-By Gary Krasner
Another Sunday and another failure of Trump’s surrogates to correctly frame Trump’s gaffs and misspeak.
The media is going gaga over what they are characterizing as Trump’s saying that the U.S.A. is just like a murderous Vladimir Putin.
The administration sent Vice President Mike Pence out to set the record straight on the Sunday morning shows (e.g. Meet the Press, Face the Nation). And as usual, Pence drowned in his own words when he tried to spin it on TV.
Pence’s poor performance will be online soon, so you can see it yourself, but here is how my “imaginary competent Pence” would have responded:
MSM Liberal Host: So was Pres. Trump using moral equivalence.
Imaginary Competent Pence: Absolutely not. O’Reilly said “Putin is a killer”. He wasn’t suggesting that Putin PERSONALLY killed people. Rather, he could only have meant that as a head of state, Putin ORDERED the killing of people by way of agents of the government. That’s the only context one can interpret O’Reilly’s comment.
And consequently, the president’s answer was correct. Sovereign nations can and do kill people! Armed conflict is occurring each day in the mideast. Last week, President Trump ordered the killing of al Qaeda leaders in a raid in Yemen. President Obama ordered hundreds of drone assassinations. Would you say Obama “was a killer”?
So it was O’Reilly who misspoke. He said “killer” when he meant to say “murderer.”
There! Was that so damn hard, Mr. Pence?!
For reference:
O’Reilly: Putin is a “Killer”; Trump: “What, Do You Think Our Country’s So Innocent?”
By Ken Meyer | 7:16 pm, February 4th, 2017