Trump & Troops comparison with past presidents.
- Thread starter hanimmal
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hanimmal
Well-Known Member
Not only did Trump do nothing about Putin spreading propaganda about the virus (even though Trump spread more lies about it), but now this.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/02/trumps-strange-pre-spin-his-coronavirus-diagnosis-it-came-military-police-who-want-hug-kiss-you/
A couple of weeks ago, President Trump was fending off a brutal, anonymously sourced story in the Atlantic about comments he had allegedly made disparaging military veterans and the nation’s war dead. The comments sounded like things Trump had said publicly before, particularly about the late senator John McCain, yet he denied he would ever be so insensitive.
But in the hours after we learned that counselor to the president Hope Hicks had tested positive for the novel coronavirus and before we learned Trump himself had it, he offered some strange comments that seemed to lay the groundwork for how he could explain his impending diagnosis: It might have come from the military or law enforcement.
“You know, it’s very hard, when you’re with soldiers, when you’re with airmen, when you’re with Marines, and I’m with — and the police officers,” Trump said. “I’m with them so much. And when they come over here, it’s very hard to say, stay back, stay back. It’s a tough kind of a situation.”
Trump then turned to his own test and to Hicks. “So, I just went for a test, and we’ll see what happens. I mean, who knows? But you know her very well. She’s fantastic. And she’s done a great job.”
And then he again returned to the alleged potential spreaders.
“But it’s very, very hard when you are with people from the military or … law enforcement, and they come over to you, and they want to hug you, and they want to kiss you, because we really have done a good job for them,” Trump said. “And you get close, and things happen.”
The confluence of circumstances Thursday night led to plenty of speculation. The White House has access to rapid-response tests, so how could Trump not know at that point whether he had tested positive? Hicks reportedly fell ill Wednesday and was quarantined on Air Force One. But by Thursday night, Trump still didn’t have a final word? (Trump’s White House has rarely been forthcoming with his health information.)
It was also an odd way to explain Hicks’s positive test. However much military members and law enforcement appreciate what the Trump White House has done for them, are they really going up to Trump’s low-profile senior counselor, who rarely speaks publicly, to hug her and try to kiss her?
It’s clear Trump was setting the stage for how he would explain either Hicks’s positive test or his own. His and the White House’s cavalier posture toward mask-wearing and continuing to hold large public rallies and events was suddenly looking more foolhardy than ever, and Trump sought to pre-blame it on something else — something that, conveniently, reflected a deep affection for Donald Trump.
His explanation also tracks with his often questionable stories about just how much affection supporters show him in private. Just this week, he cited a construction worker who he said was crying in gratitude when they met. He has told very similar stories about a coal miner, a steelworker, a farmer and a man who looked like a football player, as CNN’s Daniel Dale notedWednesday, often with plenty of “sirs” interspersed. There is no doubt supporters will be in awe and perhaps become emotional when meeting a president, but Trump’s history of fabulismlooms over his descriptions.
Whether there’s some truth to it, here was the president effectively blaming military members and law enforcement for not being more careful when meeting their country’s leaders; there’s no other way to read it. It also didn’t allow for the idea that there should have been precautions to prevent these alleged scenes, which the Secret Service is more than capable of providing.
But Trump has never been interested in all of that, and he clearly set the tone for the coronavirus being allowed to spread — whether it’s in how the White House or his campaign has handled precautions such as masks and social distancing, or in how he has downplayed the severity of the virus, which has led his supporters to eschew such basic precautions, much like Trump has.
This is unquestionably a sad moment in U.S. history; any president coming down with a serious illness can be destabilizing, not just for the country but for the world. But Trump’s effort to pre-spin this one is a thoroughly odd one, and it’s one that glosses over so much of what probably contributed to an outcome that health officials and his critics have long warned about — and has now happened.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/10/02/trumps-strange-pre-spin-his-coronavirus-diagnosis-it-came-military-police-who-want-hug-kiss-you/
A couple of weeks ago, President Trump was fending off a brutal, anonymously sourced story in the Atlantic about comments he had allegedly made disparaging military veterans and the nation’s war dead. The comments sounded like things Trump had said publicly before, particularly about the late senator John McCain, yet he denied he would ever be so insensitive.
