious achievements.
It’s a growing headache for his attorney, played by recent Oscar winner Rockwell. He might just snare a second statuette for his performance. Rockwell’s Watson got to know Richard a decade prior to the bombing. Something about the sheepish giant, who he dubbed “Radar,” stuck with him.
Their bond offers some curious comic relief, the kind that flows from character without demeaning either party.
“Richard Jewell” packs a bevy of grace notes, like Bates’ mother trying to remove permanent marker off of her Tupperware. The FBI took it from her, labeling it as potential evidence.
It won’t rub off, a perfect metaphor for what the FBI did to her boy. He<a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/true-story-olympic-park-bombing-richard-jewell-authors"> died in 2007</a> of diabetes-related heart failure. He was 44.
Early on Jewell shares his sweet but naive take about his beloved United States: “I believe in law and order…you can’t have a country without it.”
He’s right.
It took a movie by an 89-year-old auteur to remind us of that simple, elegant truth.
HiT or Miss: “Richard Jewell” is a testament to a wronged man, a cry against government overreach and an upper cut on Fake News’ jaw. It’s also one of the year’s best films.
A version of this article was also published on <a href="http://hollywoodintoto.com/">HollywoodInToto.com</a>.

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TOTO: ‘Richard Jewell’ Crucifies Fake News, Honors The Heartland

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WATCH: Trump Shares Richard Jewell Testimony Denouncing FBI, Fake News Media: ‘Criminal Organizations,’ ‘Tyrants’

Eastwood’s ‘Richard Jewell’ Flops Amid Controversy

Our Journalists Are Not As Bad As In ‘Richard Jewell’ – They’re Much Worse

TOTO: ‘Richard Jewell’ Crucifies Fake News, Honors The Heartland