Politicizing 75th Anniversary Of D-Day: Shame On GOP Chairwoman, Shame On Media
[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:
.@GOPChairwoman: We are celebrating the anniversary, 75 years of D-Day. This is the time where we should be celebrating our President, the great achievements of America, and I don't think the American people like the constant negativity. pic.twitter.com/FpGWbGMuX7
— GOP (@GOP) June 5, 2019
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.
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:
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:
Yashar Ali also took the time to confirm that it was not President Trump who caused the delay:
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:
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
1530 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:
WATCH: 97-year-old US paratrooper veteran Tom Rice, who served with the Army's 101st Airborne Division, recreates his D-Day jump in Normandy 75 years later. pic.twitter.com/qAth429XCA
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 5, 2019
This is what matters. This is who matters.
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
