Tone Deaf President Returns to Attacking the Press and Political Opponents
Even after last week's pipe bombs and the savage attack on the Tree of Life Synagogue, President Trump can't muster the dignity or empathy to tone down the rhetoric and focus on healing a divided nation.
Bill Kristol, Twitter: “We’ve been pretty lucky in our presidents. They’ve tended to rise to difficult occasions. I wish there were any reason to hope our current president were either capable or inclined to do so.”
Within hours of the mass murders in Pittsburgh, he was tweeting about the World Series, back on the stump and back on the attack.
New York Times: "But he [Trump] saw no reason to dispense with his campaign schedule or adjust his message. Within minutes of expressing outrage at anti-Semitism at a rally in Illinois on Saturday night, he attacked Representative Maxine Waters, a Democrat from California who had been targeted in last week’s spate of bomb scares."
Pres. Trump Twitter: "The Fake News is doing everything in their power to blame Republicans, Conservatives and me for the division and hatred that has been going on for so long in our Country. Actually, it is their Fake & Dishonest reporting which is causing problems far greater than they understand!"
Trump is simply incapable of understanding that a President helps to set the tone for the nation. His vicious attacks on the press and his opponents are undermining the bonds which hold this nation together, especially during times of strife.
New York Times: "Mr. Trump’s discordant approach to national crises was apparent long before the past week. He equated white supremacists with counterprotesters after the violence in Charlottesville, Va., last year and engaged in a long war of words with the mayor of San Juan, P.R., when she asked for more help dealing with Hurricane Maria. His response to the brutal killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist and United States resident, focused on his desire not to lose arms contracts with Saudi Arabia."
But, the outpouring of grief over the slaughter at the Tree of Life Synagogue may signal that even if our President doesn't get it, many other Americans realize that its time to evaluate how all this anger, often stoked by Trump, undermines our national unity.
