| Pat Smith: 'I Blame Hillary Clinton Personally for the Death of My Son' Hey, remember when grieving mothers of American men slain in battle had "absolute moral authority," in the words of New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd? Why would Pat Smith, mother of Sean Smith, one of the four Americans killed in the attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, not have that same authority? From Pat Smith's remarks Monday night: My son Sean was one of four brave Americans killed during the 2012 terrorist attack at Benghazi. Sean was a wonderful son and father to my two amazing grandchildren, Samantha and Nathan, now 10 and 11. He was proud to serve his country with the United States Foreign Service. The last time I talked to Sean, the night before the terrorist attack, he told me, "Mom, I am going to die." All security had been pulled from the embassy, he explained. And when he asked why, he never received a response. Nobody listened. Nobody seemed to care. The very next day, he was murdered by radical Islamic terrorists. To this day, I don't even know why a computer guy like Sean was sent to Benghazi. That night, we lost sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands. We lost four brave Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for the country they chose to serve. And the American people lost the truth. For all of this loss, for all of this grief, for all of the cynicism the tragedy in Benghazi has wrought upon America, I blame Hillary Clinton. I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son. In an email to her daughter shortly after the attack, Hillary Clinton blamed it on terrorism. But when I saw Hillary Clinton at Sean's coffin ceremony, just days later, she looked me squarely in the eye and told me a video was responsible. Since then, I have repeatedly asked Hillary Clinton to explain to me the real reason why my son is dead. I'm still waiting. Whenever I called the State Department, no one would speak to me because they say I am "not a member of the immediate family." Sean is my SON. Hillary Clinton is a woman, a mother and a grandmother of two. I am a woman, a mother and a grandmother of two. How could she do this to me? How could she do this to any American family? It will not surprise you to learn that a lot of members of the media seethed at Smith's speech. Perhaps it was indeed exploitative for the Trump campaign to put her front and center at the convention; she's grieving and, some will argue, looking for a scapegoat for her son's death. (Again, I don't recall this argument coming from any Democrats during the peak of Cindy Sheehan's public role in antiwar activism.) If you're one of those folks who found Pat Smith's remarks shamelessly exploitative, I wonder if you'll see the same grumbling about the speakers at the upcoming Democratic National Convention: Also scheduled Tuesday are Mothers of the Movement members Gwen Carr, Mother of Eric Garner; Sybrina Fulton, Mother of Trayvon Martin; Maria Hamilton, Mother of Dontré Hamilton; Lucia McBath, Mother of Jordan Davis; Lezley McSpadden, Mother of Michael Brown; Cleopatra Pendleton-Cowley, Mother of Hadiya Pendleton; Geneva Reed-Veal, Mother of Sandra Bland. Oh, now it's not okay to invoke tragic deaths in the name of a political agenda? I'll keep that in mind next week. Or after the next mass shooting. The Ordinary Americans Who Suffer When Bad Policies Get Put into Practice As mentioned last night, you could see the outlines of a powerful night of speakers, showcasing the stories of ordinary Americans who have suffered the most, randomly and cruelly, by the decisions of the Obama administration, the policy preferences of the Democratic Party as a whole, and Hillary Clinton herself. All of those stories joined together make a powerful argument against electing Clinton — an argument that not even all of the flaws of Donald Trump can hide. In addition to Pat Smith, this included Battle of Benghazi survivors Mark Geist and John Tiegen; Kent Terry and Kelly Terry-Willis, siblings of Brian Terry, the Border Patrol agent who was killed with a gun that was part of the Obama administration's "Fast and Furious" program; Mary Ann Mendoza, who lost her son, Brandon, to an illegal immigrant drunk driver; Sabine Durden, who also lost her son in an accident to a unlicensed, uninsured, and unregistered illegal immigrant driver. Finally, there was Jamiel Shaw, an African American from Los Angeles. This was how Jamiel Shaw's son died: Stanford University called about Jamiel Shaw a week or so ago, intrigued by the slight but speedy running back for Los Angeles High School, the Southern League's most valuable player last year. Rutgers University called a few days later. The Shaw family already had reason to be proud. Jamiel's mother, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw, was on her second tour of duty in Iraq. On Sunday night, it was Jamiel's father on the phone and then his son's girlfriend, Chrystale Miles. Jamiel Sr. called to tell him to hurry home from the mall. The 17-year-old boy was three doors away when someone shot him to death while he was still talking on his cellphone to Chrystale, friends say. Jamiel Sr. heard the shots almost as soon as he hung up. He ran out of the house, raced around the corner and found his son lying on the sidewalk, bleeding. It gets worse: Jamiel Shaw Jr.'s murder was different. The 17-year-old was a good kid, a standout football player who was just getting back from hanging out at the mall when Pedro Espinoza walked up and shot him twice. Prosecutors said Espinoza was trying to impress fellow his peers and advance his status in the 18th Street gang. As more information came out, it turned out Espinoza was an undocumented immigrant, brought to the U.S. at as a toddler. And Espinoza had been released from jail just the day before the murder, after a conviction that could have made him eligible for deportation. The murder took on a new dimension at that point. Shaw's parents took the issue to L.A. City Hall, asking for a law change that would allow LAPD officers to arrest undocumented immigrants who are gang members. In November 2012, Espinoza was sentenced to death. 