Less than a week ago, four Marines were murdered, and a now a sailor has also succumbed to his injuries from the shooting. On Monday, Fox News reporter John Roberts said there have been many displays of respect and heart-warming support for the victims of Chattanooga, but they’re not quite all there at the White House:
“Across Chattanooga and the area… we’re seeing signs, big electronic billboards, saying ‘Chattanooga Strong.’ All the flags are at half-staff here…And a lot of people in Chattanooga are questioning; if flags are half-staff here, why are they not at half-staff at the White House?”
President Obama has ordered the flag at half-staff for the victims of the Washington Navy Yard, Sandy Hook, Oak Creek, and the Aurora, Colorado theater shootings. He even issued the flag at half-staff for the deaths of Ted Kennedy and Nelson Mandela, and to honor Abe Lincoln this past April. Many lists include the victims of the Fort Hood shooting at the hands of Nidal Hasan, which in fact Obama did NOT order flags at half-staff, and so far as I write this, Obama has yet to order flags at half-staff for the shooting victims of Chattanooga by Mohammad Abdulazeez. There was an order for the Boston Marathon bombing.
So far, the White House has been quiet on the issue of why the American flag has not been ordered to be flown at half-staff, given the murder of five servicemembers. Is it because they believe it’s only another display of “workplace violence”? Congress is flying its flag at half-staff for Chattanooga:
The flags @USCapitol stand at half-staff today in honor of the brave service members we lost in #Chattanooga. pic.twitter.com/N24p7aCIrc
— Speaker John Boehner (@SpeakerBoehner) July 21, 2015
For as outspoken as Obama has been on issues such as the deaths of Michael Brown and Trayvon Martin, he has been very quiet on Islamic extremism.
President Barack Obama did offer condolences last week. On the day of the shooting, Obama offered the following condolences: “My main message right now is, obviously, the deepest sympathies of the American people to the four Marines that have been killed…It is a heartbreaking circumstance for these individuals who have served our country with great valor to be killed in this fashion.”
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters: “I don’t have more information about the status of the flag over the White House.”
Currently, the states of Tennessee, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Arkansas and Massachusetts are flying flags at half-staff.
