Journalist Deletes Anti-Trump Tweet After Realizing Obama Did the Exact Same Thing as Trump
Sometimes Trump-bashing is just too tempting for a liberal journalist to resist.
And sometimes that leads to trouble.
Aaron Rupar, a journalist for the liberal website Vox, found out both of those facts with a Labor Day tweet that he eventually had to delete.
But that still didn’t save him from a round of ribbing on social media.
In the original tweet, Rupar mocked President Donald Trump’s decision to use a presidential proclamation to declare Labor Day.
Apparently, Rupar objected to the standard, boiler-plate language of presidential proclamations that declare such-and-such is happening “by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States.”
“Does he … does he think he just created Labor Day?” Rupar wrote.
Deleted this tweet because Obama’s Labor Day statements included this language too pic.twitter.com/KTXWSTIKiF
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 2, 2019
The ellipses are particularly striking, denoting an elite consciousness struck speechless by yet another Trump monstrosity.
But the problem, as Rupar clearly found out post-publication, is that the president was not declaring the creation of Labor Day. In fact, his predecessor, Barack Obama had issued exactly the same kind of proclamation — with exactly the same grandiose “authority-vested-in-me” wording.
Oddly enough, Labor Day doesn’t seem to be one of those holidays where a presidential proclamation is as de rigueur as a Thanksgiving turkey pardon. Republican George W. Bush apparently never issued one in his two terms in office, nor did Democrat Bill Clinton, nor his predecessor, Republican George H.W. Bush.
That’s not to say Obama was the first president to issue a “Labor Day” proclamation — the federal holiday’s been around since 1894, it’s possible some other president beat him to it and it’s not showing up in reasonably thorough internet searches. But it’s definitely to say Trump was not the first to do it.
Social media critics didn’t take long in piling on.
Aww! Propaganda busted?
— (¬_¬) (@abcovfefe) September 2, 2019
Hey, we all make mistakes.
Just double-check next time to see if the precedent’s already been set…
Especially if it’s been done in the last 5 years.
— Fig (@SyeFigueroa) September 2, 2019
Oh so it’s fine that obama said it… No double standards here I see ?
— UniqueLaura (@UniqueLaura25) September 3, 2019
This is why it is called “fake news “
— Glenn M. Dickson (@GlennMDickson) September 2, 2019
That’s harsh, but media liberals who insist on proving their … superiority with every tweet, especially ones that use ellipses to … underscore how shocked they are, have a tendency to … grate on the nerves.
The fact that a Trump critic is so quick to excoriate the president, then clam up about it when it comes out that Obama did literally the exact same thing is telling.
And what it should tell liberals is that even though mindless Trump-bashing is too hard to resist, it’s a good idea to try.
It can sometimes lead to trouble.
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