'The Fundamental Disagreement Is Who Ultimately Runs the Republican Party' Eric Stahlfeld, an at-large Republican delegate from the state of Washington and regular Morning Jolt reader, writes in with his perspective on yesterday's fight on the convention floor: The fundamental disagreement is who ultimately runs the Republican Party -- the delegates to each national convention, or those who take care of things during the intervening four years. This played out in the rules fight. Within the Washington State delegation, I and others wanted to adjust rules so that those states which used a "closed" system (that is, only Republicans would get to choose who is the Republican nominee) would play a more significant role. For example, one proposal would give those states a fifteen per cent bonus when calculating the number of delegates allocated to such states. But those running the Party during the periods between the conventions do not like such a suggestion. They seem to believe, to put it charitably, that a Republican nominee can get elected only if he or she appeals to a "broader" group than Republicans alone. So who gets to decide such a fundamental question? The rules were drafted by a committee composed of those who run the party between the conventions. Those who are part of the 2016 convention rules committee mostly saw them only four days ago. When that committee didn't agree to rules acceptable to us, we wanted the convention to decide. The convention chairman called for the voice vote, ruled the rules were adopted. He immediately followed the parliamentary sleight-of-hand and ruled that the motion for reconsideration (none really is ever called for) was denied, and "without objection, so ordered." The trickery is that the chairman can say that he didn't hear any objection. But that trick works only until delegates know they have to make sure that their objection is heard. This time, the chairman didn't "hear" any objection and attempted to move on to the next order of business. Only by making that impossible could those of us who want the convention to decide the rules. As it turned out, the process was delayed until some delegations could be convinced to no longer support the effort. I was told on the floor that Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, and D.C. were those who switched, but that list is slightly different from what has been reported. But the dispute on the floor was caused solely because the chairman didn't want to hear any "objection" from the floor. And fundamentally, those on the floor should get to make the decisions about how the party is run. Yeah, I'll Say It. Scott Baio Gave a Pretty Good Speech. You Heard Me. Yes, it felt a little weird to hear Scott Baio — beloved if somewhat forgotten star of Happy Days, Joanie loves Chachi, and Charles in Charge — addressing a Republican National Convention, sandwiched between Willie Robertson of Duck Dynasty and former Texas governor Rick Perry. But give credit where it's due, Baio gave a decent speech. Aren't we blessed to have such brave heroes protecting us like Retired Lt. Col. Charles Kettles . . . who just this morning received the Medal of Honor for his heroism in Vietnam? I want to thank Mr. Trump for asking me to be here tonight. I can't tell you how much of an honor it is to talk about a man I trust with the lives of my family and the health of our country . . . America . . . the greatest country God created. America is an easy place to get to. But — for you first time voters — it's important to know what it means to be an American. It doesn't mean getting free stuff. It means sacrificing, winning, losing, failing, succeeding. Sometimes doing things you don't want to do, including the hard work . . . in order to get where you want to be. That's what it means to be an American. But our country is in a bad spot right now. You can feel it . . . and you can see it everywhere. There's no stability, nothing seems right. All the things that we hold dear . . . are being attacked every day. We cannot go down this road anymore. We need to stop!! We need Donald Trump to fix this. The announcement that Baio would be among the convention speakers generated plenty of snickering from plenty of corners, myself included. But you know what? Baio has the same vote in this election that you and I have. Just because he was once famous, and wealthy — and is now less famous, and presumably less wealthy — doesn't mean he doesn't need a country that works and provides opportunities like the rest of us. Apparently Melania Trump used the same clichés as Michelle Obama in 2008. This is the sort of story that the media will enjoy covering in depth, when it doesn't rank in the top, oh, thousand things the Trump campaign has ever done. A few more quick observations from Cleveland: 1. The protests have been small and non-violent so far. This may reflect . . . 2. An extraordinary number of uniformed cops on the streets, particularly around the convention center, the Westin, Cleveland Public Square, and Veterans Memorial Plaza. Small fleets of motorcycle units cruise around, cops walk in groups of a half-dozen to a dozen, and traffic cops direct the flow at the key intersections around the downtown hotels. When an elderly woman parked her car outside the security fence, within seconds a cop ran over to let her know, politely, she couldn't park there. He agreed with her assessment that the traffic and parking restrictions were crazy, but reiterated again, politely, she couldn't park there. 3. Working against the calm is the heat: 82 degrees and 67 percent humidity. Still, if no one was dumb enough to start trouble on the first night of the convention, we can hope they won't bother the following nights. Then again, tonight is a full moon. ADDENDA: I'm schedule to appear on CNN today, around 11 a.m. A poster by an out-of-service bus stop, not far from the convention: 
| 
Comments
Post a Comment