President Donald Trump has made headlines by ruthlessly attacking his enemies, mainly on Twitter. Though this might sound just like any other week in the Trump presidency, these latest aggressive comments garnered much more attention than his previous online assaults because of their intended targets.
America’s thin-skinned commander in chief decided to denigrate Sen. John McCain, a lauded war hero who recently died of brain cancer and attorney George Conway, the husband of Counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway.
The media has been speculating for days why Trump would choose to go after a deceased veteran and the spouse of one of his closest advisers. It is true that both men have a complicated history with the president. McCain refused to support Trump’s candidacy in 2016 and cast the deciding vote against the Obamacare repeal back in 2017, while Conway has been a sharp critic of Trump over the past year and recently questioned his mental health.
As the president continues to rail against those who have defied him, one thing the American people should be asking themselves is who cares?
The attacks against a late senator who honorably served this country are abhorrent and horrible, but it’s not like they are completely out of the blue. Trump has shown his character — or lack thereof — time and time again. In fact, it’s become a staple of his brand.
Disparaging the legacy of a deceased politician is right up Trump’s alley. The only shocking aspect of this story is that it’s taken him so long to do this.
The talking heads on cable news have spent hours dissecting the marriage of George and Kellyanne Conway, trying to figure out how it’s possible that a man who hates Trump so strongly can possibly stay with a woman whose job it is to make him look better. People with different political ideologies get married all the time — just look at political experts James Carville and Mary Matalin.
It’s also worth noting that Kellyanne Conway consistently criticized Trump — even going so far as to call him “fairly unpresidential”— before joining his campaign. It is highly possible that she thinks just like her husband and is only using Trump as a stepping stone to better opportunities once he’s out of office.
The press should not fall for such unimportant stories. Instead, the media focus should be on Trump’s entanglement in multiple state and federal crimes, as well as his daily destruction of the United States of America.
Every second the media spends ruminating on Trump’s latest half-baked tweets is time taken away from stories of actual importance.
For example, Florida Republicans moved to limit felon voting rights, despite the wishes of their constituents and the overt unconstitutionality of such a political maneuver.
Sixty-five percent of Floridians voted to approve an amendment that restored voting rights to certain former felons back in November, NBC News reports, but now members of the Grand Old Party are seeking out a way to block some of these recently eligible voters from taking to the polls by attempting to require all court fees and fines be paid before they can register. The measure has been deemed a “poll tax by any other name” by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and could impede over 1.5 million Floridians’ right to vote, NBC News also states, despite the bill’s illegality and betrayal of Floridians’ wishes.
This measure also has certain racial and political implications at stake, considering that many of those who will have their voting rights restored are minorities, and minorities historically vote Democrat. A move like this could therefore have a serious impact on the upcoming 2020 election, in which Florida is expected to play a big role.
Disregarding the rule of the people and not allowing potential voters — many of whom are minorities — to vote could end up affecting the outcome of the entire state’s valuable delegates.
Pundits are too busy salivating over Trump’s latest tweet storm. Stories like the Florida GOP abusing its power are often glossed over, therefore allowing wide-scale misgoverning like this to happen without fear of consequence.
Smothering coverage of Trump’s personal revenge tweets only serve one purpose — distraction from actual stories that the country needs to be informed about. When the press allows itself to be sucked in to Trump’s world of diversion, he walks away the winner, regardless of what is said about him.
