Prayers

I was going to praise Sarah Huckabee Sanders when I read

Strongly condemn the evil act of senseless violence in Annapolis, MD. A violent attack on innocent journalists doing their job is an attack on every American. Our prayers are with the victims and their friends and families.

— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) June 28, 2018

Up until the moment I began this post I was going to praise her.

And then I noticed something interesting which I had not noticed the, oh, seven or eight times I had read the tweet.

There is no pronoun.

Sanders remarks "strongly condemn the evil act of senseless violence in Annapolis, MD." She does not say who strongly condemns the violence. It might be you, your neighbor, some Republicans, most Independents, and virtually every single Democrat.

But is it Sanders who "strongly condemns" the violence? Is it President Trump? We don't know. Admittedly, Sanders adds "our prayers are with the victim" but as we've come to learn from mass shooting after mass shooting, "prayers" generally mean- as Mrs. Trump might put it- "I don't care, do u?"

The evidence indicates that neither Sanders nor her boss is likely to have been terribly exorcised by the murders at Capital Gazette (and exorcism might not be enough to rid Donald Trump of his evil). 

During a press briefing in June, 2017, Sanders stated

I think that we have gone to a place where, if the media can't be trusted to report the news, then that's a dangerous place for America,” Sanders said during an on-camera press briefing. And I think if that is the place certain outlets are going — particularly for the purpose of spiking ratings — and if that's coming directly from the top, I think that's even more scary.

Three months later, after ESPN's Jemele Hill tweeted"Donald Trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w/ other white supremacists," Sanders responded "I think that’s one of the more outrageous comments that anyone could make and certainly something that is a fireable offense by ESPN...” (Hill apologized; CNN caved. The Administration knows what it is doing.)

In merely one of his classics, last October President Trump at a rally in Phoenix referred to the press as "truly dishonest people" and  charged “It’s time to expose the crooked media deceptions, and to challenge the media for their role in fomenting divisions. And yes, by the way — and yes, by the way, they are trying to take away our history and our heritage. You see that.”

And it was less than three weeks ago that Trump, nearly as ignorant of quote marks as he is about the First Amendment, declared

So funny to watch the Fake News, especially NBC and CNN. They are fighting hard to downplay the deal with North Korea. 500 days ago they would have “begged” for this deal-looked like war would break out. Our Country’s biggest enemy is the Fake News so easily promulgated by fools!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 13, 2018

It looked like war might "break out" because Trump had taken us to the brink of catastrophic war. Now North Korea is rapidlyupgrading a nuclear site. The President should be glad if the media is "fighting hard to downplay the deal." He might be while merely pretending otherwise.

Nearly every day (below, in Melbourne, Florida on 2/17), the guy Sarah H. Sanders flacks for attacks the press, often whipping his supporters into a frenzy of outrage against it.  Still, my thoughts and prayers are with President Trump in the hope he maintains his health. Unlike the thoughts and prayers of Republicans or thoughts of Mrs. Sanders, I am sincere. A President Pence awaits.

Share |