Wall Street Journal Doubles Down on Fake Report of Trump Obscuring the U.S.S. John McCain
Shane Trejo
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Many fake news entities ran with a story originally broken by the Wall Street Journal yesterday claiming that President Donald J. Trump wanted the U.S.S. John McCain hidden from public view during a recent visit to Japan.
Prominent ‘Never Trumpers’ of the Right were quick to virtue signal based off of the unproven, unverified report.
If this is true, it is disgusting https://t.co/zmRGU9p3aA
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 30, 2019
https://twitter.com/JohnKasich/status/1133913081652924417
Trump is a child who will always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads incredible life. There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won't let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him.
It makes my grief unbearable. https://t.co/gUbFAla1VE
— Meghan McCain (@MeghanMcCain) May 30, 2019
However, this report turned out to be a fabrication. The Navy itself was forced to come out and correct the record in a Twitter post:
The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day. The Navy is proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage.
— Navy Chief of Information (@chinfo) May 30, 2019
The President then came out and officially denied the report:
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1133900762709463040
The Wall Street Journal initially produced the fake news report. The anti-Trump reporter Rebecca Ballhaus, who is known to post misleading propaganda to deride the President, got her facts wrong. The U.S.S. John McCain was never obscured according to the U.S. Navy, which she claimed when initially posting her report on Twitter.
There is no proof that the U.S.S. John McCain was ever obscured with a tarp, but the anti-Trump reporter still celebrated her CNN junket based on the fake news nonetheless.
Even after being exposed for peddling fake news, Ballhaus has doubled down in spite of the facts and stands by her reporting based on anonymous sources.
"One Navy sailor said that McCain sailors wearing their ship’s patches were even turned away from the president’s address." https://t.co/zGFMf1iZpI
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) May 30, 2019
Trump confirms the White House sought to hide the USS John McCain for his trip to Japan. “They thought they were doing me a favor because they know I am not a fan of John McCain," he says of the official who made the request, whom he called "well-meaning." https://t.co/v5OVkIAk3i
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) May 30, 2019
The President addressed the controversy earlier in the day during a press conference, reiterating that despite not supporting McCain’s policy legacy, including the Iraq War and saving Obamacare, he “would never do a thing like that.”
While Trump said that whoever directed the USS John McCain out of sight was "well-meaning," he said he was not involved with the decision.
"To me, John McCain, I wasn't a fan," Trump said. "But I would never do a thing like that." https://t.co/U0HHk7847q pic.twitter.com/pyD6HOerLC
— POLITICO (@politico) May 30, 2019
Even supposedly conservative outlets like the Wall Street Journal, owned by the Murdoch family who also run the increasingly left-leaning Fox News, cannot be trusted to report the facts when it comes to President Trump.
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