Patterico's Pontifications

6/6/2019

Politicizing 75th Anniversary Of D-Day: Shame On GOP Chairwoman, Shame On Media

Filed under: General — Dana @ 1:53 pm



[guest post by Dana]

For Godsake, not even an historical occasion such as the 75th anniversary of D-Day can be observed without political idiocy from the usual suspects.

GOP chairwoman Ronna McDaniel spoke with Fox Business about the 75th D-Day anniversary and the bad press surrounding President Trump’s visit to Great Britain:

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel provided a “reminder for the media” Wednesday, saying we should be “celebrating” President Trump as he joins foreign dignitaries for the 75th anniversary of D-Day — the World War II invasion of Normandy, France.

“This is our president. This is our country. We’re celebrating the anniversary, 75 years of D-Day. This is a time where we should be celebrating our President, the great achievements of America. And I don’t think the American people like this constant negativity. There are times when we should be lifting up our president, especially when he’s overseas,” she said on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.” show.

Celebrating President Trump as opposed to commemorating with dignity and honor the men who risked life and limb for freedom? Why? This is unbecomingly political in light of a day set aside to honor true heroes. I’m unclear as to why we are being exhorted to “celebrate” President Trump, who wasn’t born until after this monumental event took place. What did he do that that we should celebrate? This really isn’t about him.

McDaniel, however, is right in observing that Big Media hasn’t had much positive to say about the President’s trip abroad. Why would she expect anything different? But let’s keep in mind that both President Trump and the media outlets reporting on his trip come with their own tarnished and well-earned, less-than-stellar reputations. As Patterico noted this morning, this POTUS use[d] soldiers as props to avoid debates and trie[d] to cheat them out of charity money, and the media has no problem trying to paint this President in a bad light at every opportunity. They deserve each other.

But as for the media, consider that Hallie Jackson, Chief White House Correspondent for NBC/MSNBC News, tweeted this before the D-Day ceremonies were scheduled to begin. Note she tweeted this at 3:15 am, and it was re-tweeted more than 5,600 times and received 8,700 likes.

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Approximately 25 minutes later, she tweeted confirmation that the President had done an interview with Fox News, but also noted that the interview was over even before President Macron had arrived for the ceremonies. Note that Jackson’s additional information was re-tweeted a mere 277 times, and received 1,040 likes:

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Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs also confirmed that the interview was finished before the ceremonies were to begin and that it was in fact, President Macron who was running late:

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Yashar Ali also took the time to confirm that it was not President Trump who caused the delay:

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Media outlet Mediaite jumped at the opportunity to report that it was President Trump who held up the ceremony because he was doing an interview with Laura Ingraham for Fox News:

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From the report:

Like many American news and opinion hosts and anchors, Ingraham joined a massive entourage of media to cover the commemoration events, hosting Wednesday night’s episode of her show with gravestones of fallen heroes as her backdrop. Ingraham scored the somewhat elusive Trump interview which reportedly was scheduled just before the Normandy ceremony was set to begin, but appeared to run long.

Ask any television producer who has ever scheduled, conducted or arranged such a high-profile interview, the odds that it will run long are extremely high. As such, one can reasonably question the wisdom of scheduling such an interview just before the D-Day ceremony to start.

But if the D-Day ceremony was in fact delayed by a Fox News interview as was suggested by MSNBC’s Jackson, this could be seen by many as a disrespectful to the heroic WW II veterans in attendance made to wait 15 minutes for a Fox News interview.

Mediaite then added observations from Jim Acosta, who once again confirmed the inability of the media to keep politics out of well, anything. This without any hint of self-awareness:

CNN’s Jim Acosta appeared to confirm the report that Trump’s Fox News interview delayed the ceremony start, telling New Day viewers “One of the reasons why President Trump was delayed, one of the reasons he was late getting here, he was sitting down with a Fox News personality before his speech began. So it’s possible he was dishing out a lot of the red meat while he was sitting down with fox before giving the speech.”

“But honestly, you have to put that to the side and recognize this was just a really captivating, stirring remarkable moment for the entire world to witness. Politics was just put aside, washed aside as we remember the bravery and currently of the men today.”

Sitting at the top of Mediaite’s post is an update to the story:

The ceremonies commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day Thursday morning were set to start sharply at 11:00 AM local time, but actually started 15 30 minutes later than planned. According to MSNBC White House reporter Hallie Jackson, President Donald Trump’s conversation with Fox News primetime host Laura Ingraham may be the reason for the delay. It was later revealed, after the initial publishing of this post, however, that French President Emanuel Macron was 30 minutes late and the primary reason the delayed start to the ceremony.

