The Media Uses Senator McCain to Bludgeon President Trump, While Trump Had Kelly Call McCain's Family Right After His Death to Say "Whatever They Need, They Have"

TODAY, AND EVERY DAY THIS WEEK, WE ARE BEING BOMBARDED WITH PROGRESSIVE FAKE LAMENTING OVER SENATOR McCAIN'S DEATH. I thought I had said everything when I posted the Monday blog. but, the constant and vicious pounding of President Trump by the ProgDem media has made me think there's more to say. • • • THE NEW-FOUND LOVE OF THE LEFT FOR SENATOR McCAIN. It used to be a different story. American Thinker's Jack Hellner examined the Democrat leadership and mainstream media commentary about John McCain BEFORE he died. It explains why this week's parade of Fake tears is just one more despicably Progressive use of any opportunity to attack President Trump. • Hellner wrote : "The playbook is always the same. The Democrats, in collusion with the media, target Republicans, no matter who they are. They trashed Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Donald Trump. Then, when people die, such as Reagan or McCain, they act as though they had always loved them." Hellner has the evidence to back up his claim : "Here is the New York Times on McCain in 2008 : 'As tough as the times are, the selection of a new president is easy. After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president of the United States....In the same time, Senator John McCain of Arizona has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism. His policies and worldview are mired in the past. His choice of a running mate so evidently unfit for the office was a final act of opportunism and bad judgment that eclipsed the accomplishments of 26 years in Congress.' Here is the Washington Post on McCain in 2008 : 'The choice is made easy in part by Mr. McCain's disappointing campaign, above all his irresponsible selection of a running mate who is not ready to be president. It is made easy in larger part, though, because of our admiration for Mr. Obama and the impressive qualities he has shown during this long race. Yes, we have reservations and concerns, almost inevitably, given Mr. Obama's relatively brief experience in national politics. But we also have enormous hopes.' Here is Joe Biden on McCain in 2008 : 'The campaign a person runs says everything about the way they'll govern. The McCain-Palin campaign decided to bet the house -- decided to bet the house -- on the politics perfected by Karl Rove. Those tactics may be good at squeaking by in an election, but they are bad if you want to lead one nation, indivisible.' Here is John Lewis on McCain in 2008 : 'Civil rights icon and Georgia congressman John Lewis is accusing John McCain and Sarah Palin of stoking hate, likening the atmosphere at Republican campaign events to those featuring George Wallace, the segregationist former governor of Alabama and presidential candidate. McCain's campaign has responded with a statement in the candidate's name, urging Barack Obama to repudiate Lewis's comments. 'What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history,' Lewis said in a statement issued today for Politico's Arena forum. 'Senator McCain and Governor Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse.' " • • • Lloyd Marcus wrote on American Thinker Tuesday : "Fake news media's sudden overwhelming fondness for Republican Senator John McCain is insidiously evil and disgusting. Coldly and calculatingly, the American left exploits and spins even death to further its mission to undermine President Trump, the Constitution, and traditional American principles and values. The same Democratic hacks and leftist media operatives now praising the late John McCain called him a racist for being white, being Republican, and opposing Obama in 2008. As the GOP presidential nominee, McCain's absurd strategy was to get into the presidential boxing ring with Obama and not lay a glove on him. McCain even instructed his team not to use Obama's middle name, 'Hussein.' " BUT, putting all that aside, Fake news media in 2008 mercilessly attacked McCain, even accusing him of "race-baiting." Marcus says : "These same leftist hypocrites are arrogantly attempting to dictate to Kelli Ward and President Trump how they should respond to McCain's death. I attended the final rally of Dr. Kelli Ward's bus tour in Yuma, Arizona. Ward offered a moment of silence and a prayer for John McCain and his family. I guarantee that Ward's classy gesture will not be reported by Fake news media....the American left shamefully sees McCain's death as its latest bludgeon to beat up on conservatives, Republicans, and President Trump." • It's hard to argue with Lloyd Marcus's conclusion : "The American left, which includes the Fake news media, does not give a rat's derrière about anyone or anything other than furthering its anti-American and anti-Christian agendas. The life of every American -- including yours and mine -- is deemed acceptable collateral damage in leftists' mission to transform America away from the divinely inspired vision of our Founders....Folks, I cannot state this truth often enough. American leftists are soulless vipers who deceptively portray themselves as championing victims. The reality is