Recall that on April 11, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that he would be running for a second term.
And twenty two days later, on May 2, 2011, Navy Seals, under the direct order of the President — who was watching via TV cameras from the White House Situation Room- stormed Osama bin Laden’s no-longer-secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Killing him.
The reaction of the media? Accolades and lavish praise. The murderer of thousands of Americans had been dealt justice. Yes, Obama was running for re-election, but so what? The President had brought justice to the stone cold killer of Americans, and the media - not to mention Americans in general — cheered. Vice President Biden was applauded when, in the 2012 election, he mentioned the Obama bailout of General Motors this way: "Bin Laden is dead and General Motors is alive.”
The media ate it up.
Contrast that with the media response to President Trump’s decision to bring justice to Iranian General Qasem Soleimani.
Over here at NewsBusters, Mark Finkelstein noted this from my former CNN colleague John Berman: “Not to diminish the importance of the air strikes in Iraq at the time, but that’s nothing compared to the murder, the assassination of General Soleimani.”
Also on CNN was ex-Obama national security aide Samantha Vinograd. Mediaite wrote up Vinograd’s “analysis” this way: “CNN Analyst: ‘All American Citizens Are Now Walking Prime Targets.’”
The story says this:
“CNN National Security Analyst Samantha Vinograd — a former national security official for President Barack Obama — offered a dire warning following President Donald Trump’s decision to order the killing of Iranian Quds Force Supreme Commander Qasem Soleimani, saying that ‘All American citizens are now walking prime targets’ for retaliation.”
Really? Really? Let’s see. Is this the same Samantha Vinograd who was, as described by Mediate, “a national security official for President Barack Obama”? The self-same Barack Obama who said this to the American people the night of May 2, 2011? (Transcript archived by The White House.)
“THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who’s responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.”
The Los Angeles Times wrote an account of the raid. Which said, in part, this:
“They (the Navy Seals) left behind the bodies of four other people killed in the raid -- a courier they had been tracking for years, his brother, one of Bin Laden’s sons and an unidentified woman.”
Got that? Not only did the Seals kill bin Laden, they killed four others — including two family members and an “unidentified woman.”
Did Vinograd quit her job in protest? Did she go out on CNN and say “‘All American citizens are now walking prime targets’ for retaliation” because of what Obama had done — and then boasted about on national television?
No, of course not. But in fact — yes indeed there were just those kinds of calls for retaliation at the time of bid Laden’s death. Note this Associated Press story from the day that ran over at Fox News. The headline: “Al-Qaida vows revenge for Osama bin Laden's death.”
The Associated Press story said this, bold print supplied:
“CAIRO – Al-Qaida vowed to keep fighting the United States and avenge the death of Osama bin Laden, which it acknowledged for the first time Friday in an Internet statement apparently designed to convince followers that it will remain vigorous and intact even after its founder's demise.
Al-Qaida's plots are usually large-scale and involve planning over months or even years. But Western intelligence officials say they are seeing increased chatter about cheap, small-scale attacks — perhaps by individuals or small extremist groups inspired to take revenge for the killing.
‘USA, you will pay!’ chanted more than 100 participants in a pro-bin Laden protest outside the U.S. Embassy in London on Friday.”
So in other words? As an NSC aide to Barack Obama, Vinograd had not the slightest apparent disagreement about Obama sending Navy Seals to kill the then-Number One terrorist of the day, killing four others, including two family members and a woman, along the
way.
But now? Now comfortably ensconced at CNN, Vinograd is suddenly horrified by President Trump, a president Obamaites cannot abide. A President Trump who did exactly what Barack Obama did — send the U.S. military (in the form of a drone) to take out a serious terrorist responsible for the deaths — make that murders — of hundreds of Americans.
As Fox News noted here, 'Hair-on-fire' pundits' reaction to Soleimani killing illustrates partisan Trump coverage, experts say
Exactly.
What is really on display with the liberal media’s reaction to the attack on General Qasem Soleimani is the same-old, same-old Trump Derangement Syndrome double standard, national security version.
Which is another way of saying that once again the liberal media is completely oblivious to the damage they are doing to their own credibility.