Anyway, instead of telling people that this is a day to celebrate President Trump, or attempt to paint President Trump in a bad light, maybe we can just forget politics and thrill to a 97-year old U.S. World War II paratrooper commemorating the 75th anniversary of D-Day:

This is what matters. This is who matters.

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

54 Responses to “Politicizing 75th Anniversary Of D-Day: Shame On GOP Chairwoman, Shame On Media”

  1. These people.

    Dana (779465)

  2. I was following the Trump was late kerfuffle on Twitter too, Dana, and I swear to you there was one (apparently) Resistance tweeter who, when told that it was Macron not Trump who had arrived last to the ceremony, opined that perhaps Macron was magnanimously waiting for Trump to finish his interview so that he wouldn’t embarrass POTUS. As if Western European leaders were noted for their reluctance to make Trump appear boorish.

    JVW (54fd0b)

  3. That is just so embarrassingly lame of the Resistance tweeter, JVW. Once again, how about instead of letting our partisan loyalty compel us to say really dumbass things out loud, we just let politicians everywhere be adults, and not attempt verbal gymnastics in an effort to make them look good (while making that other guy look bad) and cover for them when they behave inconsiderately, like being late to a monumentally historical event.

    Dana (779465)

  4. President Trump, who was just a toddler when this monumental event took place.

    He wasn’t born yet. (He was born on June 14, 1946)

    Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden were toddlers. (born September 8, 1941, and November 20, 1942 , respectively)

    We’re at that stage where very few of the active politicians were even alive then.

    And in 15 more years, the nuumber of veterans still alive will be..well, they may get one or two for ceremony.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  5. Avoided the static; watched it all overnight on CSPAN.

    ‘Politicization’ was minimal and given the scale and logistics of the event, it was managed quite well– particularly w/so many elderly people there. Yes, their cameras caught Trump chatting w/Ingraham; yes, it caught the arrival of Don Jr., and Eric [there at our expense w/no reason why]; the Congressional contingent w/Pelosi granting selfies; even the elusive Rick Perry was there– along with the ever slithering, Walrus Gumbo. If you set aside any ‘TDS’ you may harbor, the current President of the United States, who was there for better or worse representing the U.S., delivered a fine address– which is all we could have hoped for.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  6. The fact that it started later than planned enabled more people in the United States to watch it.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  7. “The press doesn’t tell people what to think, but the press does tell them what to think about.”

    This was the 75th anniversary of one of the great historic events of our time. Let’s concentrate on sombody being late for the ceremony.

    John B Boddie (66f464)

  8. Yep. Orange man bad. Do you think I really care about what the MSM says about Trump? They’ve been giving him 92% coverage for 2.5 years. Gee I wonder why. Guess its because they’re just “Objective” and Trump is so awful. Yep.

    EVERYTHING Trump does is put in the world light. EVERY action of his, and his supporters, is given the dumbest interpretation possible. You’d think even the NEVER TRUMPERS would get tired of it. How many times can you hear someone say “Orange Man bad” without yawning? I guess some never do.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  9. 92% coverage = 92% NEGATIVE coverage of Trump. Even Bush II got 35% positive.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  10. BTW, in June 1994 we were also fighting the Japanese in the pacific. 6,000 men were killed in the battle to take the Marianas (Guam and Saipan) from the Japanese. That’s twice as many men as we (USA) lost on D-day. But Spielberg didn’t make a movie about them, so its all been forgotten. Later, we invaded the Philippines and lost 14,500 men in a 10 month battle. How much do you wanna bet, we’ll be celebrating the 75th aniversery of Leyte Gulf in October 2019? How much do you wanna bet Trump will be on Iwo Jima in Feb 2020 or Okinawa in April 2020?

    rcocean (1a839e)

  11. Ugh. Fixed Trump’s age in post: who wasn’t born until after this monumental event took place.

    Dana (779465)

  12. @10. Look up the 75th anniversary of Gettysburg in 1938 and how it was handled in the U.S. Some similarities; time marches on.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  13. BTW, in June 1994 we were also fighting the Japanese in the pacific. 6,000 men were killed in the battle to take the Marianas (Guam and Saipan) from the Japanese. That’s twice as many men as we (USA) lost on D-day. But Spielberg didn’t make a movie about them…

    In June of 1944, rather more than 6,000 men were lost in the invasion of Europe. And that’s not even counting the fact that the first 5 days didn’t count.