But in the hours after we learned that counselor to the president Hope Hicks had tested positive for the novel coronavirus and before we learned Trump himself had it, he offered some strange comments that seemed to lay the groundwork for how he could explain his impending diagnosis: It might have come from the military or law enforcement.
“You know, it’s very hard, when you’re with soldiers, when you’re with airmen, when you’re with Marines, and I’m with — and the police officers,” Trump said. “I’m with them so much. And when they come over here, it’s very hard to say, stay back, stay back. It’s a tough kind of a situation.”
Trump then turned to his own test and to Hicks. “So, I just went for a test, and we’ll see what happens. I mean, who knows? But you know her very well. She’s fantastic. And she’s done a great job.”
And then he again returned to the alleged potential spreaders.
“But it’s very, very hard when you are with people from the military or … law enforcement, and they come over to you, and they want to hug you, and they want to kiss you, because we really have done a good job for them,” Trump said. “And you get close, and things happen.”
The confluence of circumstances Thursday night led to plenty of speculation. The White House has access to rapid-response tests, so how could Trump not know at that point whether he had tested positive? Hicks reportedly fell ill Wednesday and was quarantined on Air Force One. But by Thursday night, Trump still didn’t have a final word? (Trump’s White House has rarely been forthcoming with his health information.)
It was also an odd way to explain Hicks’s positive test. However much military members and law enforcement appreciate what the Trump White House has done for them, are they really going up to Trump’s low-profile senior counselor, who rarely speaks publicly, to hug her and try to kiss her?
It’s clear Trump was setting the stage for how he would explain either Hicks’s positive test or his own. His and the White House’s cavalier posture toward mask-wearing and continuing to hold large public rallies and events was suddenly looking more foolhardy than ever, and Trump sought to pre-blame it on something else — something that, conveniently, reflected a deep affection for Donald Trump.
His explanation also tracks with his often questionable stories about just how much affection supporters show him in private. Just this week, he cited a construction worker who he said was crying in gratitude when they met. He has told very similar stories about a coal miner, a steelworker, a farmer and a man who looked like a football player, as CNN’s Daniel Dale notedWednesday, often with plenty of “sirs” interspersed. There is no doubt supporters will be in awe and perhaps become emotional when meeting a president, but Trump’s history of fabulismlooms over his descriptions.
Whether there’s some truth to it, here was the president effectively blaming military members and law enforcement for not being more careful when meeting their country’s leaders; there’s no other way to read it. It also didn’t allow for the idea that there should have been precautions to prevent these alleged scenes, which the Secret Service is more than capable of providing.
But Trump has never been interested in all of that, and he clearly set the tone for the coronavirus being allowed to spread — whether it’s in how the White House or his campaign has handled precautions such as masks and social distancing, or in how he has downplayed the severity of the virus, which has led his supporters to eschew such basic precautions, much like Trump has.
This is unquestionably a sad moment in U.S. history; any president coming down with a serious illness can be destabilizing, not just for the country but for the world. But Trump’s effort to pre-spin this one is a thoroughly odd one, and it’s one that glosses over so much of what probably contributed to an outcome that health officials and his critics have long warned about — and has now happened.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/10/23/medal-of-honor-cashe/
A long-awaited Medal of Honor for Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, who suffered fatal wounds while pulling six soldiers from a burning vehicle in Iraq, has been delayed in the Senate as lawmakers fight over the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, according to congressional officials familiar with the issue.
Cashe, 35, died Nov. 5, 2005, about three weeks after repeatedly entering the vehicle to save colleagues from further harm. His story has been the subject of a multiyear effort by his family and many veterans to award him the nation’s highest award for valor in combat, and received support from Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper in August after lengthy deliberations in the Army.
If awarded, Cashe would be the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. The president is expected to support the award, said a White House official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing deliberations on Capitol Hill.
