The “Breaking News” headline email I just got from the Washington Post says, “Trump condemns white supremacy after mass shootings, focuses on combating mental illness over new gun control measures.”
I watched his short “speech” and he did rail against white supremacy and hatred and people using the internet to promote hatred and ginning up violence through their words and ideas. But…
I couldn’t help feeling that it was a sham. Because I remember “shoot them” — a shout at his Trump rally in response to him talking about what the USA should do with undocumented immigrants. He said nothing, and in fact chuckled.
I remember his racist tweets of last week. When he called out a city, Baltimore, and a Congressman and doubled down on his racism.
I remember two or three weeks ago when he called out the “Squad” and said that they should “go back where they came from.”
I recall his words when he declared Neo-Nazis, “good people.” Or when he called Mexicans “breeders” or “rapists” or “criminals.”
Or the birther movement — which he single-handedly perpetuated.
On and on and on. No, no words in a hastily arranged White House speech will undo those already uttered.
I’m waiting for some in the press to tell us all that “Trump has turned the page” or “Some say Trump is racist, others disagree” or some “well-balanced” schlock like that. Hell, Tom Brokaw this morning even started the ball rolloing by declaring that the problem of rhetoric was on “both sides.” No, Tom, you hack — please MSNBC sideline this old man with his casual dismissal of what we all can see with our own eyes. I’m even half-way waiting for some idiot (Van Jones — looking your way), to declare, “This is the moment when Trump became President.”
In this moment, don’t allow the press and their pundits to talk about five minute speech as if we don’t have evidence that Trump has been igniting the flames of racism, bigotry and xenophobia — that it is a feature of who he is. And Trump will never change. We need the media to do better — or at least call them out when they don’t.
As Beto O’Rourke said, “Members of the press -What the fuck?”
And so it fucking begins. The press is so awful.
Actually, this is how you do it if you are a News organization. At least the headline part…
