Everything Is Part of the Trump Show Now

Last Friday, a group of students from Kentucky’s Covington Catholic High School mocked a Native-American protester named Nathan Phillips outside of the Lincoln Memorial. As their behavior was criticized, video emerged of a small group of Black Israelite protesters yelling insults at the students prior to the run-in with Phillips. Though the added context in no way excused the behavior of the students, conservatives launched a propaganda campaign to portray them as victims of a reactionary liberal media that rushed to condemn the students without knowing the full story.

President Trump was eager to pick up the thread. On Tuesday, he tweeted that Nick Sandmann — the student who was filmed smirking a few inches from the face of Phillips — and his peers had “become student symbols of Fake News and how evil it can be.” Later that day, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders invited the Covington Catholic students to visit the White House some time after the government shutdown ends. “We’ve reached out and voiced our support” she said. “Certainly no one understands better than this president when the media jumps to conclusions and attacks you for something you may or may not have done.”

She continued to bash the media while speaking to Sean Hannity later that night. “I’ve never seen people so happy to destroy a kid’s life,” she said.

Link to tweet

David Hogg, the Parkland survivor who has been targeted relentlessly by conservatives for his gun control activism, also objected.

Link to tweet

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/sandmann-covington-today-show-783149/