ADMITTEDLY, MR. TRUMP’S CHOICE OF WORDS sometimes is “unpresidential” (at least for liberal/leftist ears), it turns out that Trump is only following a long list of presidents with the same inclination for “strong’ language.
A quick search of the Internet turned up a number of headlines, including:
Obama explodes on press corps with ‘profanity-laced’ tirade (Washington Times): http://tinyurl.com/y73bvk7o
A Brief History of Presidential Profanity (Rolling Stone): http://tinyurl.com/ya42f62x Lewd, Rude, Crude? The White House Has Heard It All (NBC San Diego.com): http://tinyurl.com/yb5upwze
Top profanity in POTUS history (NBC12): http://tinyurl.com/ya5dzeml
While the president’s comments about those (as shown on tv) “s***hole countries” in regard to the Temporary Protected Status of Haitians and others, allegedly said in a closed door meeting hardly is suitable for the Ladies High Tea, it’s hardly worth the time the liberal media gave it. Consider: The Haitians have been in the U.S. on a temporary basis for eight years following a devastating hurricane. Eight years.
Haiti is, without a doubt, a poor country; conversely, the U.S. is a rich country. That must be at least one reason why so many Haitians elect to stay in the U.S. where wages (and the cost of living) are substantially higher. Rather than returning to their homeland to help rebuild Haiti, they stay in the U.S.
The U.S. government and charities, as well as U.S. businesses operating in Haiti, have poured reconstruction funds into the country since the storm. But the 59,000 Haitians remain in the U.S. where they were granted temporary residence status.
Coming from “s***hole” economies is the reason many people come to the U.S., and it is the reason they “go under the radar” when their visas expire. It’s a fact of life in America.
Back to language
According to ABC News reporter Ann Compton1, “I have seen in the last year Barack Obama really angry twice. Both were off-the-record times. One, profanity-laced where he thought the press was making too much of scandals that he did not think were scandals. Another where he took us to task for not understanding the limits he has with foreign policy and the way he’s dealing with the Middle East and Iraq, and Afghanistan,” she said. “And I don’t find him apologetic. But I find him willing to stand up to the press and look them in the eye, even though it was off the record and just give us hell.”
Ms. Compton also took aim at the Obama administration’s penchant for secrecy. This administration has come under almost constant fire from journalists for, among other things, freezing out photojournalists from Oval Office events only to release official White House photos of the very same event a few hours later.
“This particular administration has been more opaque than any I have covered about what the president does in the Oval Office every day. He is far less accessible on photo-ops with meetings,” Ms. Compton said.
Aside from the Washington Times article on 8 December 2014, did Obama’s tirade – behind closed doors – make waves? What angered the ex-president? Fake news? What raised Ms. Compton’s hackles? “Freezing out photojournalists from Oval Office events only to release official White House photos of the very same event a few hours later. (Please. Give me a break.)
Fortunately for the Times readers, Ms. Compton elected not to quote the former president.
The Rolling Stone2 article has to be rated at least “PG” as it leads off with When President Obama called Mitt Romney a "bullshitter" in the pages of Rolling Stone earlier this year, it set off a brief firestorm. Defenders of the Republican candidate were shocked – shocked! – that the man holding the highest office in the land would resort to such language. In truth, the halls of the White House (like nearly every other house in the country, with the apparent exception of Romney's) have heard no shortage of profanity over the decades. It's a dirty job, leading the free world. Sometimes it takes a few dirty words. Read on for a brief history of presidential (and vice-presidential, and presidential candidate) profanity.
The site then goes on to cite Lincoln’s appreciation for an off-color story, and Obama’s critiques and mockery of others (Obama famously called Kanye West a "jackass," and on the audiobook version of his autobiography, Dreams From My Father, you can hear the future president mimicking an old high-school friend who evidently knew his Richard Pryor: "You know that guy ain't shit. Sorry-ass motherfucker ain't got nothing on me." But it was in the pages of Rolling Stone that Obama really drew the ire of the pious, calling opponent Mitt Romney a "bullshitter." )
Both Joe Biden and Dick Chaney managed to work the “F” word into their conversations, but they only were VPs and less newsworthy than their presidents.
