NEWS AND OPINION:
The 17th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks finds the nation in remembrance — reverent but steadfast. On Tuesday, President Trump and first lady Melania Trump will be in Shanksville, Pennsylvania; Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Paul Selva will be at the Pentagon.
The solemn commemoration ceremony in New York City lasts five hours and includes an evening “Tribute in Light” in lower Manhattan. C-SPAN will cover these events beginning at 8 a.m. EDT. Meanwhile, hundreds of communities around the nation will raise the American flag and mark the moments with silence, prayers and volunteer work — many organizing under the #Honor911 hashtag.
Mr. Trump’s was candid in a proclamation issued for the “days of prayer and remembrance” leading up to the anniversary.
“We pause to honor the memory of the nearly 3,000 innocent people who were murdered by radical Islamist terrorists in the brutal attacks of September 11, 2001. We come together to pray for those whose lives were forever changed by the loss of a loved one. We strengthen our resolve to stand together as one nation,” the president noted. “The evil attacks, intended to warp our way of life, instead ignited a flame of national unity, strengthened our will, and mobilized our volunteer spirit. The faith of our nation may have been tested in the avenues of New York City, on the shores of the Potomac, and in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, but our strength never faltered and our resilience never wavered.”
A poll confirms that.
“On the 17th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, voters are more confident than they have been in years that the country is safer today than it was before those attacks,” says a new Rasmussen Reports survey.
It found that 47 percent of likely voters think the U.S. is safer today than it was before the 9/11 terrorist attacks — up from 31 percent a year ago, and the highest level of confidence in the nation’s safety in six years. One-in-three say the nation is not safer than it was before 9/11, down from an all-time high of 60 percent two years ago. The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted Sept. 5-6.
OBAMA WORSE TO THE PRESS THAN TRUMP
Former President Barack Obama recently has re-emerged as a strident political force for his party, criticizing President Trump for deeming the news media “an enemy of the people,” among other things. His comments prompted some to recall Mr. Obama’s relationship with the press while in office.
“He blamed many bad things in the country on people watching Fox News. He claimed it was on every bar in the country. He tried to freeze out Fox News in multiple instances. He spied on reporters. He’s one of the worst presidents when it comes to actual actions when it comes to the media,” the Federalist senior editor Mollie Hemingway told Fox News.
“President Trump speaks against the press in a way that does not live up to what we would hope to hear in terms of freedom of the press. But when it comes to actual actions taken against the media, the Obama administration was bad — and the media didn’t care. When Donald Trump lightly criticizes the press, they boycott him, they freak out about the White House press dinner,” Ms. Hemingway continued. “When it comes to actual actions taken, and attempts to spy on reporters or go after them, the Obama administration was very bad. And the media didn’t have the same reaction to it that they do to the Trump administration.”
FESS UP
A majority of U.S. voters — 53 percent — say that the anonymous author of a recent New York Times op-ed bashing President Trump’s leadership should have signed the editorial and “resigned in protest” according to a new American Barometer poll conducted by Hill.tv and the HarrisX polling company. A hefty 77 percent of Republicans agreed, along with a mere 36 percent of Democrats.
Another 47 percent overall said the mysterious official was right to remain unnamed; 23 percent of Republicans agreed, along with 64 percent of Democrats.
Age made a difference in the findings. The survey showed 58 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds favored anonymity, while 42 percent said the piece should have been signed and the official should have stepped down. The poll was conducted Sept. 8-9 among 1,000 registered U.S. voters.
GAFFNEY’S CONCERN
It has been a busy month for President Trump’s critics.
“Apparently coordinated and certainly well-timed acts of political warfare in the form of a book by Bob Woodward and a New York Times op-ed by somebody purportedly working in the senior ranks of the Trump administration, depict the President as crazed and dangerous. The heroes of both of these much-ballyhooed, purported exposes are those inside the government who, we’re told, are really running things by defying and otherwise subverting our elected commander-in-chief. Suddenly, the elite’s adamant denials of the existence of an unaccountable, so-called Deep State have morphed into huzzahs over its success in countermanding the will of the American people and the man they elected to govern them,” declares Frank Gaffney, president of Center for Security Policy.
“Candidate Donald Trump famously promised to drain the swamp. It’s now clear that its denizens inside his administration — both Democrat holdovers and ostensible Republicans — are, instead, working to drain his presidency,” he observes.
NECK AND NECK
Forget the blue wave. Democrats and Republicans appear neck-and-neck as the midterm elections approach.
“The Monmouth University Poll finds the race for control of the House of Representatives to be tight,” the pollster reports, citing an analysis of polls conducted in eight competitive bellwether congressional districts in California, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio and West Virginia.
“Among all potential voters, support is evenly divided between the Democratic (43 percent) and the Republican (42 percent) candidates for Congress across the districts polled,” the findings note.
POLL DU JOUR
• 57 percent of Americans say they expect news they get on social media to be “largely inaccurate”; 72 percent of Republicans, 52 percent of independents and 46 percent of Democrats agree.
• 48 percent overall say that news has not helped them understand current events; 53 percent of Republicans, 47 percent of independents and 45 percent of Democrats agree.
• 36 percent overall say the news has helped them understand the events; 24 percent of Republicans, 40 percent of independents and 42 percent of Democrats agree.
• 15 percent overall say the news has made them more confused about current events; 24 percent of Republicans, 11 percent of independents and 12 percent of Democrats agree.
Source: A Pew Research Center survey of 4,581 U.S. adults conducted July 30-Aug. 12 and released Monday.
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• Jennifer Harper can be reached at jharper@washingtontimes.com.
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