As a part of the 9/11 Commission Report, US Intelligence Officials stated that threats to the US aviation industry were common in the ramping up to 9/11 including the prospect that terrorists would use hijacked US commercial aircraft as guided missiles. After the reveal of the report, there were numerous Democrats who demanded to know why Bush had not done more to stop the 9/11 attacks with that information available.
Of course, the same Democrats, contextualizing their same statements in the timeframe of August 2001, cannot offer a single suggestion as to what specifically they would have done absent the hindsight they had at the time of the report. They just want to know why no action was taken, despite the fact they can’t suggest what action they would have recommended. Would they have told people not to panic, all while completely shutting down national air traffic? Would they have required additional security at airports with simply the possibility of what was contained in the intelligence report? The answer to all of the above is likely, no.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but this year, it is 2020.
In my previous piece about Bob Woodward’s tapes, I stated that Woodward’s tapes lacked the context in which they were taken. That context is March 2020.
If we place those same comments into the context and timeframe in which they were made, we can see that Democrats were critical of Trump’s actions as “too extreme” at the time. Not a single Democrat can point to statements they made at the time that show they would have done anything differently.
Had Woodward published the comments at the time they were recorded, Woodward would have been the one that would have had to go on the record with whether or not he felt Trump’s comments were correct. Had he said they were, he would have had to criticize his fellow Democrats and their hatred of Trump and suggestions more should be done. Had he said they weren’t, in the following weeks he would have been made to look like a fool.
Woodward didn’t publish Trump’s comments then, or even in the weeks following the explosion of cases and deaths here in the US. Why? Because Trump’s comments would have shown he knew and Democrats were the ones at fault in downplaying the severity of the virus. That would not have served Woodward or his friends in the DNC. Publishing, during the middle of the New York explosion of cases and deaths, would have made Cuomo look silly and Trump look right.
Woodward waited until the story had the most political effect, not journalistic effect. He waited until he could see what Trump’s actions were in relation to his comments to pounce. Had the Wuhan Virus turned out to be another blip on the radar, Woodward would have published these same tapes with the headline that Trump unnecessarily panicked. Woodward had to benefit of hindsight to weigh the effectiveness of his story for maximum political damage. Woodward isn’t “brave.” He is a Monday Morning Quarterback. He is a professional second-guesser. He is an armchair general.
Democrats have been using their 2020 (not 20/20) hindsight to attack the President on everything they can throw at him. If the Atlantic’s “anonymous source” had felt Trump’s comments were so horrible they needed dissemination to the American People, why not come out at the moment they were made and release them? Why wait until a time in which you know they will do the maximum political damage? We know why. The Atlantic banked on the hope that the White House would be unable to prove the statements made by the “source” false. They had the advantage of waiting until hindsight had proven some of Trump’s statements to be salacious therefore these statements must be true.
2020 Hindsight has been the story throughout the entire coronavirus crisis. Since the explosion of cases, Democrats have been extremely careful in criticisms of the implementation of coronavirus policy and more specifically of the criticisms of Trump-response-approving Dr. Fauci. They have consistently waited until they have had the benefit of 2020 hindsight.
Voters should not be giving Democrats the benefit of 2020 Hindsight. The only thing Dems should be reflecting on in hindsight is their stunning loss in November.
