The right-wing outrage machine spun into action this week amid the realisation that Joe Biden would not be on the east coast for the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, thereby making him the first president to not commemorate the attacks at one of the crash sites.
Mr Biden will, however, be marking the solemn memory of the attack: he is slated to meet with military families and other relatives of victims in Alaska, where the president will be stopping over on his way back from a trip to Asia.
The trip to Asia is no vacation, either; it coincides with the set dates of the G20 summit, scheduled to be held in India from 9 to 10 September. He will also be making a stop in Vietnam to meet with several high-ranking regional officials.
But none of that matters (or was even mentioned) on Twitter, where accounts and persons affiliated with the Trump-aligned right wing of the GOP preferred to imagine the scheduling inconvenience as a malicious effort to insult the families of 9/11 victims and, ultimately, the US itself. Those sharing the news with such editorialising included right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong.
“Biden doesn’t care about the victims of 9/11”, Mr Cheong theorised.
Noah Blum, nephew of Commentary’s Norm Podhoretz, offered instead an open-ended question meant to gin up outrage, one that was actually answered by the article he linked below it.
Newsmax’s Chris Plante joined in as well. “Why can’t Biden ever be where he’s needed?”, he asked.
Ultimately, the episode is another example of how little facts matter on social media — even when readily available.
First lady Jill Biden is set to lay a wreath at the Pentagon to mark the anniversary next month; Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband will attend a memorial at Ground Zero in New York.
