Since President Trump’s inauguration, Republicans have triggered a
steady churn of outrage from the left over perceived gaffes, errors and
omissions.
Some of it has been rightly deserved (see: erroneous Trump tweet
on Gitmo prisoners). Some of the desk-thumping, however, has more than a
hint of hypocrisy -- as that outrage machine was largely silent when
similar comments were made by the Obama administration.
Here are just a few examples of statements met with
thunderous criticism when uttered by Republicans, yet crickets when made
by Democrats:
Carson vs. Obama
HUD Secretary Ben Carson, speaking to department
employees earlier this week, sparked outrage when he referred to slaves
as “immigrants.”
"That's what America is about, a land of dreams and
opportunity," Carson said. "There were other immigrants who came here in
the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less.
But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons,
granddaughters, great-grandsons, great-granddaughters, might pursue
prosperity and happiness in this land."
The NAACP and Chelsea Clinton were both among those
offended by Carson’s comparison. Actor Samuel L. Jackson tore into
Carson in an R-rated tweet.
The problem was, then-President Barack Obama made a similar comparison before.
"It wasn't always easy for new immigrants. Certainly,
it wasn't easy for those of African heritage who had not come here
voluntarily and yet in their own way were immigrants themselves," he
said at a 2015 naturalization ceremony.
The Federalist went
so far as to dig up 11 times Obama had referred to slaves as
immigrants, and noted there was barely a peep of outrage each time. What
changed?
Lay off the iPhones
Twitter was apoplectic when Rep. Jason Chaffetz,
R-Utah, recently said Americans may have to choose between buying a new
iPhone and health insurance.
"Well, we're getting rid of the individual mandate.
We're getting rid of those things that people said that they don't want.
... Americans have choices, and they've got to make a choice," he said
on CNN. "So rather than getting that new iPhone that they just love and
want to go spend hundreds of dollars on that, maybe they should invest
in their own health care.”
Chaffetz was accused of everything from being OK with poor people dying to “reviving the ‘poverty is a choice’ argument."
Yet the criticism glossed over similar remarks made by Obama in 2014.
Asked in a Spanish-language town hall about those who
said they can’t afford premiums, Obama speculated about someone making
$40,000-$50,000 a year, who thinks an insurance option that costs $300 a
month is too much.
“I guess what I would say is if you looked at that
person’s budget and you looked at their cable bill, their telephone …
cell phone bill, other things that they’re spending on, it may turn out
that they just haven’t prioritized health care because right now
everybody is healthy," he said.
Shame-rock
Some were put out after the Trump team recently put
out green versions of his famous “Make America Great Again” hats,
branded with a four-leaf clover. While said clover is considered a
symbol of good luck, some Irish news outlets and others on Twitter
grumbled that the three-leaf clover was more appropriate.
“The shamrock is a three-leaf sprig of clover and is associated with St Patrick's Day,” The Irish Independent
complained. “The four-leaf clover is a plant, that's rarer in
abundance. It's also a sugary, oat piece that's usually found in a box
of Lucky Charms cereal.”
Yet Obama did something similar in 2012 when his
campaign produced an “O’Bama” shirt with a four-leaf clover. While the
error was noted, it produced little outrage, and even some apologists.
“I think that’s creative license,” Kevin O’Neill, a professor of Irish History at Boston College, told The New York Times.” If you can add an apostrophe, why not a leaf.”
Omission Outrage
A Trump White House statement on International
Holocaust Remembrance Day provoked condemnation when it left out any
reference to Jewish people – the main target of Hitler’s genocidal
atrocities.
“It is with a heavy heart and somber mind that we
remember and honor the victims, survivors, heroes of the Holocaust. It
is impossible to fully fathom the depravity and horror inflicted on
innocent people by Nazi terror,” the statement said.
A number of Jewish groups were critical of the
omission. But former Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine,
D-Va., went further by comparing the statement to Holocaust denial.
“President Obama, President Bush always talked about
the Holocaust in connection with the slaughter of Jews. The final
solution was about the slaughter of Jews. We have to remember this. This
is what Holocaust denial is,” he said.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer blasted the
controversy as “nitpicking.” He said: "To suggest that remembering the
Holocaust and acknowledging all of the people -- Jewish, gypsies,
priests, disabled, gays and lesbians -- it is pathetic that people are
picking on a statement."
But Kaine’s comments in particular were striking
considering his former running mate – former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton – released a statement in 2013 that also did not mention the Jewish people.
The statement said: "Each year, we gather together to
commemorate the victims of one of the worst tragedies in human history.
Indeed, almost 70 years after the end of World War II, we continue to
honor those lives that were brutally taken during the Holocaust by the
Nazis. This machinery of systematic extermination also took the lives of
Roma, gays, persons with disabilities, and others deemed inferior or
undesirable by the Nazis."
The statement did condemn Holocaust denial, while
also mentioning other genocides, including in “Cambodia, Srebrenica,
Rwanda and Darfur.”
