McCain’s family gets Trump’s “Sympathy”

Bumble Bee said:

They criticized Trump before John died for not offering any condolences to the family, and now they are criticizing him because he did offer condolences. No matter what he says or does, he’s in a catch-22 and will be criticized by everyone.

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He could have avoided criticism by not being an absolute jerk earlier. His emotional intelligence and his ability to articulate himself are both embarrassingly poor for any adult but especially so for someone in his position. So, on some level, he probably couldn’t have said anything that would’ve gone over well. I would have some measure of compassion for his foibles if he regularly tried to be a good, kind, thoughtful person (even if he fumbled through his gestures) - but he doesn’t. Instead, He has proudly taken the mantle of constant aggressor. As such, he’s just reaping what he’s sown.

Hammster said:

They are media. And I’m sure they aren’t alone in their sentiment.

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Deadline Hollywood is the media?

You may be right that many members in the media may share those sentiments. However, if you must pick one publication to be representative of "the media", Deadline Hollywood is a suspect representative.
Most news articles I have read since last night include the Presidents reactions along with other reactions....without comment.

iluvatar5150 said:

He could have avoided criticism by not being an absolute jerk earlier. His emotional intelligence and his ability to articulate himself are both embarrassingly poor for any adult but especially so for someone in his position. So, on some level, he probably couldn’t have said anything that would’ve gone over well. I would have some measure of compassion for his foibles if he regularly tried to be a good, kind, thoughtful person (even if he fumbled through his gestures) - but he doesn’t. Instead, He has proudly taken the mantle of constant aggressor. As such, he’s just reaping what he’s sown.

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Exactly. Nothing he could have said at this point would have gone well. Yes, he does a lot of the wrong things. But at this point, he can’t win for losing because no matter what he does, it is nitpicked and twisted and turned into a scandal.

It was a functional tweet making the appropriate word-noises. Basically a baseline expected-of-functional-human sympathy tweet.

Wouldn't expect any better, could have been a lot worse. No points gained or lost.

Exactly. I would have been more concerned had he ignored the death altogether, rather than that he didn’t say anything before he died.

Trump has been showing restraint regarding McCain for several months now. At the times he would allude to McCain's decisive midnight vote against the repeal of obamacare, one which as I understand it broke an oft-stated promise by McCain, Trump would refrain from mentioning McCain by name, but only referred to it as a terrible vote. That showed a measure of respect for an opponent who is going through a life crisis and his family. Yesterday's tweet pays respect in a way befitting his office - after all, he has been barred from attending the funeral. Given the whole situation - and let's not forget that McCain has not been exemplary in it - I think Trump's tweet is about the best that could be done at this point.

I also think Trump can't blow his nose without the media criticizing him. They simply must find fault. They don't seem to realize it, but for many of us that has a tremendous desensitizing influence to their coverage.

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You have to look at the audience Trump tries to play to.

If want to see how much a lot of his ardent supporters are lacking class, look no further than the social media posts on the Fox News Facebook page pertaining to McCain's passing.

It's rather disgusting.

There are people calling him a traitor, people making crass jokes like "brain cancer developed John McCain around it and passed today", "this man destroyed our country", "he was a closet Democrat", etc... ...and before someone claims these are "token examples", there are hundreds of these types of posts, each of which having hundreds (and sometimes thousands) of likes, and hundreds of people feeling compelled to click the comment button and express their agreement with it. This is not a fringe attitude of the Trump support base.

Meanwhile, on the liberal-leaning pages, the vibe is much more "I didn't agree with his politics, but he was a nice guy and sympathy for his family"

We're seeing the manifestation of what occurs when reverence for a political figure turns into idol-worship. We have a group that typically takes the stance of "above all else, support the troops and our veterans", to the point where they want people to be punished for protests during anthems...yet, when a veteran votes against Trump on a few select things, they're willing to label him as a traitor and mock his death with crass jokes because he dared to have an opinion of his own and didn't show 100% loyalty to Trump.

For many in the pro-Trump camp, it's become "100% unwavering allegiance to Trump, first and foremost...everything else takes a back seat"

Bumble Bee said:

Exactly. I would have been more concerned had he ignored the death altogether, rather than that he didn’t say anything before he died.

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Exactly. Protocol demands a sitting President to give a top ranking Senator a condolence. Everybody knows this including Trump's critics.

