James Zumwalt used his Oct. 30 WorldNetDaily column to complain that President Trump wasn’t being given enough credit for the death of ISIS leader al-Baghdadi:
While Democrats and the media rejoiced over the news Osama bin Laden had been killed, giving high praise to then-President Barack Obama, there has been no similar response over the news of Baghdadi’s death. The House Democrats forming “The Squad” have refused to give Trump any credit. The media softened headlines, describing Baghdadi not as the mass killer he was but rather an “austere religious scholar”! It is incredible a media source like Newsweek would compare Trump to Hitler while we see no similar comparison made to Baghdadi.
As Kellyanne Conway noted in the wake of media comments putting Baghdadi in a more favorable light than Trump, “The media is angry at the president of the United States for getting rid of the world’s worst terrorist. It’s like, who is he to interfere while we’re trying to impeach him?” Clearly, the media refuse to give Trump a “win” on the Baghdadi raid. Nowhere was this more evident than one pundit arguing it was inappropriate for Trump to call Baghdadi a “coward” since the Muslim madman chose to blow himself up – along with three children. Even the most minor of issues are flagged by the media, which even give space to a claim by Obama’s White House photographer the Trump Situation Room photograph was staged. Meanwhile, some Hollywood stars have jumped onboard the anti-Trump bandwagon.
There is something wrong with Democrats and a media refusing to see the fact Baghdadi no longer breathes the same air the rest of us do as a win for Trump in making the world safer. Perhaps a more accurate Genesius headline about Russia investigating whether “any Democrats have ties to the United States” would have been to add in the media as well.
Zumwalt won’t tell you that he refused to give President Obama credit for the death of Osama bin Laden. In a May 2018 column, Zumwalt groused that Obama was taking too much credit:
This week marks the seventh anniversary of the raid that killed mass murderer Osama bin Laden. On the evening of May 2, 2011, President Barack Obama announced the Islamic terrorist had been located in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and a U.S. Navy SEAL team sent there had killed him. In what was to be a capture or kill operation, a SEAL opted for the latter when bin Laden resisted, “bravely” using his wife as a shield as he reached for a weapon. The SEALs disposed of bin Laden’s body at sea to deny his supporters a land-based memorial to worship.
During his announcement, Obama gave some credit to our special operations forces but seemed to give much more to himself. When he finished, one was left with the impression, based on the extensive number of first-person references made, Obama had been an army of one, obtaining intelligence on bin Laden, locating him, painstakingly organizing the raid and ordering its execution. One was surprised to hear Obama actually did not accompany the SEALs on the operation!
Zumwalt went even further in a January 2017 column, whining that Obama “takes credit for the bin Laden kill, simply for being in the right place at the right time,” adding, “While the bin Laden raid provided Obama with a great photo opportunity to look decisive, he has done little to actually be decisive in making the world safer from Islamic terrorism.”
If it’s somehow un-American to deny Trump credit for the death of al-Baghdadi, why isn’t Zumwalt un-American for denying credit for bin Laden’s death?