By
Joe Fletcher
Donald Trump put out a repugnant tweet after the Charlie Hebdo attacks last January. Trump wrote in the tweet:
“Isn’t it interesting that the tragedy in Paris took place in one of the toughest gun control countries in the world?”
After Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris, right-wingers found
the tweet, and it quickly went viral with many people not realizing how old the
tweet was. As per usual, right-wingers swooned for dumb tweet.
Fortunately, some sane people also noticed the tweet, and Trump
is now facing a backlash for a remark that is as loathsome as it is stupid.
Most notably of those who called out Trump for the remark was France’s foreign ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud. Ambassador Araud replied to the tweet saying:
“This message is repugnant in its lack of any human decency. Vulture.”
The tweet has since been deleted, but can be seen below by means
of a timely screenshot.
Many people criticized Trump for trying to appeal
to gun nut voters, not realizing the tweet was written months before Trump
announced his candidacy.
Trump doesn’t need a use a presidential race as an
excuse to be, well – a vulture. In fact, as hard as it is to believe, Trump’s
candidacy may have tempered his uncanny ability to go on Twitter and say the
least appropriate thing at the least appropriate moment.
After news of the
attacks in Paris broke, Trump put out a rather tame tweet that simply said “My
prayers are with the victims and hostages in the horrible Paris attacks. May
God be with you all.”
Of course, Trump’s moment of class was only fleeting. At an event in Beaumont, Texas,
Trump took to the
stage and said:
“When you look at Paris, you know, the toughest gun laws in the world, nobody had guns except for the bad guys, nobody. Nobody had guns, and they were just shooting them one by one.”
Author Joe Fletcher is a writer and community organizer based in
Grand Rapids, Michigan. You can follow him on Facebook andTwitter