Twitter TL reaction to Ryan Owens moment:
Press: how powerful and moving
Veteran friends: this is gross and uncomfortable
— Soldier Jane (@sgtjanedoe) March 1, 2017
Media people in my feed (left) viewed Trump's Navy SEAL moment last night very differently from the veterans (right). A story in two images: pic.twitter.com/P2vlptE5B1
— Brandon Friedman (@BFriedmanDC) March 1, 2017
Phillip Carter, “a former Army officer and former Pentagon official who is now senior fellow at a Center for a New American Security”, at Slate, explains why “Donald Trump’s appropriation of Ryan Owens’ heroism and Carryn Owens’ grief was a disgrace“:
If you stuck with President Donald Trump to the end of his speech to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, you would have been treated to a patriotic display that much of the media felt was guaranteed to warm your heart. For two minutes and 11 seconds, Trump exhorted the audience in Congress—and at home—to stand for Carryn Owens, the wife of Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, who was killed during a disastrous counterterrorism raid in Yemen ordered by Trump just days after his inauguration.
Words cannot convey my compassion and sympathy for Owens and her family. And yet, at the same time, I can barely contain my anger and disgust at the way that Trump put her on display, seeking to appropriate her grief—and her deceased husband’s heroism—for his political gain. This was stolen valor on a presidential scale. And to make matters worse, it fits into a broader pattern of integrity theft by Trump, wherein he’s sought during his first weeks in office to attack or corrupt the integrity of the CIA, the military, and the Department of Homeland Security…
That Trump used this reality show moment to co-opt Owens’ heroism after so recklessly ordering the raid that cost him his life—and has since evaded responsibility for that raid—added insult to injury. There stood the commander in chief of the U.S. armed forces, the most powerful man on the planet, having attempted within the past 24 hours to avoid responsibility for the things he could (and did) control while seeking to claim laurels for acts of valor he had no claim to. It was disgraceful…
Read the whole thing, and maybe forward it to those of your low-info associates who are starry-eyed about Trump’s new “Presidential” tone.