President Donald Trump recently gave a virtual town hall in front of the Lincoln Memorial. A viewer asked him about his relationship with the media in which he explains that he is constantly greeted with a hostile press in the likes of which no president has ever seen.
President Trump then points to the state of President Abraham Lincoln and adds “The closest would be that gentleman right up there. They always said nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse. You’re there, you see those press conferences, they come at me with questions that are disgraceful.”
As you can all imagine, many on the media and on the left ran with Trump comparing himself to Lincoln without even mentioning that his comparison was in regard to how he believes the media treats him. It’s almost ironic.
Many took this to Twitter almost completely out of context. John Harwood, Jackie Kuchinich, the list goes on. One of those Twitter users was former CBS News anchor Dan Rather, who in recent years left in the dust all questions in regards to whether or not he’s a left-wing sympathizer in a journalist’s unbiased uniform. These questions came to surface when he would launch consistent diatribes against President Trump.
As predicted, the admirers on the left adored his tweet. “One rule of American Politics: don’t compare yourself to Abraham Lincoln.” But this message didn’t escape the notice of others who were more than happy to remind him of his checkered professional past, specifically since he stepped down from his CBS News perch. This happened when his 2004 report on President George W. Bush’s national guard service used documents that weren’t verified as authentic.
David Harsanyi, conservative author and opinion columnist, tweeted Dan Rather “One rule of political journalism: make sure your font matches when forging papers.”
Jeff Dunetz, journalist and political columnist reminded Dan Rather not to file a false report close to a presidential election and keep insisting the report is true even when it’s found out to be bogus.
Mark Serrano, commentator and analyst on the Fox Business network tweeted to Dan “One rule of journalism: don’t fabricate stories and peddle them as news (it will cost you your career)”
Then the final, yet beautiful, of many I found with a chuckle is a tweet from Rogan O’Handley. “Another rule – don’t call yourself a journalist when you’re nothing but a Leftist hack.” Give it to ‘em good Rogan.
Also, let us remind you that former President Barack Obama’s entire campaign was virtually based on making comparisons to Abraham Lincoln. This was included in many of his speeches, the campaign launch, inaugural address, and beyond. President Barack Obama uttered words practically identical to President Trump’s back in 2011. “Lincoln? They used to talk about him almost as bad as they talked about me.”
Where was the media then?