Craig Bannister grouses in an April 25 CNSNews.com blog post:
Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) took a shot at the heritage of President Donald Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, on Thursday after Mrs. Trump said German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision in 2015 to allow more than a million migrants into the country was “one of the worst things that ever happened to Germany.”
Responding on Twitter to an article by The Hill reporting on Lara Trump’s comments on Fox Business Channel earlier in the day, Rep. Swalwell took issue with Mrs. Trump’s German heritage:
“But what about her German-born grandfather-in-law?”
In an interview with Fox Business’ Stuart Varney, Lara Trump said her father-in-law, President Donald Trump, is trying to avoid Germany’s mistake by securing the U.S. southern border:
“It was the downfall of Germany, it was one of the worst things that ever happened to Germany. This president knows that, he’s trying to prevent that from happening here.”
Bannister not only missed that Swalwell was making a little joke, he missed the entire controversy that’s happening here. Swalwell’s tweet alluded to Trump’s claim a few weeks earlier that his father was born in Germany — which, like a lot of things Trump says, is not true.
Bannister also pretends Lara Trump’s comment that Germany allowing refugees into the country was “one of the worst things that ever happened to Germany” and the country’s “downfall” is not controversial or ridiculous. Many online have pointed out that the comment seems to downplay the whole Nazi thing, not to mention that other world war the Germans played a role in starting.
For Bannister to twist a joke over an outrageous comment into an attack on someone’s ethnic heritage requires a lot of deliberate ignorance of reality. And he succeeds a little too well.