The House on Sept. 23 unanimously passed a bill that would waive a restriction that states the Medal of Honor must be awarded within five years of a service member’s heroic actions. A bipartisan version of the bill was immediately introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), with support from Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
Advocates for Cashe’s family and some lawmakers initially anticipated that the Senate version of the bill could pass within days with a batch of other noncontroversial legislation through a process known as “hotlining,” officials said.
But it has dragged out, first as the Senate left town for two weeks amid a coronavirus outbreak that afflicted several Senate Republicans, and then as the Senate has wrangled over Barrett’s nomination.
Senators also have clashed this week over attempts to pass more financial stimulus in response to the pandemic. Republicans tried to pass a $500 billion bill, which failed on a 51-44 party line vote as Democrats seek a larger and more comprehensive effort.
Republicans have sought to confirm Barrett quickly, while Democrats have said the issue should be decided after the election. In the meantime, unanimous consent votes have slowed ahead of Barrett’s expected Oct. 26 confirmation vote, and Cashe’s case continues to wait, Senate officials said.
“There are no objections that we’re aware of, but it’s caught up in the political stoppage, if you will,” said one official familiar with the discussions. With the Barrett vote pending, the official said, “The Senate floor is a mess.”
A Senate Republican familiar with the issue said that he has seen no objections from Republicans or Democrats to Cashe’s award, but that it may not get a vote until the lame-duck session of Congress, after the election.
“Something like this is going to get done,” the official said. "It’s just a matter of when, is my prediction.”
The delay has raised concerns among Cashe’s supporters in both parties, especially since the Senate is expected to adjourn until after the election, following the vote on Barrett next week. The lame-duck session may be especially volatile and challenging to approve legislation, given how bruising the presidential election has been, they said.
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), who co-sponsored the House legislation, said he is hopeful that the Medal of Honor bill can be passed in the Senate before the election.
“This is on the one-yard line, and the family has been waiting 15 years," Waltz said in a phone interview.
“Everything is aligned right now, and it just takes a procedural move to make it happen. There are just too many unknowns after the election.”
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), who proposed the House version of the bill, said certain issues should transcend politics.
“Since our bill unanimously passed the House, we’ve been working with Senate allies on both sides of the aisle to get it across the finish line,” she said. "Alwyn Cashe’s family, along with the military veterans who’ve have led this grass-roots effort, have waited long enough to see Alwyn properly honored. I remain optimistic we will get this done.”
Cotton said in a statement that Cashe’s family has “waited too long to see him properly honored for his heroism.” He urged Senate colleagues “to allow this bill to proceed immediately.”
A Democrat in the Senate said nothing is stopping Cashe’s supporters in the Senate from seeking time on the floor to ask for unanimous consent on the bill, circumventing the delay. Such a move would jump-start the process for the bill individually.
But doing so forces the issue in a way that is atypical in the Senate, other Senate officials said.
If the Senate approves the legislation, Esper has said he will approve the package and send it to Trump.
Two Democrats said that the Cashe case has been complicated by Trump’s threats to veto the defense spending bill because of language in it that would change the names of U.S. military installations that recognize Confederate military officers. The bill has a provision that would eliminate the need for legislation to waive the five-year statute of limitation on a valor medal in favor of allowing a service secretary to authorize it after a 60-day congressional review.
Cashe, of Oviedo, Fla., was initially awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor, for his actions in Iraq. His battalion commander at the time, now-Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, has said that he did not initially realize the full extent of Cashe’s actions.
According to his Silver Star citation, Cashe was in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle that rolled over an improvised explosive device in Samarra, Iraq. He was slightly injured and drenched in fuel, but made multiple trips into the burning vehicle to recover others anyway. Army officials said he suffered burns over at least 72 percent of his body.
A long-awaited Medal of Honor for Sgt. 1st Class Alwyn Cashe, who suffered fatal wounds while pulling six soldiers from a burning vehicle in Iraq, has been delayed in the Senate as lawmakers fight over the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, according to congressional officials familiar with the issue.
Cashe, 35, died Nov. 5, 2005, about three weeks after repeatedly entering the vehicle to save colleagues from further harm. His story has been the subject of a multiyear effort by his family and many veterans to award him the nation’s highest award for valor in combat, and received support from Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper in August after lengthy deliberations in the Army.
