Aaron Rupar, an associate editor for Vox, couldn’t put his Trump Derangement Syndrome aside for one day and decided to politicize the Kobe Bryant tragedy by essentially accusing President Trump of copying Barack Obama’s condolence tweet.
“Kobe Bryant, despite being one of the truly great basketball players of all time, was just getting started in life. He loved his family so much, and had such strong passion for the future. The loss of his beautiful daughter, Gianna, makes this moment even more devastating,” Trump tweeted at 6:54 p.m. ET. “Melania and I send our warmest condolences to Vanessa and the wonderful Bryant family. May God be with you all!”
Two hours earlier, Barack Obama tweeted, “Kobe was a legend on the court and just getting started in what would have been just as meaningful a second act. To lose Gianna is even more heartbreaking to us as parents. Michelle and I send love and prayers to Vanessa and the entire Bryant family on an unthinkable day.”
In response to these two statements, Rupar tweeted, “Trump’s tweet about Kobe is remarkably similar to Obama’s.”
Trump’s tweet about Kobe is remarkably similar to Obama’s pic.twitter.com/o19rmexieH
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 27, 2020
Wow, who would have thought that two statements responding to the exact same tragedy would have similarities? Both mention Kobe Bryant, lauded his basketball career, and alluded to his post-NBA efforts. Both also mention his daughter Gianna, and how it made the tragedy even worse. Both included their wives in a condolence message to Bryant’s family. Wow, can you imagine that?
Many Trump haters liked Rupar’s tweet and echoed his accusation on social media and accused Trump of plagiarism. Which I’m sure was Rupar’s goal.
However, many others called Ruper out for disrespect.
“[S]ave trump hating for another day bro, today we pay respect where it is due,” tweeted one user.
“You are basically Alex Jones,” tweeted another.
“I despise Trump as much as anyone else, but this just seems unnecessary,” tweeted a user called Denny Dorko. “Condolences from different people are going to have similarities, and in this case it isn’t that different that [sic] what I myself though [sic] when I heard his daughter was in the crash. Let’s just let this one go.”
“Sports legend dies tragically w/his beautiful daughter. Idk how many different ways you can express condolences about this subject. Please be decent and put away the TDS for the night,” replied user Bleu Cheque.
“Dude I don’t know what you’re seeing but it’s not there, it’s just simply not there. Take a deep breath and reset,” tweeted a user called Regs.
The most epic response to Rupar came from Christoper Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia:
Rupar’s tweet about Trump’s tweet being like Obama’s tweet is remarkably similar to other, equally stupid tweets. pic.twitter.com/GdhNKhnuo1
— Christopher J. Scalia (@cjscalia) January 27, 2020
There are many other tweets from people agreeing with Rupar and calling him out for such an absurd accusation. Both tweets contain similar language to other statements about the tragedy. Was it really so difficult for Rupar to believe that multiple people could have similar reactions to the same tragedy? Instead, he had to politicize the situation and plant the seed to his 224,500 Twitter followers that Trump plagiarized a condolence statement.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Trumping Obama: How President Trump Saved Us From Barack Obama’s Legacy and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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