It is going to feel like a long, long couple of months to Election Day.
Members of the press are attacking first lady Melania Trump this week for something she did not say. They claim she dismissed criticisms of the Trump administration’s child separation policy in 2018 with a blunt, “Give me a f—ing break.” This did not happen. The first lady did not casually reject concerns about detained immigrant children.
CNN aired audio Thursday evening of a private conversation between Trump and her former senior adviser, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff. Wolkoff, whom CNN bills as a “former friend” of the first lady, appeared in-person on the cable network to promote the leak.
In the recording, a clearly frustrated Trump says to the woman she unfortunately considered a friend and a confidant, “They say I’m complicit. I’m the same. Like him. I support him. I don’t say enough. I don’t do enough. Where I am. I put — I’m working like a — my ass off at Christmas stuff that, you know, who gives a f— about Christmas stuff and decoration. But I need to do it, right?”
The first lady adds, “OK, and then I do it. And I say that I am working on Christmas, planning for the Christmas. And they say, ‘Oh, what about the children that they were separated?’ Give me a f—ing break. Where they were saying anything when Obama did that?”
She continues, saying, “I cannot go. I was trying to get the kid reunited with the mom. I didn’t have a chance. Needs to go through the process and through the law. They will not do the story. We put it out. They would not do the story. You would not believe it.”
As Trump vents, her “former friend” sucks up to her, telling her she is “so loved.”
“They would not do the story,” Trump continues. “Because — they are not, they would not do the story because they are against us, because they’re liberal media. Yeah, if I got to Fox, they’ll do the story. I don’t want to go to Fox.”
The context of the audio makes clear what the first lady is saying. She is saying she is trying her best to perform the responsibilities of her office, all while facing criticism for policies in which she had no input. She does not even appear to support said policies! The first lady chafes at feeling restricted to menial tasks, including decorating the White House for Christmas. She chafes at feeling she does not have the chance for nobler endeavors, including reconnecting immigrant children who have been separated from their parents. She chafes at the fact that she is a constant target of the press’s derision and ridicule.
On Thursday, after CNN aired the leaked audio, some journalists proved the first lady’s point that the press has it in for her.
“In Profane Rant, Melania Trump Takes Aim at Migrant Children and Critics,” reads the New York Times’s headline on the matter.
The Atlantic’s Edward-Isaac Dovere characterized the recorded remarks thus: “‘And they said, ‘Oooo what about the children, that they were separated?’ Give me a f—ing break.” — First Lady Melania Trump. (who, among other things in here, is reflecting her husband’s ‘what about Obama?’ talk in here, and persecution complex about the media).”
He added elsewhere in a “gotcha” that must have sounded clever in his head, “as a reminder, this time last week was a whole discussion of who was and wasn’t respectful of Christianity.”
“First Lady Melania Trump was secretly recorded talking about the Trump child separation policy. She said, ‘They said, ‘Oh, what about the children that they were separated?’ Give me a f—ing break,’” tweeted National Public Radio’s Yamiche Alcindor, intentionally omitting her usual “context.”
The publicly subsidized journalist later quoted Trump’s reference to the Obama administration policy and wrote, “Obama didn’t have a child separation policy like that of Trump.”
Unless “like that of Trump” is doing some heavy lifting that I am unaware of, the Obama administration absolutely had a policy of child separation. Alcindor would benefit from reading something published before 2017.
“‘Oh, what about the children that were separated?’ Give me a f—ing break.” — Melania Trump in July 2018, when her husband’s administration was separating migrant families at the border,” tweeted the Washington Post’s Philip Rucker, also conveniently omitting context.
The New York Times’s Katie Rogers said elsewhere, “A lot of us understand that Melania Trump is so much more like her husband than people think but it’s still pretty wild to hear audio proof.”
As sleazy as these misrepresentations are, nothing in this episode is as sleazy as the “former friend” who leaked the audio to CNN. Who even does that? And for what? An appearance with Anderson Cooper?
On that note, the last word on the matter goes to Democratic strategist Lis Smith: “What type of person records their convos with their ‘best friend?’ It’s all so unseemly. Even the supposed heroes in this tale are contemptible villains worthy of zero praise. Turn the page for everyone’s sanity.”
