The Washington Post does it again

How much mileage did the Democrats get out of President Trump’s unpresidential tweet suggesting that four ultra-radical, America-bashing congresswomen leave the country? I’m not sure, but I know they didn’t get as much as they wanted.

Now, however, the Democrats and their media backers have a new card to play. At a Trump rally in North Carolina, some in the crowd responded to the president’s reference to the rads by chanting “send them home.”

Trump didn’t say this. He never has. Indeed, he has said he was uncomfortable with the chant.

No matter. The chanting gives a new lease on life to those who unfairly use Trump’s tweet against him.

Naturally, the Washington Post is at the forefront of this effort. Today’s edition features two front page stories about the North Carolina chanting, plus two more on page 6. There’s more in the op-ed section from the usual suspects.

In this post, I want to focus on just one of the news stories — an article by Felicia Sonmez, Rachel Bade, and Seung Min Kim called (in the paper edition) “N.C. Republicans split in response to ‘send her back’ chant at Trump rally.”

The article is dishonest at multiple levels. Its most glaring lack of respect for the truth is the claim that the crowd’s chant of “send her back” is “almost identical to [Trump’s] tweet Sunday telling the women to ‘go back’ [to the places they came from].”

This single, brief passage in the Post contains two instances of dishonesty. First, Trump didn’t tell the four rads to go back. He asked “why don’t they go back?” In quoting from Trump’s tweet, the Post omits the words that are inconsistent with its argument. He didn’t tell them to do anything. The Post is just making it up.

Second, any half-way intelligent person knows the difference between telling people to go back (which Trump didn’t do) and sending them back. To send the four rads back would involve forcibly deporting them. Telling them to go back would leave them free to go back or not. Suggesting that they go back (which is what Trump did) is more innocuous still.

Sommez, Bade and Seung Min Kim know the difference. Yet, they pretend there is virtually none. They are lying.

These three also take issue with Trump’s claim that the four rads hate America. They state: “None of the women has said they hate the United States.”

That’s right, and Trump has never said he’s a racist or that he hates any racial or ethnic group. Yet, pursuant to an editorial decision, the Post writes article after article claiming (sometimes in the headline) that Trump is a racist.

One can easily infer that the four rads hate America from the contempt they display towards the U.S. in their statements. Any half-way intelligent person knows that one can hate something or someone without using the word “hate.”

Even the premise of the Post’s article — its jumping off point for the attack on Trump — is fallacious. The supposed “split” among North Carolina Republicans the Post cites is between Sen. Thom Tillis and Rep. Mark Walker. But there is none.

According to the Post, Tillis said that Trump had no control over what some in the crowd chanted. Walker said the chanting was offensive and needs to stop before it defines the Republican Party.

There no inconsistency here. Both statements can be true.

Tillis’ statement is indisputable. The first part of Walker’s — that the chanting was offensive — is true as well, in my opinion.

The second part — that the chanting will define the GOP if it doesn’t stop — may be too alarmist. However, it will be true if the Washington Post has its way.

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