USA Today is still milking the Khizr Khan controversy for Hillary Clinton’s campaign on the front page on August 9, eleven days after the convention speech. The headline was “Khans: Trump’s comments make Muslims feel like lesser Americans.” The story promoted a “Capital Download” interview for “video newsmakers” hosted by USA Today Washington bureau chief Susan Page.
Did this national newspaper put GOP convention speaker and grieving relative Patricia Smith on the front page to criticize Hillary Clinton? No. The newspaper didn’t even mention her name after her turn at the convention.
According to Nexis, USA Today offered one paragraph on Patricia Smith in passing in the eleventh paragraph of a July 19 story by John Bacon and Richard Wolf titled “Anti-Trump action signals chaotic start.” But that’s the “California Chase Edition.” The print edition of USA Today we received in our offices never mentioned Smith’s name. They mentioned former child actor Scott Baio as a speaker, but not Smith.
The paper clearly went to press long before the convention speeches. Khan’s speech likewise didn’t get a mention on the Friday morning after he spoke. But on Monday, August 1, there were two Khan-promoting articles on page 2A, including a column by Aamer Madhani titled “These Muslim parents speak for many.”
On the next day, August 2, the top of the front page screamed “TRUMP FACES GOP BLOWBACK OVER KHANS.” On page 3 that day came an article headlined “Gold Star families ‘represent the best of our country,’ Obama says.” On page 2B in the Business section was a column by Rem Rieder headlined “Can Trump ride out Khan media flap?” Rieder suggested he didn’t deserve to ride it out.
This is how Susan Page began her badly disguised advertisement for Khizr Khan’s anti-Trump campaign:
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Khizr and Ghazala Khan, the Gold Star parents whose appearance at the Democratic National Convention created a firestorm for Donald Trump, say they felt compelled to speak out because the welcome they felt when they immigrated to the United States nearly four decades ago is eroding in the face of this year's presidential campaign.
Even the decision to wear a hijab, the traditional head scarf worn by some Muslim women including Ghazala Khan, has become the source of anxiety.
"You see people wearing scarves, people are pointing fingers at them and throwing them out of flights and calling them names when they pass by and all of that," Khizr Khan, 66, said on Capital Download. "Most Americans are against this kind of nonsense, but there is an element that has gotten voice, has been encouraged by this political rhetoric, and especially this election season has made it worse."
Page made sure to mention pile-on polls found a large majority of Americans opposed Trump criticizing this family. That’s to be expected. There were no polls about Patricia Smith. She was a national media non-entity.
The print edition ended with this dire panic, just regurgitated by Page:
During the past year, the Khans say they have heard rising fears from Muslim friends and family members, especially children.
"For the whole year last year, we’ve been sitting very quietly like many, many, many American citizens, watching this political process take shape, watching the disrespect of Donald Trump, him disrespecting immigrants, Muslim immigrants, women, judges, even senior members of his own party," Khizr Khan said. When they would go out to dinner and other community gatherings, the American-born children of Muslim immigrants would sidle up to him. "They would come to me, personally close to me, and they’ll say, 'Mr. Khan, you're a lawyer. Will we be thrown out of this country?'
This is taking Trump's (now-modified) proposal for a ban on Muslim immigration and turning into a horror movie of Muslim-American deportation.
Page's questions were softballs. First, she asked him to explain why he gave the speech, and he spoke against Trump, uninterrupted, for four minutes. Then she told him 75 percent of Americans disapproved of Trump's reaction, and added "Do you think your speech, it could end up affecting the course of this election?" He said he hoped and prayed it would help defeat Trump.
Then she asked "You immigrated here decades ago. Do you feel the situation here for Muslim-Americans, for Muslims in America is more perilous now than in previous times?" He said "Yes, it is!"
Page nudged Mrs. Khan to elaborated on other Muslim complaints in her family, then added, "Whatever the Clinton campaign wants you to do, you will do that, then?"
Khan denied that: “Poor guys haven’t done anything, haven’t said anything.....there’s no connection, no support.” Page didn’t push back on that at all. When Khan insisted he wrote his own speech, and got out his copy of the Constitution, she set him up: “And you’ve got a passage there, highlighted, what passage is that?” He touted the equal protection of the law guaranteed in the Fourteenth Amendment.
Page wrapped up this interview with a final softball: “You’ve been grieving for your son for 12 years. That will never stop. But I wonder if these two weeks have been helpful in some way.” Dr. Khan choked up as he told Page that he still feels his son's presence.
The whole production could have ended with "This program was provided by Hillary Clinton for President."
