It was utterly predictable but no less aggravating for it. Melania Trump did not plagiarize her Republican National Convention speech from Michelle Obama or Jill Biden, and she did the one thing no other Trump has managed to do, which was to show an ounce of humanity for victims of the coronavirus. The corporate media is now fawning over her for it. She's now a font of "kindness and compassion," providing "a moment of calm." Never mind that she was speaking from the White House Rose Garden, a violation of the law to use government property for political gain.
Especially that part. Here's Politico: "Melania Trump restored a sense of normalcy Tuesday night, closing the GOP convention’s second act with a speech that was remarkable for its restraint and deliberate adherence to etiquette." Etiquette in the middle of an act that was breaking the law. But never mind all that, she didn't yell at anyone. Instead she "embraced the role of stateswoman on Tuesday, offering a pacifying commentary that could have easily been spoken by any former First Lady." Maybe not any former First Lady. After all, Melania Trump is a birther who echoed her husband's racist conspiracy theories about President Barack Obama's birthplace. Speaking of racism, it really is The New York Times that takes the apologist cake on Melania.
The usual suspect, Maggie Haberman, along with Annie Karnie and Katie Rogers had this to say about that infamous statement Melania Trump made with a jacket when she visited an immigrant children's shelter in McAllen, Texas at the height of the outrage over her husband's policy of tearing immigrant children away from their families and locking them in cages: "I really don't care. Do u?" That was dismissed as her "most famous fashion faux pas" by the NYT team. Faux. Pas. "Aides said she has shrugged it off, along with all of the other criticisms of how she has chosen to take on the role." That's just fine.
So is the praise that her speech was "’authentic,' written without the hidden hand of professional speechwriters." Emphasized with this quote: "'Every word' of the address, Mrs. Trump's chief of staff, Stephanie Grisham, said, 'is from her.'" This. Just this:
Striking a moderate tone Tuesday night, Mrs. Trump said she was not going to criticize the Democrats. Instead, she said she was calling "on the citizens of this country to take a moment, pause, and look at things from all perspectives." She added, "I have also asked people to stop the violence and looting being done in the name of justice. And never make assumptions based on the color of a person's skin."
Like the assumption that they couldn't have been born in the United States if they're Black and one parent was an immigrant?
Gah.
Another NYT reporter, Elaine Plott, chimed in with the utterly predictable report from the hinterlands. "I've interviewed a whole, whole lot of suburban, center-right women who have been on the fence about voting for Trump in November," she tweeted. "The first lady's speech is going to stick." Because she managed to "evince something like compassion," Plott continued. Something like compassion. Right. "I really don't care. Do u?"
Gah.
At least we were all spared what would have been utterly, irredeemably nauseating Tuesday night. "Mrs. Trump considered using Seneca Falls, N.Y., the cradle of the national movement for women’s rights, as a backdrop," the NYT says. At the very least, we were spared that sacrilege.
Melania Trump is a racist birther who is utterly capable of having Jackie Kennedy Onassis' crabapple trees removed from the Rose Garden just so cameras could get a really good shot of her entrance Tuesday night. She has demonstrated nothing but complicity with the horrors her husband has wrought on the nation, and because she didn't yell at anyone Tuesday night, she's "restored a sense of normalcy" to Trump. Could the corporate media be more desperate to keep this horror show alive for four more years?
