On Christmas afternoon NBC News and its media cohorts ran premature reports declaring President Donald Trump to be the “first president since 2002 not to visit troops at Christmastime.”
Less than 24 hours later, the president and first lady arrived in Iraq for a surprise visit with U.S. troops stationed at Al Asad Air Base “to thank them for their service, their success, and their sacrifice and to wish them a Merry Christmas,” according to White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
President Trump and the First Lady traveled to Iraq late on Christmas night to visit with our troops and Senior Military leadership to thank them for their service, their success, and their sacrifice and to wish them a Merry Christmas. pic.twitter.com/s2hntnRwpw
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 26, 2018
Powerful moment – Member of United States Army told the President he came back into the military because of him. And President Trump responded, “And I am here because of you.” I met him after and he gave me the patch from his arm. Incredible. #TrumpTroopsVisit pic.twitter.com/WmQf3b2K8X
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) December 26, 2018
As of Thursday morning, NBC’s fraudulent report still remained online, while it and others had spread far and wide:
President Trump becomes first president since 2002 not to visit troops at Christmastime. https://t.co/6GS2MTeaLZ
— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 25, 2018
No comment @HuffPost?
No comment @YahooNews?
No comment @MSNBC?
No comment @Newsweek?#FAKENEWS.
It’s real pic.twitter.com/OQNrmKO2S2— Sebastian Gorka DrG (@SebGorka) December 27, 2018
Hundreds of media personalities and celebrities shared the false story:
Which is it, MAGAs?
Cowardice or indifference? https://t.co/iSVmXUbq8P
— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) December 26, 2018
You know, I’m starting to suspect that he may not actually care about the troops. https://t.co/fiFZJhKE6E
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) December 26, 2018
Trump has yet to visit troops in a war zone and, by staying home on Tuesday, Trump became the first president since 2002 who didn’t visit military personnel at a hospital or a military base around Christmastime. https://t.co/8S0PK57FHz
— VoteVets (@votevets) December 25, 2018
Instead of visiting the troops, @realDonaldTrump has: Crashed the stock market, gone to war with Jim Mattis, delivered a nice Christmas gift to Vlad (Syria) and presided over an “immigration policy” that has killed two kids in a week… https://t.co/amHrKhAqpW
— Montel Williams (@Montel_Williams) December 25, 2018
Trump is right when he says he hasn’t visited troops in a combat zone because he’s “had an unbelievably busy schedule.” He’s spent about a third of his presidency making promotional appearances at his businesses. Presidents don’t usually have a second job. https://t.co/qLWU5ODQKG
— Citizens for Ethics (@CREWcrew) December 26, 2018
The only observable change on NBC’s part was the addition of a correction:
“On Wednesday, a day after this article was published, President Trump made a surprise visit to Iraq to greet U.S. troops. It was his first presidential visit to a combat zone,” an editor’s note reads.
Watch below as the president and first lady Melania Trump are greeted at Al Asad Air Base:
The couple’s surprise visit marked their first trip to a war zone.
While at the air base, the president met with hundreds of troops:
And delivered a speech in which he thanks the troops for eliminating the threat of ISIS.
“Two years ago, when I became President, they were a very dominant group,” he said. “They were very dominant. Today, they’re not so dominant anymore. (Applause.) Great job. I looked at a map, and two years ago it was a lot of red all over that map. But now you have a couple little spots. And that’s happening very quickly. That’s happening very quickly. You’ll be seeing that.”
“I want to just say great job. And we’ll be watching ISIS very closely. We’ll be watching them very, very closely — the remnants of ISIS.”
Listen:
What remains unclear is why NBC News hasn’t simply deleted its original report and issued an apology.
Also in question is why neither NBC nor its peers have taken the time to note that Melania just did something former first lady Michelle Obama reportedly never did: visit U.S. troops in a war zone.
Trump and Melania were in Iraq visiting American troops on Christmas.
Will NBC News apologize & retract this partisan lie that received thousands of RTs?
Will NBC News also report that Michelle Obama never visited American troops in a war zone like Melania just did? https://t.co/qngqILCDbK
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) December 26, 2018
It’s almost as if the media has an agenda that revolves around constantly disparaging the president.
Of course, the left sees things differently. If anything, the left has been defending NBC on the grounds that its reporting “shamed” Trump into visiting the troops in Iraq.
Look:
Oh benny, dont you realized he was shamed into it? Also, melanie is not POTUS, Bone Spurs is. He only went because he was bored in the WH and had nothing else to do. If he were in FL he would not have gone. This is his 2nd Christmas at the WH, what happened last year?
— Isabel Ortiz Wilson (@isawilson65) December 26, 2018
They only went because the MSM shamed them into it yesterday. He’s not convincing anyone with this phony baloney act. It’s all for show.
— Araignee (@araigneestangle) December 26, 2018
That’s one if the reasons Trump went. NBC is correct, he didn’t go last year at all, this year he was shamed into it, it’s a diversion tactic and photo op only for Trump.
— Mary Pitts (@auntganana) December 27, 2018
Never mind that surprise visits to war zones are planned weeks in advance …
The non-TDS-afflicted members of Twitter reacted to the president’s visit more sanely by contrasting fraudulent reports about Trump with the actual facts on the ground.
Look:
This tweet, unlike a fine wine, has aged poorly. https://t.co/PoAaQgB86n
— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) December 26, 2018
Unreal pic.twitter.com/LH8fsJFIbr
— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) December 26, 2018
shot. shot. chaser pic.twitter.com/cF8yIZIKRS
— siraj hashmi (@SirajAHashmi) December 26, 2018
Oops… pic.twitter.com/37MzPZ2S8c
— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) December 26, 2018
“Christmastime” last at least 12 days. Dumb to post an absolute statement about it until it’s over. https://t.co/utkWvZPXnn
— Brit Hume (@brithume) December 26, 2018
Dunking on Trump for talking to the troops on Christmas is a surprising last-minute contender for dumbest tweet of 2018 https://t.co/DcNafPfym4
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) December 26, 2018
Pretty remarkable how many went with “Trump is first president since 2002 to not visit troops at Christmastime” when there was clearly still time for him to do so. Now the character test:
“Oops, I was wrong.”
or
“Yeah, well the 26th isn’t Christmas! He’s still terrible!” https://t.co/MaDsVxhXzD— Jeryl Bier (@JerylBier) December 26, 2018
So does this mean the whole “trump was the first POTUS not to visit troops since 2002” was a media own-goal? https://t.co/ChOaQ1T60t
— Mike (@ThePantau) December 26, 2018
Facts are stubborn things. But so are members of the “Hate Trump” club.
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Vivek@bizpacreview.com
V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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