that leftists always view people as pawns, coldly using their pain, suffering, and lives to further their godless and anti-American agendas....The American left's over-the-top loving on John McCain is sheer hypocrisy, considering the way the left treated him whenever he leaned toward Republicanism. We have seen this movie played out numerous times, particularly since the election of President Trump. The American left expresses outrage over something insignificant -- in this case, Trump's response to the death of Senator McCain. Fake news media go into 24/7 attack, lie, and smear mode, launching 24/7 panel discussions expressing outrage and how this incident is the magic bullet to take down Trump. The American left's oh-how-we-love-John-McCain hoax will fail. Leftists will move on, eagerly awaiting the next death or tragic incident to exploit and scam We the People for their purposes." • • • A TON OF DRIVEL. Ed Straker calls the ProgDem media's continuous lament for Senator McCain a "ton of drivel." Writing in American Thinker, Straker said : "Right now the inert corpse of Senator McCain is being used like an ice pick wielded by an insane serial killer to stab at President Trump. Liberals'love of Senator McCain, and now, for the first time, the American flag, is never greater when they can use both to attack the President. Like all of you reading this, I felt deep emotion at the news of John McCain's passing. While an unreliably Republican Senator, one of the very worst, actually, we are always required to qualify his rotten record with the fact that he was a prisoner of war in Vietnam, as if one career insulates the other from criticism. Perhaps John McCain's biggest legacy, though, is the avalanche of articles about John McCain. It feels as though we're living through the death of Mao in China, with non-stop, wall-to-wall coverage. Is the flag up? Is the flag down? When did it go up? When did it go down? What does Meghan McCain think? What does Cindy think? What is Melania wearing, and what does it secretly say about John McCain? What did President Trump say about John McCain? What didn't President Trump say about John McCain? What does President Trump's body language say about John McCain? What does a handwriting analyst have to say about President Trump's signature on the proclamation about John McCain?" • What is the MSM telling us about Senator John McCain? Here is Ed Straker's list : " 1. How he was the courageous deciding vote to defeat the partial repeal of Obamacare, in articles with titles like 'I'll never forget watching John McCain vote down Obamacare repeal.' 2. How he stabbed Sarah Palin in the back after he lost the election to Obama. 3. McCain's great man-love for John Kerry. 4. McCain's brave stand against waterboarding terrorists. 5. People like Obama praising McCain for having 'classic integrity' (What kind of integrity did Obama have? The virtual kind?) 6. Articles that call McCain the 'last lion' of the Senate. The last Senator to be called a 'great lion' was the renowned U-boat captain from Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy. 7. The use of the word 'maverick' to refer not to an old James Garner TV show, but to John McCain voting with the Democrats. 8. Any articles with photos or quotes from Cindy and/or Meghan McCain. Sorry, your 15 minutes are over. Royalty went out with the Bushes and the Clintons! 9. Articles that cite McCain's 'global stature' or even call him a 'force of nature' (perhaps like a hurricane or a large forest fire). 10. Articles that claim that President Trump is insufficiently supplicant for sending the McCain family his sympathies. Like smoke from forest fires, the stories about John McCain stories will burn with great intensity and effluvium for a time. The media use his memory to the last drop and then find a new tool with which to attack the President." • • • American Thinker's Sally Zelikovsky wrote on Tuesday : "There is no denying that President Trump and Senator McCain were oil and vinegar, cobra and mongoose, with an unfiltered and palpable disdain for one another. It doesn't matter who lobbed the initiating insult. They equally exchanged nasty barbs and damaging criticisms. Trump had several choices : (1) say nothing about Senator McCain's passing, for which he would be endlessly bludgeoned by the press and punditry; (2) extol the virtues of the deceased in a manner clearly at odds with their relationship and invite endless bludgeoning from the press and punditry for being a hypocrite; or (3) pay polite and respectful condolences to the family, honor his death holding the flag at half-mast, and leave the praise-filled eulogies to those who could do so sincerely...and be bludgeoned in the punditry and press because he didn't deliver enough praise or keep the flag at half-mast long enough." • In fact, Senator McCain had been planning his funeral while battling brain cancer and specifically requested that Presidents Obama and Bush speak but did not request the same of President Trump. That is certainly the right of McCain and his family, and we should respect their wishes. And, it appears that President Trump has done just that. Zelikovsky says : "He didn't ignore the death of Senator McCain, but