    For a single day, either D-Day or the Battle of Antietam was the single costliest, depending on how you count.

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  14. It is safe to say that Donald Trump would not have qualified to join the Airborne or the Rangers on D-Day, nor would he have qualified to be a Marine. They might have let him command a PT-Boat though.

    Kudos to the Screaming Eagle who jumped at 97.

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  15. (He was born on June 14, 1946)

    1946 was a banner year for births, with a million more annual births by 1947 than 1945. I’m told, but have no way to prove it, that American Jews had a lot of kids in the first few months of 1946.

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  16. “McDaniel, however, is right in observing that Big Media hasn’t had much positive to say about the President’s trip abroad. Why would she expect anything different?”

    I dunno. Because she thought Obama was president?

    Munroe (6329fc)

  17. I feel similarly about the sense I’m getting that Trump is going to make July 4 about him.

    aphrael (e0cdc9)

  18. I always celebrate when Trump and his kith and kin are not within 1,000 miles of the White House.

    nk (dbc370)

  19. And you all know that Ronna McDaniel is not only the RNC boss-lady but also the Romney flock bellwether these days, right?

    nk (dbc370)

  20. @17. OTOH, there’s always the chance he’ll fu*k up July 20th. Hollywood did w/‘First Man’— and they should have known better.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  21. Trying to put our recent presidents into context, here’s a quick summary of their military service:

    Military service of presidents since Eisenhower:

    John F Kennedy: After being initially rejected due to a bad back, Kennedy pulled strings to join the Naval Reserve. He served on a succession of PT boats frm Dec 1942 until Nov 1943, when he was invalided back to the US because of a reinjury of his back

    Lyndon B Johnson: A Congressman since 1937, he joined the Naval Reserve in 1940 and was called up after Pearl Harbor. He was eventually sent to observe McArthur’s command and report back to FDR. He managed to get a Silver Star without seeing combat.

    Richard Nixon: Despite a regious exemption (Quaker), he joined the Naval Reserve in 1942, and was assigned to a series of logistics jobs, both stateside and, by his request, at sea in the South Pacific. He never saw combat.

    Gerald Ford: Joined the Naval Reserve after Pearl Harbor, taught at Preflight School for a year, then went to the new USS Monterey, seeing action in the Pacific including Leyte Gulf.

    Jimmy Carter: Annapolis graduate, active duty 1946-1953 in the submarine service, including early nuclear subs. Was granted a discharge after his father’s death.

    Ronald Reagan: Joined the Army Reserve after some effort in 1937, called to active duty in 1942. Kept from overseas duty due to poor eyesight, he was tasked with public relations.

    George H W Bush: Enlisted in the Navy on his 18th birthday (1942), carrier aviator. Flew 58 combat missions in the South Pacific, shot down only once.

    Bill Clinton: Did not serve due to academic deferment from draft.

    Geroge W Bush: Joined Texas Air National Guard in 1968, honorably dischared in 1974. Did not see combat.

    Barack Obama: Did not serve. No draft.

    Donald Trump: Did not serve due to a succession of deferments. Student deferment 64-68, questionable medical deferment thereafter.

    I note that the “Greatest Generation” presidents actively sought to join the military, and generally attempted to go in harm’s way. The Boomers almost the opposite. Entitlement vs Responsibility. Kinda sad, actually.

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  22. The difference may have its roots in the differences between the two wars (WWII and Vietnam) and how the public perceived them.

    It seems Carter was the only one who served during the Korean War, although I take it he never came close to seeing combat.

    Kishnevi (e266d6)

  23. Kevin M (21ca15) — 6/6/2019 @ 5:18 pm

    Just an addendum: Dubya volunteered for combat service in Vietnam, as part of program called Palace Alert, but was turned down in favor of pilots with more flight hours. The program was ended before he had sufficient flight hours to qualify for it.

    More on Palace Alert

    Dave (1bb933)

  24. @22. Yep.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  25. “I’ve been so lucky in terms of that whole world. It is a dangerous world out there – it’s scary, like Vietnam. Sort of like the Vietnam era. It is my personal Vietnam. I feel like a great and very brave soldier,”

    — Donald J. Trump, on single life and dating, 1997

    JRH (52aed3)

  26. Bad man orange.

    Dave (1bb933)

  27. “I note that the “Greatest Generation” presidents actively sought to join the military, and generally attempted to go in harm’s way. The Boomers almost the opposite. Entitlement vs Responsibility. Kinda sad, actually.”

