We seem to have found the one thing where right-wing dissent on Trump is apparently permissible: President Trump’s missile attack on Syria in retaliation for its gas attack on civilians.
The main part of the Media Research Center was in full rah-rah mode, offering implicit justification for Trump’s actions:
- Nicholas Fondacaro declared Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad to be a “war criminal” and howled that the ” dictator … killed dozens and wounded hundreds more in a chemical weapon attack on his own people. Fondacaro also called Assad a “butcher.”
- Curtis Houck called the gas attack “one of the worst atrocities this generation has ever seen ” and mocked the idea that Trump’s missile attack was a distraction from the growing controversy over links between Trump aides and Russia.
- Scott Whitlock huffed that Assad “brutally massacred over 70 of his own people” in the midst of mocking ABC’s Barbara Walters for having said nice things about Assad nearly a decade ago, when he was not involved in a brutal civil war.
- Kristine Marsh insisted it was “absurd” for “The View” co-host Joy Behar to claim that if President Obama had done the same thing, Republicans would have tried to impeach him.
But the tone was much different at the MRC’s “news” division, CNSNews.com. It reposted to its front page a 2014 item on James Madison noting that the president should use military force without prior authorization from Congress only “to repel sudden attacks” (yes, Madison gets a byline, continuing CNS’ absurd insistence on giving bylines to dead people) and a 2013 column by CNS editor in chief Terry Jeffrey asserting that the president had no constitutional authority to launch military action in Syria when that president was Obama.
CNS also posted an April 10 column by the Cato Institute’s Daniel Mitchell arguing that the U.S. shouldn’t get involved in Syria and an April 11 column by Pat Buchanan making a similar anti-war argument.
So CNS is capable of being consistent on something after all, unlike, say, reporting on unemployment numbers.