Bush 2 was less “potty mouthed” than some others. Bill (I did not have sex with that woman) Clinton apparently was caught only once using foul language, but it was after Obama beat Hillary for the Dem nomination.
Richard (Expletive Deleted) Nixon and Lyndon Johnson both were known for “less than presidential” language.
Rolling Stone notes that John Kennedy Eloquent at the podium, JFK could swear like a sailor away from the microphone. Nothing is mentioned in the article about his womanizing.
Harry S (no period) Truman was no choir boy when expressing his opinions of people; both Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Nixon were targets of his words.
Curt Autry, an anchor at NBC12 in Richmond VA3, scoured the internet for quotes from other sitting U.S. Presidents who used "colorful language," and President Obama's comment about Mitt Romney being a "bulls*****r" certainly falls on the less-offensive end of the presidential swearing spectrum. Reagan, Carter, Ford, Clinton, Nixon, Johnson and even Harry S. Truman, were all known to let a profanity slip every now and then. Presidential candidates who didn't make it to the White House and Vice Presidents were no better. Apparently he missed the Rolling Stone piece.
John Kerry, Obama’s last State Department gofer but in 2003 a senator, commented on Geo. Bush’s war with Iraq that In 2003, Senator John Kerry talked to Rolling Stone about his decision to vote for the Iraq war, saying, "Did I expect George Bush to f___ it up as badly as he did? I don't think anybody did."
Oops – he didn’t know the mic was open when Geo. W Bush called New York Times reporter Adam Clymer a "major league asshole" over a hot mic, to which vice-presidential nominee Dick Cheney agreed. In 1999, during an interview with Tucker Carlson for Talk Magazine, George W. dropped the F-bomb several times.
In June 1979, ten yers after the "Chappaquiddick incident," as Sen. Ted Kennedy pondered a primary challenge, Jimmy Carter convened a group of congressmen at a White House dinner, and was quoted as saying: "If Kennedy runs, I'll whip his ass."
JFK’s opinion of businessmen is, at least, interesting given his family’s business history. According to JFK, , "My father always told me that all businessmen were sons of bitches, but I never believed it ‘til now." Poppa Joe will be remembered as the Ambassador to England who had wildly anti-Semitic and pro-nazi feelings he expressed publicaly. On June 13, 1938, Kennedy met with Herbert von Dirksen, the German ambassador to the United Kingdom, in London, who claimed upon his return to Berlin that Kennedy had told him that "it was not so much the fact that we want to get rid of the Jews that was so harmful to us, but rather the loud clamor with which we accompanied this purpose. [Kennedy] himself fully understood our Jewish policy." Kennedy's main concern with such violent acts against German Jews as Kristallnacht was that they generated bad publicity in the West for the Nazi regime, a concern that he communicated in a letter to Charles Lindbergh.4
LBJ, according to the NBC12 anchor, was “colorful” and was overheard saying referring to a Kennedy aide: "He wouldn't know how to pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel." When asked what he thought of Gerald Ford, Johnson said, "He can't fart and chew gum at the same time".
Bottom line Admittedly Trump does not always use genteel language suitable for the anti-Trump media, but he hardly is the first to use such language and he is in good company – both liberal and conservative – with his comments. Even the darlings of the liberals, Obama, JFK, and Wm. Clinton, have used some less than delicate words during their reigns.
The liberals/leftists should know that in politics, EVERYONE lives in a glass house and everyone should think twice – or thrice – before throwing stones.
Sources
1. Obama explodes on press corps with ‘profanity-laced’ tirade (Washington Times) http://tinyurl.com/y73bvk7o
2. A Brief History of Presidential Profanity (Rolling Stone): http://tinyurl.com/ya42f62x
3. Top profanity in POTUS history (NBC12): http://tinyurl.com/ya5dzeml
4. Kennedy: http://tinyurl.com/y7o7fh4t
5. Lewd, Rude, Crude? The White House Has Heard It All (NBC San Diego.com): http://tinyurl.com/yb5upwze
PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.
Comments on Presidential language
