Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume had some fun online following the implosion of yet another concerted effort by the left-leaning media to criticize President Trump over a fact-challenged claim.
As NBC News and others reported that Trump was the first president in over a decade and a half to not visit the troops during Christmastime, Trump was already gearing up for his weeks-long scheduled surprise trips to Al Asad Air Base in Iraq and Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.
“On Christmas Day, President Donald Trump took part in a long-running practice of presidents who called troops stationed around the country and the world,” NBC News reported a day before news of the trip, plans for which had been “shrouded in secrecy,” broke. “But he broke from a recent tradition of actually visiting troops and wounded warriors. He did so in 2017, when he visited wounded troops at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Dec. 21 (and invited Coast Guard service members to play golf at his course in West Palm Beach, Florida). By staying home on Tuesday, Trump became the first president since 2002 who didn’t visit military personnel around Christmastime.”
Celebrities and reporters blasted out posts criticizing Trump for supposedly neglecting the troops, including Montel Williams, #resistance-leading actress Alyssa Milano, and MSNBC’s Kyle Griffin:
A few hours after NBC’s big report, the White House revealed that Trump was in Iraq visiting with troops on a surprise trip, which had been in the works for weeks. “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,” tweeted White House Press Sec. Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
“Melania and I were honored to visit our incredible troops at Al Asad Air Base in Iraq. GOD BLESS THE U.S.A.!” wrote Trump.
The news forced NBC to add an editor’s note at the top of the piece (though they didn’t bother to update the false title, “Trump becomes first president since 2002 not to visit troops at Christmastime”). “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,” the brief update reads.
Hume took some time to make sure the Trump critics who were so excited to hit the president over the false claim didn’t miss the update:
But, as noted by The Washington Times and Twitchy, Hume really had some fun with Soledad O’Brien, who attempted to credit the media’s “shaming” of Trump for his visit to the troops.
“Shaming him seems to work,” tweeted O’Brien in response to Hume’s comment to Milano.
“Yes, Ma’am. Trump read this tweet when it was posted and time-traveled himself back to yesterday and flew to Iraq,” Hume replied. “Genius take.”
O’Brien then “spell[ed] it out” what she supposedly really meant to Hume: “Sorry—let me spell it out more slowly so you can understand me: the President (according to cnn’s Barabar Starr) prepped for this trip several weeks ago. The shaming seems to have worked. I hope you’re having a nice holiday. Try not to be such an a**hole in 2019.”
Hume wasn’t impressed. “Then why’d you post your tweet in response to one that was about a tweet sent today?” he asked. “Your tweet was ridiculous.”
O’Brien felt the need to “spell it out” even more: “Maybe google the number of things that have been written about the president not visiting troops?
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