The media "goes totally crazy" when President Donald Trump posts a tweet such as the one over the weekend showing himself beating up CNN, but was quiet over ones like his Fourth of July tweet, and there's a reason why, former Gov. Mike Huckabee said Monday.
"The media basically hates Donald Trump more than they love America," Huckabee told Fox News' "Fox & Friends" program.
"They are going to ignore pro-America comments he makes."
On Sunday, Trump posted the video that appeared to have been doctored from his appearance at Wrestlemania 23 in 2007, during which he threw WWE owner Vince McMahon to the ground outside the ring. In the doctored video, the CNN logo is superimposed over McMahon's face.
Trump came under almost-immediate fire for the video from media pundits and others who said he posted it as a threat or a call to violence, but Huckabee said the video was more likely posted for Trump's own amusement.
"What I found interesting is he can tweet out something that probably he is doing for his own amusement and entertainment and the press goes totally crazy," said Huckabee, while discounting critics who say Trump is using Twitter rather than focusing on the duties of his office.
"Donald Trump is a man who gets very little sleep," said Huckabee. "He is an incredibly capable guy who has the stamina of three people half his age. I have never seen anything like it. He sends out a very nice and positive patriotic Fourth of July message and it's crickets from all the media."
Ironically, Huckabee said, it was considered "entertainment" when a Shakespeare in the park play depicted Trump's assassination on stage, but "somehow pro wrestling is real."
"Where else but in the media would their minds go there?" said Huckabee. "I just think they're looking for a way to be offended and they are going to find it no matter how irrational it is. It's just wearing thin."
Huckabee said he's traveled all over the country, and he's found that most people aren't angry at Trump as much as they are "just disgusted and worn out from the media constantly just badgering this president."
The American people, Huckabee said, "generally understand when something is being done tongue in cheek, said as entertainment or a joke. They get it; they have a sense of humor."
But the press, when it comes to Trump "has no sense of humor," he continued. "No perspective. They have nothing but anger, vitriol for this president and anybody associated with him. It's really one of the most amazing signs of hypocrisy in certainly my lifetime."
Also on Monday, Huckabee shot back at remarks former President Barack Obama made in Indonesia over the weekend, when he warned of the dangers of "aggressive nationalism."
Show co-host Abby Huntsman characterized the former president's comments as saying he was warning "about the dangers of showing too much patriotism on the Fourth of July," and Huckabee agreed.
Obama had stated that "we start seeing a rise in sectarian politics, we start seeing a rise in an aggressive kind of nationalism, we start seeing both in developed and developing countries an increased resentment about minority groups and the bad treatment of people who don't look like us or practice the same faith as us."
"This is amazing," Huckabee said. "Obama telling us that we shouldn't be too patriotic on the Fourth of July is like telling people in church they shouldn't think about God too much when they go there.
"This is unbelievable. But, frankly, this just reminds me of how far grateful I am that we have had a new president, a new chapter, where it's okay to love America."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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