instead sent his condolences to the family with the proper meter and tone. Had he uncharacteristically praised McCain, that would have been more evidence that he was a hypocrite, flip-flopper, and liar. The press-pundit-pol response would have been swift and jarring. Maybe the press is just perturbed that President Trump actually handled himself quite presidentially this time, showing a modicum of respect due the family while being true to the nature of their relationship." • As Sally Zelikovsky reminds us : "I've noticed that media tributes to some people who pass away have gotten longer and more drawn out than in the past. These selected deaths dominate the news cycle as if they were a cataclysmic natural disaster....Death is part of life. Some people live more consequential lives than others, it's true. And those deaths and the lives led will be highlighted in the news cycle in ways most of us -- no matter how consequential our lives might be to our families and friends -- will never receive. Ours will be a one-paragraph obituary in a local newspaper; there will be a funeral or memorial; friends and families will mourn, sit shiva, or attend a wake; and then life goes on. Now, some will argue that John McCain deserves more coverage than other politicians, war heroes, ex-presidential candidates...because he was all three, because his life was so consequential. But I wonder if that is what is really going on here. Let's see what happens to Senator Bob Dole or President George H.W. Bush when they pass away. Maybe I'm wrong, and they'll be celebrated to the same extent as John McCain, and that is just how the 24-hour news cycle covers the deaths of political luminaries and celebrities. But with all due respect, I cannot help but wonder if part of this outpouring -- especially from the left-wingers and the Democrat-Media-Propaganda Complex -- is because McCain not only sided with the Democrats on issues like immigration and outwardly despised Trump, but gave Trump the finger on repealing Obamacare. Many believe that his thumbs-down vote was personal and emblematic of their mutual disdain -- I'm not going to do something you want so badly and need me to be the deciding vote on, even if I agree with it in principle and despite the fact I got re-elected to vote in favor of repeal. I'm going to stick it to you because of the nasty things you've said about me. Maybe then you will learn your lesson. If you want me to cooperate, you have to be nice. I can understand that. Trump hit McCain in his pithy core with his comments about his heroism and capture. That was too close for McCain to just brush off. McCain clearly wanted to make one last dig at Trump before he left this Earth, and he did, by asking non-sitting Presidents to eulogize him. That trumped anything Trump could say or do, and I think our President knows this. So far, he has given this shot to McCain. And so it should remain." • • • NEWT GINGRICH OFFERS HIS EULOGY. As you all know, I respect immensely the opinions and analyses of former GOP Speaker Newt Gingrich. He was one of the first to offer his memorial piece after the death of Senator McCain. If you want to read the best description of John McCain that will be published this week -- by either the left or right -- read this : "When Callista and I first heard the news that Senator John McCain had died, we were deeply saddened for his family. We are especially close to his daughter, Meghan, and had watched her devote endless hours in Arizona being with her dad as he fought the same terrible brain malignancy that had taken the life of Senator Ted Kennedy. McCain actually died on the ninth anniversary of Kennedy passing away. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Meghan, her mother Cindy and their entire family. John McCain’s death is an appropriate time to think about this extraordinary man and his life. I had been shaped in my view of McCain by my good friend, retired Air Force General Chuck Boyd. Boyd had been a prisoner of war in Vietnam for nearly seven years (1966-1973) and is the only POW from the Vietnam War to achieve four-star rank. He respected John McCain from the bottom of his heart. He felt that McCain had shown courage and loyalty both to America and to his fellow POWs. By the time McCain won a House seat in 1982 he was already a significant figure. He had become a close friend to both President Ronald and Nancy Reagan. He had been a remarkably effective congressional liaison for the Navy, often pushing a buildup in opposition to the Carter administration for which he was supposedly working. When John came to the House he was well known, energetic, enthusiastic and very personable. Both Democrats and Republicans liked him. He was also opinionated, argumentative and enthusiastically prepared to stand up for his beliefs. One of my most personal encounters with John was in 1986 when I was in a very intense fight with the House Democratic leadership. Two physically large House Democrats came over and said they were sick and tired of what I was doing and I ought to know there would be a payback. One of them said 'we are coming for you.' I had not realized that McCain had calmly come over to stand next to me. When the Democrat