Friday on MS NOW’s “The 11th Hour,” historian Jon Meacham said in response to members of the National Guard being shot in Washington, D.C., President Donald Trump was “indiscriminately” lashing out.
Meacham said, “The shooting is reprehensible. The the death of the young woman is a source, should be a source of national mourning. The prayers of the country should be with the victims, all the victims. One of the issues we have is the presidency, historically, is an office where the voice from the top at its best, has defined and calmed the country, not to lure it into some kind of false passivity, but to frame an issue, direct our national energies toward resolving a particular problem. That’s the presidency at its best. President Kennedy called it the vital center of action. FDR said that all great presidents were governing in times when the life of the nation required the redefinition of essential moral issues.
He added, “What I think we’re seeing today with President Trump is in the midst of this reprehensible crime against our uniformed personnel who are there to serve the country, to serve the flag, serve the Constitution it’s become confused. It’s become the president has taken the occasion to launch a kind of fusillade of rhetoric about issues that may very well be important on their own, but in a way, by putting everything together by lashing out somewhat indiscriminately, we find ourselves, instead of having clarity about this tragedy in Washington, we find ourselves in a kind of swivet nationally. I think that that’s regrettable but all too familiar feature of this particular president.”
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