Posted on 10/13/2018 11:48:17 AM PDT by Kaslin
In Cinncinatti, President Donald J. Trump rankled the mainstream media yet again this weekend with seemingly complimentary comments regarding Confederate General Robert E. Lee as a "great" military leader. Yet, a full tale of the tape reveals that the commander-in-chief only made such comments as a preface to heralding Union General and United States President Ulysses S. Grant as a truly exceptional leader who was finally able to help President Abraham Lincoln defeat the South.
First, NBC News tweeted an edited clip without context that made it appear as if President Donald J. Trump were discussing only Robert E. Lee.
In the 52 second video, the president says the following:
"It also gave you a general - who was incredible. He drank a little bit too much. You know who I'm talking about. So, Robert E. Lee was a great general. And, Abraham Lincoln developed a phobia. He couldn't beat Robert E. Lee! He was going crazy, I don't know if you know this story, but Robert E. Lee was winning battle after battle after battle. And Abraham Lincoln came home and said, 'I can't beat Robert E. Lee' and he had all of these generals. They looked great. They were the top of their class at West Point, they were the greatest people. There's only one problem - they didn't know how the hell to win, they didn't know how to fight, they didn't know how."
WATCH: President Trump says "Robert E. Lee was a great general" during Ohio rally, calling the Confederate leader "incredible." pic.twitter.com/4p6huezCD4— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 13, 2018
And then the clip ends. Whoever was working the NBC News' Friday evening newsdesk shift thought it newsworthy to tweet out that quote. Did the NBC News weekend editor think the point of the President's remarks were to praise Robert E. Lee? Or was he purposefully trying to take President Trump out of context? Well, in order to decipher his or her reasoning, one must read President Trump's comments in this part of his rally in full.
CNN's Manu Raju tweeted a complete copy of the relevant portion of his remarks. The full text shows that President Trump was referring to Lee as a "great" general in terms of his ability to win battles (which is true) and that the "incredible" description was meant for Ulysses S. Grant. Trump goes on to recount how Grant was an alcoholic (also true) but able to defeat Lee, who at one point was asked by Lincoln to lead the Union army. In order to show how impressive Grant's accomplishments were, President Trump does the following: 1) recounts Lee's initial success for the South and 2) discusses the so-called experts at the time's failure to stop this formidable opponent.
Here are his comments: pic.twitter.com/8le6IRqgPO— Manu Raju (@mkraju) October 13, 2018
Even though the president was clearly bragging about Ohio-native Grant's heroic victory over the South, liberals on Twitter and in the media impulsively knee-jerk reacted to hearing a Confederate general described as "great." It is as if the liberals heard the word "great" and immediately assumed President Trump meant the Confederacy was "great" and not that Lee simply had a "great" military mind.
That nuance did not stop the Washington Post from running headlines such as, "Trump calls on blacks to ‘honor’ Republicans with votes, then praises Confederate general Robert E. Lee." Liberal twitter commenters such as Brian Krassenstein ignored the full context of his remarks completely and declared, "Trump is such a 'stable genius' that he goes up to Ohio, a Northern Union State during the Civil War, and praises Robert E. Lee, while calling Ulysses S. Grant a 'drunk'. I guess he's pandering to the other 'stable geniuses' who live in Ohio and fly Confederate Flags with pride."
Conservatives, of course, pointed out President Trump was entirely accurate in his assertions, was not praising the Confederacy, and was not insulting Grant.
I cannot even believe the dishonesty from the media surrounding Trump saying Robert E. Lee was a good General. It was a wind-up to praise Grant for defeating him.
On top of that, Lee was objectively one of the best military minds of the age— Alec Scares ?? (@SearsAl) October 13, 2018
Robert E Lee was, in fact, a great general. To dispute that fact is simply idiotic. You don't have to be a Confederate sympathizer to recognize a basic historical reality.— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) October 13, 2018
Audience doesn't cheer Robert E. Lee.
They cheer when @realDonaldTrump mentions General Grant.
Because he's in Ohio, and Grant was from Ohio.
This is pathetically stupid media-invented controversy. https://t.co/U5OPhyvVaP— ¡El Sooopèrr! ? c137 (@SooperMexican) October 13, 2018
As an optimist, I'd like to believe that those who are taking President Trump out-of-context here really are simply too misinformed to understand the point of his comments at last night's rally. As somebody with common sense, it is painfully obvious that for a liberal in the media or on Twitter battling against Trump, if the commander-in-chief can be painted as a bad guy then the truth be damned. The left will purposefully put out fake news to divide the country.
Cincinnati.
not dumb, evil.
When considering the media, always go with dumb.
They’re willfully hateful.
They are paid to lie. As a result they attract sociopaths who are very comfortable with lying for big money
To the Left, the Truth is whatever they want it to be.
The Left relies on so many ignorant Americans to fall for their crap.
The funniest part is when the do deliberately unethical things like this, then cry when they get called “fake news”.
Well what do you useless clowns expect?
There is a reason in Rocky they didn’t make Apollo a weak assed competitor.
It is much better to beat a powerful rival.
In other words: Silly rabbit. Facts are for kids. ^^;
MSM is willfully propagating fake and misleading news. Yeah they’re stupid as well.
Lee was a great general. And a great American, too. We should not be ashamed to say so.
The DNC Media does this every single day.
Fake news media lies... even when they don’t have to lie.
The major media is paid to put out narratives. That’s their job.
Telling you the truth is not their job at all.
This is actually an excellent example to remember because it goes directly to the question of why we teach history, how and why we should remember history, and how we remember great men. The words "age appropriate" are important. We begin by teaching young people about great people and memorable events. These will be simplified stories intended to give children clear heroes/role models and to fix critical events in memory. As children get older, we begin to sketch in more details. They learn that the great heroes were not perfect, that even heroes have feet of clay and make mistakes. They learn that history is complicated and messy, and that people are products of their own times, places and culture. And they learn that there are great figures on both sides of most conflicts, which leads to the realization that history is often tragic.
That at least is what we would do if we are interested in actually teaching history, as opposed to creating comic book caliber strawmen to illustrate contemporary political tracts.
This goes back at least as far as the ancient Greek and Roman historians, who were ready to recognize greatness even among their deadliest adversaries. The moral and intellectual primitivism of the modern left is beyond redemption.
NEITHER.
Conspiratorial
That’s what they do.
Their base ARE the unhinged.
Their heroes are dictators,thugs,rapist,murderes and otherwise pahological.
They delight,and profit, in killing the unborn?
Nothing but Propaganda by Omission.
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