Democrats had a bad night on Tuesday. You could see it in their faces, as President Trump rose to the occasion and gave a magnificent address before a joint session of Congress. While most Democrats struggled to find a way to criticize the overwhelmingly well-received speech, more than a few of them failed spectacularly in that endeavor.
1. A former Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama volunteer said SEAL widow Carryn Owens looked like “an idiot”
What most of us regarded as the most powerful moment of the night somehow disgusted Democrat volunteer Dan Grilo. In response to a tweet from L.A. Times reporter Matt Pearce, who wrote that Owens was crying and overwhelmed, Grilo tweeted:
Sorry, Owens’ wife, you’re not helping yourself or your husband’s memory by standing there and clapping like an idiot. Trump just used you.
Hatred from the other side. I would think this is beyond what a human is capable of saying to someone, but it's not! pic.twitter.com/nNVfFWJmDh
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 1, 2017
Fox News is reporting that Grilo has already lost his job over that disgraceful tweet:
Grilo’s account soon went private, and was then deleted entirely. But the tweets were saved and archived by other Twitter users.
Grilo’s LinkedIn page says he works as a principal for the Chicago-based Liberty Advisor Group. But as of Wednesday morning, Grilo’s profile page on the site had been deleted, and the company later confirmed that an employee had sent what they called “an offensive and inappropriate tweet” regarding the Gold Star family.
In a statement, the company said that while the message was from his personal account, “his comments were inconsistent with the Company’s values.”
“Regardless of whether the comments in the tweet were intended to cause the hurt and anger that they ultimately generated, they were unacceptable to us, and the individual who issued the tweet is no longer affiliated with Liberty,” the statement said.
2. Failed novelist Ben Rhodes chided President Trump for using the term “radical Islamic terrorism”
While most everyone else was applauding the president’s refreshing honesty about the nature of the threat we face, Ben Rhodes — President Obama’s former (and possibly current) master media manipulator — was appalled. The admitted author of Obama’s false narratives watched one of his favorite false narratives (that Islamic terror has nothing to do with Islam) go up in smoke:
What was accomplished by declaring war on "radical Islamic terrorism"? Just alienating Muslim allies who we need, and emboldening terrorists
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) March 1, 2017
As others noted on Twitter, after his boss called ISIS the “JV team” and gave boatloads of cash to Iran as part of the nuclear deal, Rhodes is the last person who should be talking about “emboldening terrorists.”
3. Sore loser Sally Kohn issued a “reminder” about the irrelevant popular vote
Kohn noticed that Trump’s speech was being received incredibly well, desperately tried to come up with a killer counter-narrative, and whiffed with this:
Good time to remind everyone that Donald Trump DID NOT win the popular vote. #JointAddress
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) March 1, 2017
How many times do we have to say it? We have an electoral system — not a national popular vote system. There are 51 popular votes and Trump won 30 of them.
Trump and Clinton would have run completely different campaigns, spending much more of their time and money in heavily populated states like New York and California, if they were going for the national popular vote. And Trump would have won that too.
What a pathetic talking point.
4. Keith Olbermanm had a crazed, unhinged, Godwin’s law-smashing rant
I won’t ask you to watch this entire thing. Just the first 15 to 30 seconds are enough to get the full gist of his insane anger at the president. Why is he so upset? Is it because his party is in its death throes and there’s nothing he can do about it except bark at the moon?
Trump used only euphemisms in his speech. It's a Muslim Ban and a Hispanic Purge, to terrify and break ALL of us pic.twitter.com/pI6XCsbiU8
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) March 1, 2017
5. Democrat congresswomen wore white “in a show of unity” in honor of women’s suffrage
Wasn’t the women’s suffrage movement 120 years ago or so?
The heads of the Democratic Women’s Working Group wrote a letter to their colleagues Monday reminding them to wear white to honor the suffrage movement and also to “stand in solidarity with the women of our nation.”
Who are they kidding? They are standing in solidarity with leftist women of our nation — which means they aren’t standing with women at all. Just with leftism.
And why exactly are they honoring women’s suffrage? I’m pretty sure we got the vote a long time ago. Newsflash, women of Congress: Trump has no plans to turn back the clock on this. The women’s vote is secure.
By the way, as they sat there in their trivial white outfits, did any of them feel at least a little ridiculous when President Trump honored grief-stricken Gold Star wife Carryn Owens, whose husband paid the ultimate sacrifice battling terrorists?
6. “Anti-Racism Strategist” Tariq Nasheed insulted CNN’s Van Jones with a racist tweet because Jones said something complimentary about President Trump
Okay, not technically a disgraceful reaction to Trump, but a disgraceful reaction to someone reacting favorably to Trump. Why does this sad sack keep showing up in my Twitter feed?
Uh oh. What's happening with Van Jones calling the new Trump speech "more presidential "? Have they turned Van from Kunta Kente to "Toby"
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) March 1, 2017
7. On MSNBC’s Hardball, Bill Maher slammed the president for honoring Carryn Owens, the widow of fallen Navy SEAL Ryan Owens
The moment wasn’t about Trump, dummy.
Maher is too blinded by his ideological hatred of the president to see anything beyond cold and calculating politics:
"I don't see any great courage here … who wouldn't stand and applaud for a war widow?" @billmaher #JointAddress #Hardball
— Hardball (@hardball) March 1, 2017
8. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Keith Ellison sat stonefaced throughout most of President Trump’s address before Congress — even during the emotional standing ovations for Owens. They stood only very briefly before they sat back down.
Their “standing O” was so brief, most people missed it.
Sobbing widow of slain Navy Seal receives 2 minute standing ovation.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz & Keith Ellison stay firmly seated, no claps
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) March 1, 2017
You can watch the McClatchy video here. While everyone else was standing, Schultz and Ellison can only be seen sitting. The White House video does show them finally standing up — among the last ones to do so — at the 49:03 mark. That is the only time you see them standing.
For the vast majority of that two-minute long ovation, they sat on their hands, putting party before country.
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