If awarded, Cashe would be the first African American to receive the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq or Afghanistan. The president is expected to support the award, said a White House official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing deliberations on Capitol Hill.
The House on Sept. 23 unanimously passed a bill that would waive a restriction that states the Medal of Honor must be awarded within five years of a service member’s heroic actions. A bipartisan version of the bill was immediately introduced in the Senate by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), with support from Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
Advocates for Cashe’s family and some lawmakers initially anticipated that the Senate version of the bill could pass within days with a batch of other noncontroversial legislation through a process known as “hotlining,” officials said.
But it has dragged out, first as the Senate left town for two weeks amid a coronavirus outbreak that afflicted several Senate Republicans, and then as the Senate has wrangled over Barrett’s nomination.
Senators also have clashed this week over attempts to pass more financial stimulus in response to the pandemic. Republicans tried to pass a $500 billion bill, which failed on a 51-44 party line vote as Democrats seek a larger and more comprehensive effort.
Republicans have sought to confirm Barrett quickly, while Democrats have said the issue should be decided after the election. In the meantime, unanimous consent votes have slowed ahead of Barrett’s expected Oct. 26 confirmation vote, and Cashe’s case continues to wait, Senate officials said.
“There are no objections that we’re aware of, but it’s caught up in the political stoppage, if you will,” said one official familiar with the discussions. With the Barrett vote pending, the official said, “The Senate floor is a mess.”
A Senate Republican familiar with the issue said that he has seen no objections from Republicans or Democrats to Cashe’s award, but that it may not get a vote until the lame-duck session of Congress, after the election.
“Something like this is going to get done,” the official said. "It’s just a matter of when, is my prediction.”
The delay has raised concerns among Cashe’s supporters in both parties, especially since the Senate is expected to adjourn until after the election, following the vote on Barrett next week. The lame-duck session may be especially volatile and challenging to approve legislation, given how bruising the presidential election has been, they said.
Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.), who co-sponsored the House legislation, said he is hopeful that the Medal of Honor bill can be passed in the Senate before the election.
“This is on the one-yard line, and the family has been waiting 15 years," Waltz said in a phone interview.
“Everything is aligned right now, and it just takes a procedural move to make it happen. There are just too many unknowns after the election.”
Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), who proposed the House version of the bill, said certain issues should transcend politics.
“Since our bill unanimously passed the House, we’ve been working with Senate allies on both sides of the aisle to get it across the finish line,” she said. "Alwyn Cashe’s family, along with the military veterans who’ve have led this grass-roots effort, have waited long enough to see Alwyn properly honored. I remain optimistic we will get this done.”
Cotton said in a statement that Cashe’s family has “waited too long to see him properly honored for his heroism.” He urged Senate colleagues “to allow this bill to proceed immediately.”
A Democrat in the Senate said nothing is stopping Cashe’s supporters in the Senate from seeking time on the floor to ask for unanimous consent on the bill, circumventing the delay. Such a move would jump-start the process for the bill individually.
But doing so forces the issue in a way that is atypical in the Senate, other Senate officials said.
If the Senate approves the legislation, Esper has said he will approve the package and send it to Trump.
Two Democrats said that the Cashe case has been complicated by Trump’s threats to veto the defense spending bill because of language in it that would change the names of U.S. military installations that recognize Confederate military officers. The bill has a provision that would eliminate the need for legislation to waive the five-year statute of limitation on a valor medal in favor of allowing a service secretary to authorize it after a 60-day congressional review.
Cashe, of Oviedo, Fla., was initially awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor, for his actions in Iraq. His battalion commander at the time, now-Lt. Gen. Gary Brito, has said that he did not initially realize the full extent of Cashe’s actions.
