Yesterday, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright passed away from cancer. She was 84 years old.
As soon as news of her passing broke, Twitter was flooded with warm tributes and condolences to her family, from both sides of the aisle. Puck News correspondent and GQ alumna Julia Ioffe was one of many people who memorialized Secretary Albright. But, unlike some others, Ioffe couldn’t manage to do it without bringing Donald Trump into it somehow:
I attended a dinner where Madeleine Albright was the keynote speaker and, in introducing her, the event's organizer said, "Sec. Albright is working on a book about the Trump presidency. It's called, 'FASCISM.'" It was 2017, when no one in the DC establishment was using that word.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) March 23, 2022
She was absolutely fearless and clear-eyed. And she inspired so many women to get into the male-dominated field of foreign policy. All of us are grieving, all of us owe her a great debt.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) March 23, 2022
Ioffe’s second tweet is totally fine, of course. Nothing wrong with it.
But the first tweet is another story. Invoking Donald Trump is unnecessary and tasteless, for one thing. Actually, now that we think about it, it’s something that we could see Trump himself doing, because he often looks for ways to make things about him somehow. So Julia is taking a page from Trump’s own playbook in a way.
But aside from that, Julia’s first tweet contains a pretty blatant falsehood. One that’s easily debunked by the actual, real reality we lived in during the Donald Trump administration. And, you know, by using the Google:
ten second Google search https://t.co/T6AUenKqeI pic.twitter.com/cCgDvsmFlS
— Jerry Dunleavy (@JerryDunleavy) March 24, 2022
Unlike Julia Ioffe apparently was, we were not born yesterday. We didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. We haven’t been living in a cave for the past six or seven years. Almost everyone in the D.C. establishment was throwing “fascism” or “fascist” around when discussing Donald Trump.
We were there, Julia.
Oh @juliaioffe that’s just lazy 😱
— Mulborough75 (@mulborough75) March 24, 2022
— Brad (@mottled_paws) March 24, 2022
It is pretty funny. But it also raises a pretty darn good question:
I imagine journalisming was much easier before the internet. Can you imagine the sort of lies they could get away with back then? https://t.co/L7Wh88b7nJ
— James McQuaid (@James_J_McQuaid) March 24, 2022
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