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A CNN reporter was roundly mocked after seeming to suggest that President Donald Trump wants to deliver his Republican convention speech at Gettysburg because he loves the Confederacy.
CNN White House correspondent Jeremy Diamond was slammed after his take on the president choosing the Gettysburg Civil War battlefield as one of the contenders for the location of his renomination acceptance speech later this month.
Trump announced that he had “narrowed” down the venue choice in a tweet on Monday, noting the choices as the “Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C.”
“We will announce the decision soon!” the president promised.
We have narrowed the Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech, to be delivered on the final night of the Convention (Thursday), to two locations – The Great Battlefield of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the White House, Washington, D.C. We will announce the decision soon!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have had to rethink convention events planned in Jacksonville, Fla. due to an uptick in coronavirus cases in that state. The campaign had considered the South Lawn of the White House as a possible location for the president to deliver his acceptance speech, Fox News reported.
CNN’s report on Trump’s tweet narrowing down the choices prompted Diamond to make his unsubstantiated claim.
“We’ve reported that President Trump has considered delivering his GOP nomination acceptance speech from the White House. But amidst some criticism of that potential venue, the president is now floating another one,” Diamond told CNN anchor Pamela Brown on Monday.
“This time, he’s talking about the hallowed Civil War battlefield in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, but that could be controversial, too,” Diamond claimed. “Particularly since this is a President who has consistently positioned himself as a defender of Confederate symbols and monuments to Confederate generals.”
Brown offered no pushback or clarification in the CNN studio, only responding: “That’s a fair point to make,” though Diamond did respond in a tweet to the video that was posted.
@ me next time. That’s not even close to what I said. I pointed out it would be a controversial pick because of the President’s defense of Confederate symbols & monuments — not that it would be his reason for picking the site.
— Jeremy Diamond (@JDiamond1) August 10, 2020
I know you have a narrative to push, but you admitted in your 1 pm shot they LOST the battle. The Union WON, so why invoke the Confederacy? Trump’s speeches in July weren’t even about them. Imagine someone saying Trump’s speech at Normandy was about the Nazis (h/t: @JoelPollak)
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 10, 2020
Diamond apparently made the same point in another segment, according to a clip shared by Newsbusters editor Curtis Houck.
Jeremy also did this in the 1:00 p.m. Eastern hour, even conceding that Gettysburg was a place where the Confederacy lost, but it’s still controversial because Trump ❤️ the Confederacy. This is brought to you by the same news media that’s asked whether he’s okay the North won. pic.twitter.com/sckfUcJrGn
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 10, 2020
As @TimJGraham noted here in the newsroom, Trump could give his acceptance speech from Farragut North metro station and Jeremy Diamond would still say it’s “controversial.”
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) August 10, 2020
The Gettysburg site is the location of one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, with the crushing defeat of the Confederate Army seen by many as the turning point of the war. The pivotal battle, took place on July 1–3, 1863 and the location is where President Abraham Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg Address later that year.
Asked about the location during a press conference on Monday, Trump remarked at how “incredible” the location is in light of America’s history.
“Well, I think it’s — I’ve been to Gettysburg numerous times. It’s a national park, it’s a national historic site, it’s incredible. You know, it’s the history. It’s incredible, actually, to me. It was a very important place and is a very important place in our country, so we’re are looking at that,” he said.
Diamond’s failed logic during his CNN report earned a wave of mockery on social media where he was schooled about the history of the Gettysburg location as well as the claim that the president is a “defender” of Confederate symbols and figures.
“So giving a speech at a battlefield where the Union secured the decisive victory over the Confederacy, somehow honors…the Confederacy?” Trump campaign adviser Steve Cortes asked in a tweet.
“This is a ridiculously stupid analysis. This is just about media malpractice,” conservative commentator Erick Erickson tweeted.
“Real brain trust discussion here,” radio host Dana Loesch commented in a tweet.
“I do not follow the logic here,” Reason senior editor Robby Soave wrote in a tweet. “If Trump’s aim was to position himself as a defender of the Confederacy, isn’t the site of the Confederacy’s most noteworthy military defeat literally the last place he would choose?”
“Nothing says, ‘I heart the Confederacy’ like speaking at the site of one of their greatest defeats,” the Daily Wire’s Jeremy Boreing said on Twitter. “SO. MUCH. JOURNALISMING.”
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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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