In December 2015, then-candidate Trump was asked about
Putin’s habit of invading countries and killing critics. “He’s running his
country, and at least he’s a leader,” Trump replied, “unlike what we have in
this country.” Reminded that Putin has been accused of ordering the murder of critics
and journalists, Trump added, “Well, I think our country does plenty of killing
also.”
In a July 2016 interview with The New York Times, the Republican went on to argue that the United States lacks the moral authority to lead, because we’re just not a good enough country to command respect abroad. “When the world looks at how bad the United States is, and then we go and talk about civil liberties, I don’t think we’re a very good messenger,” he said.
There’s never been a president, from either party, who’s been so cavalier about America lacking in credibility. Sentiments such as “When the world looks at how bad the United States is...” are usually heard from America’s opponents, not America’s president. The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg noted during the 2016 campaign that Barack Obama “has never spoken as negatively about America as Donald Trump has....
That's not because it would be risky for a black man to be as critical of the USA as has Donald Trump. No Democrat would be allowed to question the nation's moral authority to lead or to draw a moral equivalence between our nation and Putin's Russia.
Benen had written in response to Trump's Truth Social post in which the former President exclaimed
The Witch Hunt continues, and after 6 years and millions of pages of documents, they’ve got nothing. If I had what Hunter and Joe had, it would be the Electric Chair. Our Country is Rigged, Crooked, and Evil — We must bring it back, and FAST. Next stop, Communism!
Writing six days before the November election, Benen noted that the media had not been so rude as to ask Republican candidates their opinion of Trump's assessment of our nation as "evil."
The price for this abject failure may now be coming due. Previewing the "Faith in America" tour of South Carolina Republican senator Tim Scott leading up to the announcement of his presidential candidacy, Politico Playbook wrote
“Pretend you were our nation’s greatest enemy,” he’ll say, per the prepared remarks. “Say you wanted a blueprint to ruin America. What would you put in it? First, you’d take aim at our patriotism. [Y]ou’d amplify attention-seekers who say America is an evil country. Make it easy to get rich and famous by feeding the empty calories of anger to people who are starving for hope. In other words … you’d keep doing exactly what JOE BIDEN has let the far left do to our country for the last two years.”
First, you'd take aim at our patriotism. He could have been speaking of Joe Biden if Biden were the President who said of his own State of the Union Address
You're up there, you've got half the room going totally crazy, wild -- they loved everything, they want to do something great for our country. And you have the other side, even on positive news -- really positive news, like that -- they were like death and un-American. Un-American. "Somebody said, 'treasonous.' I mean, yeah, I guess, why not? Can we call that treason? Why not? I mean, they certainly didn't seem to love our country very much.
Take away the last sentence of the quote in Politico, and you'd figure that Senator Scott was talking about the man who in July of 2019 tweeted
I don’t believe the four Congresswomen are capable of loving our Country. They should apologize to America (and Israel) for the horrible (hateful) things they have said. They are destroying the Democrat Party, but are weak & insecure people who can never destroy our great Nation!
Not only the squad but also center-left Adam Schiff:
No one- except for Marjorie Taylor Greene- has sought attention as has Donald J. Trump. No known Democrat has referred to the USA as "evil," as has Donald J. Trump. No Democrat has as consistently run down this country- his own country- as has Donald J. Trump.
Scott delivered the GOP rebuttal to President Biden's State of the Union message in April, 2021. He stated that he had "experienced the pain of discrimination," including being "pulled over for no reason; "followed around a store while I'm shopping;" and "called 'Uncle Tom' and the n-word by progressives, by liberals." Having thus described a racist country, he then declared "hear me clearly: America is not a racist country."
Aside from observing that the Senator is fond of embracing victimhood, I pulled my punches and acknowledged merely that "he is not being candid." Scott, a faithful supporter of Donald Trump, remains a supporter even now that he evidently has decided that he wants to be President of the United States of America. If either man developed an ounce of integrity, it would be an ounce more than he has.
No comments:
Post a Comment