CNN is at it again, this time attacking President Trump for signing MAGA hats during his visit to troops over the holidays. It’s not bad enough that the media went out in full force claiming Trump was the first president not to visit a war zone – spouting off only to be shutdown when he appeared hours later –they raged on and on that it took him two years to do so. Now, CNN aimed its poisonous arrows at our brave troops, tattling on them, as if someone stole their cookie, pointing a wagging finger while saying the service members violated military rules. Way to go, CNN, attack our troops in your crusade against Trump!
The first article, Troops bringing Trump hats may violate military rule, hammered on the soldiers and the president for having the audacity to sign MAGA hats. In the article, CNN claims both violated Department of Defense guidelines that say: “active duty personnel may not engage in partisan political activities and all military personnel should avoid the inference that their political activities imply or appear to imply DoD sponsorship, approval, or endorsement of a political candidate, campaign, or cause.”
In the opening paragraph, Eli Watkins wrote:
President Donald Trump made his first visit to a war zone on Wednesday, receiving an enthusiastic reception from many US troops there — some of whom may have run afoul of military rules.
A commenter on the article, Sonny Bunch, wasn’t pleased with this original article, and tweeted about it:
https://twitter.com/SonnyBunch/status/1078112913594953729
A few hours later, the network heard from the White House that those hats and other Trump paraphernalia were personal items of the troops at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, and that the soldiers produced them to the president hoping for an autograph. The fake news specialists did a quick recant on the article, changing the name to White House says it didn’t distribute MAGA hats Trump signed in Iraq, Germany. Why is this an important point to make, you may ask? Usually, once a headline is published, you don’t change it. You can update an article, of course, and make notations reflecting the recent information. Sometimes, you may need to fix a headline in the case of a misspelled word or name, but CNN completely changed the tone of the story by altering the title to imply something vastly different than the first one, which essentially accused military personnel of breaking the rules.
White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted her disgust at the article:
CNN will attack anyone who supports President Trump, including the brave men and women of our military who fight everyday to protect our freedom https://t.co/x6VjuUJFdF
— Kayleigh McEnany 45 Archived (@PressSec45) December 27, 2018
The new improved story included more information, such as Sanders’ comment that the MAGA hats and other materials were personal belongings of the soldiers and were brought to the event by them – the White House had nothing to do with it. They also added this little nugget of truth:
No policy violations have been brought to the military’s attention at this time, said Capt. Christopher Bowyer-Meeder, a spokesperson for the US Air Force, Europe. He added there is no rule against Airmen bringing personal items to be signed by the president.
So, CNN’s original story, which was picked up like a fumbled football during the Superbowl by other eager mainstream media, was based on the assumption that the soldiers were violating military rule and the president should know better. Never mind that Barack Obama and his wife both visited troops and signed photographs and magazine covers while in office: Trump did it, so it has to be wrong – an evil ploy to further his own purposes.
In a video, CNN’s Jim Acosta talks with John Kirby about the incident. Kirby, a former member of the Obama administration and an analyst for the network, said: “It is, in fact, a campaign slogan, that is a campaign item, and it is completely inappropriate for the troops to do this.”
But some would argue that the MAGA hats are great collectors’ items when signed by the commander in chief, and the soldiers just wanted to get autographs of their president on something that represents him. Just like they did when Obama signed material when he visited troops.
The left, however, is peeved whenever there is anything positive related to President Trump and will stoop lower than a snake’s belly to discredit it. Leave our military alone and let them enjoy an autographed hat without trying to rat them out and cause an uproar across the nation, or even get some soldiers in trouble. Is that too much to ask?