    – Kevin M

    lol

    I kept reading “Reserves.” Is there some sort of Reserve-channeling program for the irrepressibly politically ambitious recruits?

    Leviticus (28a8d3)

  28. I agree, it is horrible when people politicize D-day:
    “It is a shame that our representative at this anniversary is Trump, a small man who uses soldiers as props to avoid debates and tries to cheat them out of charity money.”

    kaf (8d3b64)

  29. The “regular army” has always been only a core. The bulk of the “national army”, as needed from time, has been draftees, and mobilized reserves and national guard.

    nk (dbc370)

  30. I kept reading “Reserves.” Is there some sort of Reserve-channeling program for the irrepressibly politically ambitious recruits

    If you don’t go through the service academies, and you think you ought to be an officer, you join the reserves.

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  31. @21

    Lyndon Johnson: He was in the South Pzcific until FDR recalled all stting members f Congess from comat.

    Bill Clinton: He actually was drafted, but got it reversed by promising to join ROTC at the University of Arkansas, turning down an opportunity to join the naval reseres arranged by his step-uncle. Then he got a high number in the draft lottery of December 1, 1969 and didn’t do it.

    I have a strong suspicion he escaped the draft by changing his date of birth after the dates had been picked, and that is why he didn’t want anyone to see his passport file which dated back to 1968, and arranged a scandal to inoculate anyone against looking at it. They would have discovered he a different date of borth originally. What else do you think would have been in it? Not a record of his travels. I know this can sound impossible, but this is Bill Clinton.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  32. Republicans didn’t want to help the british resist the nazis. they voted against lend lease and the draft. Pearl harbor forced their hand.

    lany (216442)

  33. 31 you forgot to mention dubya and cheney were vietnam war heroes along with mitt romney and rush limbo. Go to vietnam chicken hawk draft dodgers.

    lany (216442)

  34. Since mittens was brought up, What do you all think about him being open to a carbon tax for you and me? What a sorry piece of schiff.

    mg (8cbc69)

  35. Jonathan Gruber is in the house and won’t leave the building.

    mg (8cbc69)

  36. He needs to shyd or get off the pot along with sassy Nebrasky and Amash. At least the southern segregationists, Ben Nighthorse Campbell and loath as I am to say, Arlen Spector, had the decency to openly switch parties.

    urbanleftbehind (a2f55a)

  37. 28. I really don’t think you really want to go there.

    Gryph (08c844)

  38. He never saw combat.

    Nixon was stationed at an advanced airfield was bombed several times by Japanese bombers.

    LBJ spent months on the west coast in early 1942, made a brief trip to Australia, went on ONE bombing raid and went back to DC. He was there when FDR said you couldn’t be a Congressman AND an active Military Officer at the same time. Rather then staying in the Navy, LBJ quit and went back to Congress. Others like Henry Cabot Lodge stayed in the Army.

    Reagan joined the Army Reserves, IRC, in 1938. He got past the physical by wearing contract lenses, which were extremely rare back then.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  39. Student deferment 64-68, questionable medical deferment thereafter.

    Questioned by his enemies. Clinton was a pure draft dodger. He’d gotten out of serving by promising he’d join up after college, then went back on it. But it delayed his draft, so he got high lottery number. It was a big deal in the ’92 campaign. The amazing thing about Bill Clinton is he spent 9 years going to college/school. First Georgetown, then Oxford, then Yale Law. Graduated from HS in June 1964 – Gets his first job in June 1973!

    rcocean (1a839e)

  40. Of course, Clinton was the kind of soft fat kid who played in the HS band, not on the HS Football team. Its hard to see him going through basic training.

    rcocean (1a839e)

  41. But he wasn’t captured, was he. must be why Trump was so fond of him.

    JRH (52aed3)

  42. The amazing thing about Bill Clinton is he spent 9 years going to college/school.

    Not at all. Four years for college, three for law school, at least one year at Oxford, probably two (which is fairly standard for Americans at Oxford), and, according to Wikipedia, he also worked in Texas for the McGovern campaign.

    kishnevi (496414)

  43. 33. lany (216442) — 6/7/2019 @ 1:51 am

    31 you forgot to mention dubya and cheney were vietnam war heroes along with mitt romney and rush limbo. Go to vietnam chicken hawk draft dodgers.

