If you can’t imagine crying over 20 murdered children, I guess it makes sense to you that anyone else’s tears must be fake. Which is the story of Republicans and President Obama’s Monday statement on guns: Why would Obama wipe away a tear except as cynical fakery? And no, 20 dead children—among many other mass shootings—are not reason for genuine emotion in this world view.
We’ve got Breitbart’s John Nolte suggesting Obama put Ben-Gay in his eye to bring on the tears (if so, let’s marvel at Obama’s ability to stop crying, because ouch) and Fox News’ Andrea Tantaros, fast rising in the ranks of Fox hosts most notoriously willing to say outrageous things for attention, suggesting maybe Obama had a raw onion behind the podium. And then there’s George Zimmerman, who, having killed an unarmed teenager his own self, probably has a lot of self interest in believing no one would mourn such a thing. According to Zimmerman, Obama was shedding “crocodile tears,” and:
“He stood there and pretended to cry and mentioned mass shootings and conveniently left out Fort Hood,” he said, referencing a 2009 incident at the military base near Killeen, Texas, that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 more.
Funny story. Obama mentioned Fort Hood in the very first paragraph of his remarks after thanking the audience for being there and the Newtown parent who introduced him. But the insistence he didn’t mention it is a pretty good symbol of how connected to reality any of these attacks on Obama’s emotion over mass murder are.
Donald Trump, by the way, thinks Obama was sincere.