Just a couple of weeks back Trump lacked the basic maturity to say Senator John McCain's name aloud when he was signing a bill named in Senator John McCain's honor. When the family announced that Senator McCain would no longer be pursuing treatment, Trump lacked the basic decency to give any kind of sympathy. I'm sure he & his family knew full well that once he was dead & couldn't reply back that Trump would write an obligatory Tweet or have an aide do it for him. They probably could have guessed the exact words used. I don't think Senator McCain or his family give a diddly dang what Trump tweets. They'll have two Presidents eulogize Senator McCain, plenty of decent & important folks from both sides of the aisle at his funeral giving their respect.

RIP John McCain. He was a good man, and a patriot. Trump does not hold a candle to McCain, and Trump should apologize for all the terrible things he has said about McCain. Until he does, he has no business saying anything else about John McCain.

Bumble Bee said:

They criticized Trump before John died for not offering any condolences to the family, and now they are criticizing him because he did offer condolences. No matter what he says or does, he’s in a catch-22 and will be criticized by everyone.

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Well hardly just that. Donald Trump was venomous to Senator McCain, downright nasty, repeatedly for years. When signing the defense bill named in honor of Senator McCain just a couple of weeks back Donald lacked the dignity & maturity to say Senator McCain's name. Folks with some decency in them, on both sides of the aisle, gave their thoughts, prayers, condolences a couple of days back when it was announced that Senator McCain wouldn't be continuing treatment. Donald played on Twitter that day but failed to say a word about Senator McCain. The Tweeted out condolence is exactly what I & many other folks expected. He had to Tweet out something, he did the bare minimum. I hope folks can just put their focus where it is deserved right now - on Senator McCain.

Its a simple, impersonal condolence greeting. All things considered, it could have been far worse.

Makes me question of Trump actually wrote that. Propably some intern did 2 months ago...

Nithavela said:

Its a simple, impersonal condolence greeting. All things considered, it could have been far worse.

Makes me question of Trump actually wrote that. Propably some intern did 2 months ago...

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The Tweet is lacking Trump's signature style of bizarre capitalization. I think you're correct that somebody else just posted that on his behalf. AAR the Tweet is the bare minimum Trump could have done, which is fine by me & I reckon fine by Senator McCain's family. It's exactly what is expected.

Bumble Bee said:

Exactly. Nothing he could have said at this point would have gone well. Yes, he does a lot of the wrong things. But at this point, he can’t win for losing because no matter what he does, it is nitpicked and twisted and turned into a scandal.

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Trump set himself up for this. He was so unrepentently awful to McCain during the election and McCain stood in his way to throw millions off healthcare rolls, so Trump hit back. If Trump were to now play nice and be decent in light of McCain's passing he would be a hypocrite. Instead he's settled for just being an awful human being.

But that isn't different from his usual modus operandi.

People don't matter to Trump as many others have noted.

Hammster said:

I think whatever he said would be highly criticized. He would be labeled cold, hypocritical, or self-serving.

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In 2016, the media had mostly positive coverage of Trump until the day when it was clear he was going to be the GOP's official candidate. When that day came was when the media switched from being nice to being nasty. I think it was their plan to prop him up to help him win the primary so that they could tear him down later during the debates by releasing the Access Hollywood tape secret weapon. I think they assumed he would be the easiest Republican to beat. But their plan backfired. So the irony is it's really the media's own fault that we have President Trump. Trump probably would not have won the GOP primary without their support, and he could not have become POTUS without winning the primary.

LivingWordUnity said:

In 2016, the media had mostly positive coverage of Trump until the day when it was clear he was going to be the GOP's official candidate. When that day came was when the media switched from being nice to being nasty. I think it was their plan to prop him up to help him win the primary so that they could tear him down later during the debates by releasing the Access Hollywood tape secret weapon. I think they did it because they assumed he would be the easiest Republican to beat. But their plan backfired. So the irony is it's really the media's own fault that we have President Trump. Trump might not have won the GOP primary without their support. And he could not have become POTUS without winning the primary.

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No, they did it because Trump got views/papers bought. People might not turn on the news, buy a paper, click on a link for the same boring politician, but Trump.. everybody likes car crash tv. The media is a business, it’s in it to make money, given a choice of boring politicians or a reality show businessman guess what he gets the attention.

Goonie said:

No, they did it because Trump got views/papers bought. People might not turn on the news, buy a paper, click on a link for the same boring politician, but Trump.. everybody likes car crash tv. The media is a business, it’s in it to make money, given a choice of boring politicians or a reality show businessman guess what he gets the attention.

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Exactly. Trump was best known for being a tacky reality TV show host & egomaniac who referred to himself in the 3rd person.

Senator McCain, OTOH, received the most attention for his dedicated service to his country, not to his ego.