    I was correcting or adding to what Kavin M wrote @21 about the military (or war) record of all presidents since Eisenhower.

    There was nothing wrong or missing that he wrote about George W. Bush or Donald Trump but he did have things wrong about Bill Clinton because Lyndon Johnson’s abolishment of most acadamic deferments for graduate school in 1967. I speculated also that Bill Clinton had changeds his date of birth after the draft lottery.

    I left out that Bill Clinton was completely surprised at being drafted. At that tiem draft boards had discreton, and the way it used to work in Hot Springs, Arkansas, nobody politically connected got drafted if they didn’t want to. That was the case during World War II when there were actually alot of men who did want to be drafted.

    But the political machine was losing some influence after the death its boss, Owen Vincent (Owney the Killer) Madden in 1965, who has also been the founder of or one of the top three founders of organized crime in America in the 1928-1932 period.

    Kevin M wasn’t doing also rans or vice presidents.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  44. 39. Bill Clinton did have jobs, albeit maybe not full time, before he graduated law school.

    For instance, he was a used car salesman for his step uncle, Raymond, the politically connected Buick dealer.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  45. I should also add: (goig back before World War II era ilitary service of presidents:

    Eisenhower was, of course, in the military during World War I.

    Harry S Truman served in France where he had men under his command. In the United States he was the guy who woke the bugler up. (really – he said it was because he was a farm boy.)

    During World War I, then called the European War or, later, the World War, FDR was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, like his Republican cousin Theodore had been in 1897-8. FDR served for more years.

    Theodore Roosevelt, Taft and Wilson were not of the right age to be in a war, but TR somehow managed in 1898. He also wanted a military commission during World War I, like they used to do during the Civil War but they weren’t doing that any more. He had sons in the war. One was killed in 1918 (and another died of a heart attack in France during World War II, a month after leading [from behind obviously] the first wave of troops ashore at Utah Beach as assistant division commander of the 4th Infantry Division. He also had been Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Harding and early Coolidge Administrations, from 1921 to 1924.)

    All the presidents from Grant to McKinley, except for Grover Cleveland, were in the Civil War. Cleveland paid for a substitute to take his place in the draft, as you could do then.

    Also: Barack Obama had to register for the draft because of Jimmy Carter’s symbolic political response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (actually the toppling of the ruler who, in 1978, had replaced the Soviet puppet installed in 1973, because they considered him too brutal and wan ed to do a de-Stalinization because what he was doing was counterproductive)

    Direct Soviet involvement in toppling (and killing) Hafizullah Amin on December 27, 1979 was caught by U.S. spy satellites because Carter had directed more surveillance of Iran after the taking of the American hostages in Teheran on November 4, 1979, and the spy satellites also flew over Afghanistan.

    This dratt registration has been maintained all these years since 1980 since nobody has the courage to stop this stupid draft registration requirement.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  46. LBJ spent months on the west coast in early 1942, made a brief trip to Australia, went on ONE bombing raid and went back to DC

    What I read says that his plane turned back due to mechanical trouble, and was back on the ground when the bombing raid took place.

    Kevin M (21ca15)

  47. Can’t help but chuckle over this kerfuffle; Trump himself admitted/stated he was delaying the ceremonies by doing the interview w/Ingraham– to her face, on her own show.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  48. But he was wrong, because it was delayed anyway because of Macron.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  49. @48. He is never wrong, Sammy, if it is about him. 😉

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  50. You mean to say:

    It is about him.

    Sammy Finkelman (9974e8)

  51. seeing as his mentor, William Fulbright, wrote the gulf of Tonkin resolution, that enabled the Vietnam war, how he lectured a bataan death march survivor in colonel holmes, over the immorality of war, yes it’s kind of a big deal,

    narciso (d1f714)

  52. Many of my friends in the Longhorn Alumni Band (including my ex) performed at the Normandy ceremonies. Here are domestic and French links. They even sang.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  53. Beldar, I meant to tell you a couple of weeks ago about the Evening Parade at Marine Barracks One in DC. For the public twice a week, Fridays at the Barracks (I attended it then), Tuesdays at (I was told) the Iwo Jima Memorial.

    You would appreciate it in more ways than one.

    Kishnevi (8c41bd)

  54. I’ll add that to my bucket list, Kish, thanks!

    Beldar (fa637a)


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