Here is an undeniable fact about last week’s Democratic National Convention: On two separate occasions, speakers representing the Democratic Party and its subdivisions recited the Pledge of Allegiance while editing the words “under God” out of the composition.
At both the Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly and the LGBTQ Caucus, those words were removed from the pledge. This happened. It is not a controversial statement to point it out. It is hardly a debatable point that removing those words says something about the Democratic Party and its affiliations. Certainly, it is an argument that fits squarely into the mainstream of political debate. Americans deserve to know the true nature of this organization.
“During two caucuses before the evening conventions started, the Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly and the LGBTQ Caucus meeting, both Tuesday, left out ‘under God,’ from the pledge,” reported the Associated Press. “The party’s series of caucus meetings was livestreamed but not part of the prime-time convention broadcast.”
Okay, there you have it, straight from the AP.
So when President Trump tweeted this on Saturday, he was absolutely correct: “The Democrats took the word GOD out of the Pledge of Allegiance at the Democratic National Convention. At first I thought they made a mistake, but it wasn’t. It was done on purpose. Remember Evangelical Christians, and ALL, this is where they are coming from—it’s done. Vote Nov. 3!”
If this situation was reversed – if a couple of Republican groups left out the words “for all” at the end of the pledge, for instance – and Biden tweeted something like this, there wouldn’t even be a need for a fact check. No one would think to bother, because it would be all the news would be talking about in the first place. News anchor after news anchor, editorial after editorial, Democrat after Democrat would assure us that the mask was now off: Republicans were officially saying that not ALL Americans deserve liberty and justice. American fascism is here, ladies and gentlemen. Hold onto your hats.
Instead we get the AP, which just reported on the very fact that Democrats took God out of the pledge, “fact-checking” Trump.
“President Donald Trump is accusing the Democrats of taking God out of the Pledge of Allegiance at their national convention. He’s distorting what happened,” the AP said. “That’s a misleading accusation. The central programming of the convention featured the entire pledge, complete with ‘under God.’”
You’ll recall that Trump said nothing about the DNC’s “central programming.” Nor did he claim that all Democrats took God out of the pledge.
But that didn’t stop the AP’s fellow fact-checking armies at Snopes, PolitiFact, and USA Today from accusing Trump of lying…by telling the plain truth.
A responsible press might interview members of the Muslim Caucus or the LGBTQ Dems and find out why they omitted “under God” from the pledge. We’re sure they would be happy to explain it. The only reason you wouldn’t do that is if you were trying to protect the Democratic Party from its more radical elements.
Which is, of course, exactly what’s going on here.
