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CNN gushed about Mt. Rushmore when Bernie Sanders was touting it 4 years ago

July 4, 2020 | | Print Article

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A CNN correspondent characterized President Donald Trump’s rally at Mount Rushmore Friday evening as an event “where he’ll be standing in front of a monument of two slave owners and on land wrestled away from Native Americans,” though the network took a decidedly different view of the site four years ago when Sen. Bernie Sanders made a visit.

During the segment, correspondent Leyla Santiago added that the president “would be focusing on the effort to ‘tear down our country’s history.’”

But in 2016, when Sanders visited the national monument as he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination, the liberal network took a decidedly different — and far more patriotic — view.

A video clip of the interview with Sanders, which was tweeted out by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and others, shows the then-2016 presidential contender saying, “This is our country at its very best,” as he stood in awe of the monument located at the foot of the Black Hills in South Dakota, which features busts of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.

“What an incredible achievement,” Sanders continues.

The CNN correspondent then noted:

Visiting Mount Rushmore today, Bernie Sanders, taking in the majesty of the moment. This monument, to four great American presidents.

“Just the accomplishment, the beauty here. It really does make one very proud to be an American.”

“Double standard, anyone?” Cruz wrote in retweeting the clip.

Another Twitter user tweeted photos of former President Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton at the monument as well.

Other CNN correspondents, including Jim Acosta, have praised Mount Rushmore as a uniquely American achievement.

As for the monument, the site where it is located was named after New York banker Charles E. Rushmore, who went to the region in 1885 to inspect gold-mining claims. After learning the mountain did not have a name, he called it Rushmore Peak (it was later changed to Rushmore Mountain/Mount Rushmore).

Located near Rapid City, S.D., is the work of Danish-American sculptor Gutzon Borglum. The project lasted from 1927 to 1941, and was completed ahead of the United States’ entry into World War II by Borglum’s son, Lincoln, after his father died earlier that year.

In his speech, President Trump blasted the rise of “far-left fascism” within the Democrat Party and vowed to always protect the site.

“This monument will never be desecrated,” the president declared to great applause. “These heroes will never be defaced. Their legacy will never, ever be destroyed. Their achievements will never be forgotten. And Mount Rushmore will stand forever as an eternal tribute to our forefathers and to our freedom.”

Trump said that recent assaults against American monuments across the country, along with “cancel culture” and the ascension of Marxism within the Black Lives Matter movement, all were part of a “left-wing cultural revolution” that threatened to “overthrow the American Revolution.”

In fact, BLM calls for destroying the “nuclear family structure,” which the president note was the “bedrock of American life.”

“We only kneel to Almighty God,” Trump remarked, in what was most likely aimed at professional sports athletes who are or are planning on kneeling during the playing of the national anthem ahead of games.

“We will not be intimidated by bad, evil people. It will not happen,” the president vowed. “This movement is openly attacking the legacies of every person on Mount Rushmore.”

Fox News pointed out CNN’s unpatriotic characterization of Mount Rushmore ahead of the president’s speech. Further, the network noted that building housing The New York Times — which is advocating for taking down the monument because it sits on what was once land belonging to the Lakota Sioux tribe — also sits “on stolen native lands.”

“From this night, and from this magnificent place, let us go forward united in our purpose and rededicated in our resolve. We will raise the next generation of American patriots,” Trump noted.

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Jon Dougherty
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