Gee: Wait, what?! Don’t change the standard because Trump’s your guy

This isn’t normal. I want to know: when are we going to stop letting politics do our thinking for us?

President Trump stood in front of a crowd in Nebraska talking about the war with Iran and said:

“They can take out a city. Let ’em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego.” Then he called it “a very small price to pay.”

Would you defend those words if the other side said them?

Now, the White House said people are taking his words out of context, and that Trump’s point was that those cities could have been threatened by a nuclear Iran, and that his actions are preventing that. That’s their explanation, but here’s where I need all of us to be consistent.

If Barack Obama had stood behind a microphone and said, “Let ’em take out Dallas. Let ’em take out Houston,” Republicans would have lost their minds, and they would have had every right to.

If Joe Biden had said, “Let ’em take out Miami. Let ’em take out Jacksonville,” conservatives would’ve demanded answers faster than rainy season starting in November. Guess what? They would have had every right to.

That’s the disease in American politics right now. Some of us don’t have principles anymore. We have teams. When the other side does something, it’s outrageous, but your side does the exact same thing, suddenly everybody becomes a defense attorney.

“Well, what he really meant was…” Nah, call it for what it is. Los Angeles and San Diego are America, and the President of the United States doesn’t just represent the Americans who voted for him. He represents Americans.

Criticizing your candidate doesn’t mean betraying your beliefs

You don’t have to hate Trump to criticize something he said, the same way you don’t have to hate Obama to criticize him. Being loyal to someone and also holding them accountable can both be true at the same time.

The simple takeaway is this. If you can’t criticize the person you voted for when they cross a line, then what’s even the point? Wait, what?!

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.

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