Don Jr. Tosses Out Old Right-Wing Smear To Attack Martha Raddatz For Column On Vets

During a VFW speech in Kansas City on Tuesday, President Donald Trump encouraged the auditorium full of veterans to boo the reporters in attendance. In response to the president using war veterans to attack the media, ABC News’ Martha Raddatz penned a column about the close relationship between war correspondents and soldiers.

And large adult son and MAGA hero Donald Trump Jr. decided to go on the attack…by bringing up a smear that right-wing media whipped up against the ABC correspondent in the wake of the 2016 election.

Your crying on live tv on election night probably has nothing to do with the extreme bias exhibited daily by the liberal media, but in case it did why the hell would any rational person trust the media these days? Give me a break. https://t.co/pOHPNAmJAc

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) July 25, 2018

“Your crying on live tv on election night probably has nothing to do with the extreme bias exhibited daily by the liberal media,” Trump Jr. wrote, “but in case it did why the hell would any rational person trust the media these days? Give me a break.”

In case you aren’t familiar with what Don Jr. is going on about in that tweet, after it was clear Donald Trump was going to be president on Election Night, Raddatz and the ABC News crew discussed Trump’s handling of the military going forward. During the conversation, Raddatz’s voice cracked a bit when she said the “people in the military defend the Constitution. That’s what they do.”

After Mediaite — full disclosure, I was working there on Election Night — published a piece late in the evening originally titled ‘ABC’s Martha Raddatz Fights Back Tears While Discussing Implications of Trump Presidency,’ the conservative media sphere jumped on it like sharks to chum. Even though Mediaite went back and re-edited the piece, softened the headline to ‘ABC’s Martha Raddatz Appears to Choke Up While Discussing Implications of Trump Presidency,’ and added an update that noted the article had been changed “to better reflect Martha Raddatz’s reaction” while noting that Raddatz “had been on air for nearly 7 hours live reporting about the election,” the damage had been done.

In response to the accusation that Raddatz fought back tears on air, an ABC News spokesperson told Mediaite at the time that the allegation was “ridiculous and untrue.” In an interview with Elle after the election, Raddatz said the “story drove me crazy.”

“I can’t let those things drive me crazy,” she added. “But I also am going to defend myself. That blogger never even called me to ask if I was crying. I was not crying. And I was not choked up, either.”

After Don Jr. tossed out the right-wing lie to attack Raddatz, CNN’s Brian Stelter tweeted the video of Raddatz’s on-air appearance to show Trump Jr. was full of it.

Don Jr. is perpetuating an old right-wing smear. @MarthaRaddatz's voice cracked while talking about soldiers, but she wasn't crying. Here's the video https://t.co/JbyGlb5PXw https://t.co/WdmkPOgkkQ

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 25, 2018