Hypocrisy: Left Says It's Okay When They Use Grieving Parents to Make Points, but Not the Right

You probably remember Pat Smith’s speech at the RNC. The grieving mother of one of the Benghazi victims was lied to her face by Hillary Clinton about the reason for her son’s death. It was a speech that had some in the crowd in tears, and made it very clear to everyone that Clinton was a liar, and not fit to lead. Especially our armed forces.

The moment was so effective that the left reacted with hate and vitriol, and caused one GQ writer to say that he didn’t care that Smith’s son died, and that he would like to be beat her to death.

Interestingly MSNBC – a bastion of mainstream leftist thought – posted an article by Steve Benen titled “RNC manipulates the pain of a grieving mother for partisan gain.” In the article, Benen calls Smith’s speech a “spectacle,” and calls it “so offensive, it was hard to comprehend.”

“Imagine if the Democratic National Convention invited several people, including grieving family members, to spread obvious falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the Republican administrations?” said Benen. “Democrats would be seen as fanatics lacking in the seriousness of purpose necessary to govern.”

Keep that in mind as we continue.

Days later, the DNC is in full swing, and during the speeches a man named Khizr Khan takes the stage with his wife. Kahn is a patriotic Muslim, and the father of an American soldier who was killed in action, saving the lives of his fellow soldiers.

Like Smith, Kahn’s speech was moving, and even energetic. Even we on the right had to take notice of it, as it was striking moment at the dumpster fire that was the DNC. During the speech, Kahn trashed Donald Trump for his thoughts about Muslims, and how he has said he wants to ban them from entering the country. He praised Hillary, and asked everyone to vote for her.

So naturally, Steve Benen, the same man who wrote negatively about Smith’s RNC speech and accused it of manipulating a parent’s pain for political gain, returned and praised Kahn at the DNC for the exact same thing with an article titled “Khizr Khan’s words won’t soon be forgotten.”

Writes Benen:

As he concluded, Khan urged his fellow immigrants “to honor the sacrifice of my son, take the time to get out and vote.” By some accounts, “register to vote” spiked as a Google search immediately after Khan spoke.

Americans heard from quite a few high-profile speakers at the two major-party conventions, but when it comes to sheer emotional weight and resonance, no one topped Khizr Khan.

Both Kahn and Smith are grieving parents who lost what no parent should, but see the world through different lenses. For Smith, Hillary betrayed her family, and it cost the life of her son. For Kahn, Trump has zero respect for the sacrifice of his son, and his religion. Both have legitimate points and concerns.

And the brutal reality is that both parties used these concerns to make solid political points.

However, according to Benen this now makes the Democrats “fanatics lacking in the seriousness of purpose necessary to govern.” The DNC did exactly what MSNBC and Benen trashed Republicans for doing.

So are they ready to walk it back?

For Benen and the left, this can’t fly unless it’s done for the Democrats. I’ve often said that the real mantra of the left is “It’s okay when we do it,” and you can see this on full display in the hypocrisy MSNBC engaged in when talking about these two parents.