The GOP love-fest in Milwaukee is over. Trump is back on the campaign trail with his new best buddy J.D. Vance. President Biden is hunkered down in Delaware with COVID-19 trying to figure out his next move, which increasingly looks like a departure, though no one is sure. I’m siding with those who think Joe Biden is no longer able to campaign effectively and will most likely lose if his name is on the ballot in November. It’s a lot to think about, a lot to say, and those who are paid to write about it and talk about it are hard at it.
As we look ahead, my biggest concern is that the media will continue to ignore or minimize who Donald Trump is and what he has said and done because they are exhausted by the horror of it all, and don’t believe their audience has much of an appetite to rehash it either.
Here is a case in point:
On July 13, 2024, Donald Trump, the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, was shot and wounded in the right ear at a campaign rally near Butler, Pennsylvania. It was in all the newspapers. It was, of course, a tragedy and something we hated to see. The bit of blood across his face, the pumped fist in the air, the flag in the background, and the exhortation to “fight, fight, fight” made many of his supporters marvel at his courage, heroism, and toughness. Some were even saying that America hadn’t seen such a brave and tenacious presidential candidate since Teddy Roosevelt in the early 20th century.
Well, there was a presidential candidate in 2008, a Republican by the name of John McCain. Most people will remember that McCain was taken prisoner of war in North Vietnam in October of 1967. He was shot down by a missile over Hanoi, fractured both arms and a leg when he ejected from the aircraft, and nearly downed when he parachuted into a lake. He was transported to the “Hanoi Hilton” where, though badly wounded, his captors wouldn’t treat him.
In a fascinating development, in 1968 his father John S. McCain Jr. was named commander of all U.S. forces in the Vietnam theatre. The North Vietnamese wanted to release McCain for propaganda purposes though he refused unless other prisoners taken before him were also released, which the North Vietnamese would not do. He was subsequently tortured and held as a prisoner of war for five and a half years, until his release in March 14, 1973. His wartime injuries resulted in a permanent disability.
Old news, right? And to suggest that Donald Trump is tougher than John McCain is of course absurd, though not the point. The point is that in July of 2015, Donald Trump, while appearing at an event in Arizona, said of John McCain, “He’s not a war hero…he was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
Here’s the deal: the assassination attempt on Donald Trump was a terrible thing, and under the circumstances one would have expected his supporters to make the most of his supposed brave response. But those in the mainstream media who made too much of his bravery, courage, and toughness in the days following without also mentioning what Donald Trump said about a real American hero like John McCain were doing the country no favours.
At some point, as a part of the narrative, Trump’s attacks on McCain should have been a part of the story; they were not. Perhaps even mention of Trump’s many Vietnam era deferments, and his statement that those who gave their lives to defend America were losers could have been in the mix.
Whatever else happens in this campaign, whoever runs for the Democrats, I am convinced Donald Trump will win if the media fail to report on the now long history of terrible things he has said and done because it is old news. As they search for new angles, new ways to generate advertising revenue, sell newspapers, and generate clicks, I fear they will do nothing to remind the public who this man is because the stories are old, and anyway there are too many of them, and we all know what he’s like, right?
With apologies to Maya Angelou, Donald Trump has been showing us who he is forever. Voters will believe him, and reject him, if the media, and the rest of us, have the patience to repeat the awful stories and reexamine the awful facts that are a matter of public record if only we can overcome our own weariness.
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