Another Unwarranted Meghan McCain Hissy Fit

A Wall Street Journal reporter with an outrageous case of Trump Derangement Syndrome declared on Wednesday the White House covered the name of the USS John McCain with a tarp during the President’s visit to Japan over the Memorial Day weekend.

Rebecca Ballhaus tweeted, “The White House wanted the USS John McCain ‘out of sight’ for Trump’s visit to Japan. A tarp was hung over the ship’s name ahead of the trip, and sailors—who wear caps bearing the ship’s name—were given the day off for Trump’s visit.

Ballhaus added, "A tarp was hung over the ship’s name ahead of the president’s trip, according to photos reviewed by the Journal, and sailors were directed to remove any coverings from the ship that bore its name. After the tarp was taken down, a barge was moved closer to the ship, obscuring its name. Navy officials acknowledge the barge was moved but said it was not moved to obscure the name of the ship."

Naturally, attacks on the President flooded Twitter before any corroborating information came out.

I was not informed about anything having to do with the Navy Ship USS John S. McCain during my recent visit to Japan. Nevertheless, @FLOTUS and I loved being with our great Military Men and Women - what a spectacular job they do!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2019

After a few hours, realizing this story was pure bullshit, the Navy Chief of Information tweeted: 

The name of USS John S. McCain was not obscured during the POTUS visit to Yokosuka on Memorial Day. The Navy is proud of that ship, its crew, its namesake and its heritage.

— Navy Chief of Information (@chinfo) May 30, 2019

Throwing more water on the wildfire Ballhaus sought to fuel, MSNBC’s Katy Tur tweeted, “Per @ckubeNBC: A spokesperson for US Pacific Fleet said the picture of the tarp is from Friday and it was taken down on Saturday. ‘All ships remained in normal configuration during POTUS' visit,’ CDR Nate Christensen said.”

McCain’s daughter, Meghan, who his known for her short fuse, reacted to Ballhaus’s tweet saying, “Trump is a child who will always be deeply threatened by the greatness of my dads [sic] incredible life. There is a lot of criticism of how much I speak about my dad, but nine months since he passed, Trump won't let him RIP. So I have to stand up for him. It makes my grief unbearable.”

In the pre-dawn hours of August 21, 2017, the Liberian-registered Alnic MC and the USS John McCain collided in the westbound lane of the Singapore Strait, in Singapore territorial waters about 4.6 nautical miles from Horsburgh Lighthouse. The collision resulted in 10 fatalities aboard the McCain.

In December of that year, the McCain arrived in Japan to begin an estimated year-long, $223-million repair job to make the ship seaworthy again. The project is one of the largest to be performed at U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility-Japan Regional Maintenance Center, according to the Navy.

Ultimately, the Journal reported, the tarp that covered the name of the USS John McCain was removed Saturday and the paint barge that obscured the name was removed as well—both ahead of Trump’s visit, Cmdr. Clayton Doss, a spokesman for the Navy’s Seventh Fleet, told the newspaper.

Instead of jumping the gun, maybe Meghan and her little friend at the Wall Street Journal should have waited for the damn facts to emerge rather than pouncing on President Trump.

The USS McCain is not yet back on patrol in the 7th Fleet as needed repairs were discovered in the process of fixing the obvious damage according to Defense News.

UPDATE:  Welcome readers of Bad Blue Uncensored News.  We thank Doug Ross for linking to this post.