sounded threatening, John instinctively stepped closer to me and said 'when you come for Newt, come for me too, the name’s McCain.' I almost had the feeling I was seeing the kind of instinctive protectiveness McCain had developed for fellow Americans in the North Vietnamese prison camp where he was imprisoned and tortured for five years. McCain’s greatest passion was for defending America. He spent endless hours trying to strengthen our military and to develop and implement effective strategies for national security. When McCain became chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee he asked me to join a small group that included retired General Jim Mattis to discuss strategic planning for defense. John was always pushing the margins, looking for new ideas and trying to find better ways to do things. The Arizona Senator was a maverick in the Republican Party, in his approach to being a Senator, and in his relationship with Presidents. This was good for America. We need a few more mavericks, not a few more conformists. McCain understood that the Constitution was designed to have a strong Senate that could stand up to the executive branch. In a series of policy fights he was prepared again and again to use his senatorial powers to take on the bureaucracy and the president. McCain’s independence was bipartisan. He was prepared to take on President Bush and he was prepared to take on President Obama. That is how our Constitution is supposed to work. For 81 years John McCain loved his country, lived his life as a patriot, and accepted hardships that few Americans have had to endure. The depth and intensity of McCain’s patriotism, his love for America, and his deep commitment to our nation remaining a free country are an inspiration to every American. His is a life worth studying and praising." • • • DEAR READERS, the Trump tweet that has been the source of so much anger on the part of the ProgDem media rises far above their animosity in its decorum : "My deepest sympathies and respect go out to the family of Senator John McCain. Our hearts and prayers are with you!" AND, Republican South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham revealed to Fox News' Sean Hannity on Monday that President Trump instructed White House chief of staff John Kelly to provide the McCain family with anything they need during their grieving. Senator Graham told Hannity : “John Kelly -- I don’t know if John’s listening -- he called right after John passed to the family. The President tells General Kelly ‘whatever they need they have,' ” Graham said. BUT, we who love the President know this also will not quieten the Democrats or their mainstream media, which is hysterical about Trump's response to John McCain's death. We who love President Trump know that, of course, he reached out to offer help to Senator McCain's family. Donald Trump helps anybody he can, whenever he can. The President was respectful when he refused to rise to the bait John McCain tossed at him in his dying moments. • But, I have to ask myself, why would a dying man think of attacking an old foe instead of forgiving him and asking for forgiveness for himself? It brings to mind the very different picture of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson -- old political foes but older friends -- who reconciled and surely found peace in knowing that their biographers would write of their reconciliation and not of some continuing jabbing animosity over old political differences of opinion. Yet, we know that if President Trump had tried to do that, he would have been rebuffed by the media and perhaps by John McCain, as well. • Let's try to get our heads around this. The Progressive Democrats and their media are using the dead John McCain to bludgeon Trump because they hate Trump, not because they love John McCain, whom they also beat up when he was alive AND before his vote against ending once and for all Obamacare put him 100% on their side. That is why the ProgDems -- who didn't care when Obamacare caused other cancer patients to lose their life-saving doctors because all they cared about was government using Obamacare to take over one sixth of the US economy, controlling every aspect of our lives, dictating our behavior, and deciding who lives or dies -- found in his last year of life a Progressive friend in McCain. John McCain voted against everyone in his Republican Senate to hold on to the catastrophic Obamacare -- out of spite for Trump, not because he was thinking about Americans or America. Get hold of that. • Senator McCain liked to say toward the end of his life that America needs full and open debate. But, where was he during the Obamacare Senate debate? In Arizona, planning to make a grand entrance to vote against the Republican bill that every other Republican Senator voted for. Bring in the Clowns. • I say once again, speak kindly of the dead. Pray for Senator McCain and his family and loved ones. Let the military validate John McCain's military record. Give him a long patriotic pass because of his 5-year POW suffering. But, do not fall into the grip of the national hysteria being drummed up by the ProgDem media over Senator's McCain's death. It is Fake News at its most cynical.