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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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Phew…bullet dodged. We almost had major news event not end up being used to take petty shots at the President by a sadistic media.

Days after the sad news of Aretha Franklin’s passing, The Daily Beast managed the 11th hour save.

The late “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin hated the political rise of Donald Trump. But that didn’t stop him from trying, and failing, to book her to perform at his 2017 inauguration.

Got that? Trump is such a sucker. He wanted one of the greatest singers in history to perform at his inauguration and it didn’t happen. There’s no actual details about why, but it’s Trump so it’s gotta be something negative and absolute proof of her underlying hate of him.

Though she largely refrained from publicly criticizing Trump during or after the 2016 campaign, two individuals with direct knowledge of her political opinions said she was repelled by the Republican standard-bearer, his policy prescriptions, and his rhetoric. One source close to Franklin told The Daily Beast that after the election, she confided to associates that “no amount of money” could convince her to perform at the inauguration. Another knowledgeable source described her as “despising” everything he stood for, and as an avowed Hillary Clinton supporter.

Why are these sources even anonymous? They couldn’t find anyone to actually go on record given this topic isn’t one that lends itself to secrecy? How very convenient that they found a bunch of people unwilling to be named to bag on Trump in Aretha Franklin’s name.

Following news of Franklin’s death on Thursday, President Trump claimed in a statement that the diva was “a person I knew well” had “worked for me on numerous occasions.”

It is unclear what exactly the president meant by “worked for me,” but Franklin did, indeed, appear or perform at Trump events and venues.

It’s only unclear for journalists with no critical thinking skills. He clearly meant the many times she’d performed at his venues. Speaking of which, the Washington Post is busy trying to make his mention of that into proof that Trump was being a narcissistic racist.

Trump reacted to news of the singer’s death during a Cabinet meeting the same day, offering his condolences to her family.

“She worked for me on numerous occasions,” he said. He also celebrated the “extraordinary legacy” of the soul, pop and R&B virtuoso, calling her “terrific.”

Trump’s comments proved, as ever, controversial, and not simply because her appearances at his properties hardly amounted to a sustained employment relationship. More pointedly, even if she had worked for him, some asked, what was the relevance of that fact on the day of her death?

Only in the insanity that is the media’s disposition toward President Trump is him mentioning the source of their relationship “controversial.” When someone dies, it’s completely normal for those commenting to speak on how they personally knew that person. To the Washington Post and the media at large, it’s a scandal though. Because of course it is.

In both of these silly articles, you’ll notice something. Despite plenty of quotes from anonymous sources and even the head of the DNC, there’s hardly anything from Franklin herself. In fact, there’s just one quote provided to give us a window into her thoughts.

But by Trump’s political ascendency, their relationship had chilled considerably, at least from her end. In December 2016, Franklin—who had performed at Barack Obama’s inaugural celebration in 2009—was asked by The Hill if she would perform for Trump’s inauguration, if asked.

“That’s a very good question,” she continued, with a big smile. “We’ll see.”

At the end of all this speculation and anonymous accounts used to paint Aretha Franklin as a big Trump opponent, this is the best they could come up with from her directly. Responses of “That’s a good question” and “We’ll see” when asked about performing at his inauguration. #Bombshell.

Our media are deranged.

A woman who spanned all political, racial, and class divides tragically passed away and what’s the media do? Run to dig up some anonymous sources to assure us that Franklin was really a card carrying member of the #Resistance. That’s “journalism” in 2018. Everything must be about Trump. Everything about Trump must be negative. Anything that can be used to divide the country must be used to divide the country.