According to his Silver Star citation, Cashe was in a Bradley Fighting Vehicle that rolled over an improvised explosive device in Samarra, Iraq. He was slightly injured and drenched in fuel, but made multiple trips into the burning vehicle to recover others anyway. Army officials said he suffered burns over at least 72 percent of his body.
hanimmal
Well-Known Member
The first time President Trump claimed false credit for the Veterans Access, Choice and Accountability Act — which President Barack Obama signed into law in 2014 — was on June 6, 2018. That day, as Trump signed the Mission Act, a modest update to the bipartisan VA Choice legislation, he seemed to conflate the two.
“So it’s now my great honor to sign the VA Mission Act, or as we all know it, the Choice Act, and to make Veterans Choice the permanent law of our great country,” the president said, standing in the Rose Garden. “And nobody deserves it more than our veterans.”
In the coming weeks, Trump began systematically erasing from the legislation’s history not just Obama but also the late senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), who not only co-sponsored the VA Choice Act but also was so instrumental in passing the Mission Act that he is one of three senators for whom the act is officially named.
That didn’t stop Trump from falsely claiming — as he did at a tank factory in Lima, Ohio, in March 2019 — that McCain, his frequent political rival, failed to make any progress on the VA Choice Act.
“McCain didn’t get the job done for our great vets and the VA, and they knew it,” Trump said.
The president’s handling of the VA Choice legislation offers a crystalline window into the anatomy of a Trump lie: the initial false claim, the subsequent embellishment and gilding, the incessant repetition and the clear evidence that he knows the truth but chooses to keep telling the falsehood — all enabled by aides either unwilling or unable to rein him in.
“A lot of the problem with the president is he’s just using the wrong words,” said Jeremy Butler, the CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonpartisan veterans advocacy and support group. “He’s calling it ‘Choice,’ when he means the Mission Act, but to the average listener, the Mission Act doesn’t mean anything, but ‘Choice’ does.”
Butler said Trump’s inaccurate language also undermines his efforts on improving veteran care: “The real question is: Is this legislation working? Is it doing what it needs to be doing? But it’s hard not to get sucked into misstatements and mistruths and half-truths, whether it’s intentional or not.”
So it’s now my great honor to sign the VA Mission Act, or as we all know it, the Choice Act, and to make Veterans Choice the permanent law of our great country.
President Trump in June 2018
Trump has used the VA Choice assertion in part to create a false sense of accomplishment and to elevate himself while diminishing McCain and Obama.
As Trump repeated the mistruth, he grew bolder, claiming falsely that the legislation had, as he said at one 2018 event, “eluded us for 40 years? 50 years?” He also downplayed McCain’s role, using the legislation as a cudgel to attack the former Vietnam prisoner of war and diminish his contributions.
The newer legislation makes it easier for veterans to seek private care and offers improvements such as allowing veterans to see non-VA doctors for primary care if their drive to a VA facility is more than 30 minutes, rather than 40 miles, or if their wait for an appointment is more than 20 days, rather than 30. According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, an additional 640,000 veterans each year will seek care outside the VA system, and the legislation requires VA to negotiate a contract for veterans to seek care at private walk-in clinics.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement that Trump’s improvements to the VA system go well beyond what Obama accomplished during his two terms.
“Delivering for veterans requires constant attention from the White House on both the legislative front and how the department operates, and if the president can’t even remember the name of the largest VA legislation to pass in the last decade, how can he possibly be a competent administrator of the VA?” Goodwin said. “That’s kind of the crux of the problem with this.”
Dan Pfeiffer, who served as a senior adviser to Obama when the VA Choice law was passed, said the sheer pointlessness of the false claim makes it all the more galling. “He could just as easily say, ‘I passed the Mission Act,’ and that would be just as politically beneficial,” he said. “Either he likes lying too much to stop lying, or his staff is too afraid to tell him he’s wrong so he keeps on perpetuating this falsehood.”
Dan Caldwell, a senior adviser for Concerned Veterans for America — a veterans advocacy group that is part of the conservative Koch political network — offered a different perspective, saying that one of Trump’s key 2016 campaign promises was giving veterans more choice, which Trump ultimately delivered.
“As implemented, the Obama administration law didn’t give veterans true choice,” Caldwell said. “The president deserves a lot of credit for making progress on this issue.”
