Embedded Files
06.02.2020
Erasmus+ project
Topic: media and the news; alternative ways to make young people understand important stuff
Assignment:
Read the article from The Guardian and also watch the two video (you have to go to the original online source to find the videos). Some of you may read the whole piece but read at least until the second video.
In the group, agree on:
What is the article about?
Who is the sender of the article? Is it neutral or biased?
In your own words: what is this case about? What is the problem at stake? IS there a problem at all?
In the group you are to rewrite this piece of news. However, it must be in a way, style and format that young people will be interested in and be able to read the whole thing and understand the issue. You can publish it in Google, Duckling, Youtube….
State of the Union: Pelosi expresses her disdain as Trump pitches for re-election
Trump used speech to brag about ‘the great American comeback’ but House speaker said she couldn’t find ‘one page with truth on it’
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/feb/04/state-of-the-union-address-trump-impeachment-trial
Wed 5 Feb 2020 05.16 GMTFirst published on Tue 4 Feb 2020 18.27 GMT
Play Video
2:23
Donald Trump's State of the Union address 2020 – video highlights
An emboldened Donald Trump bragged about the “great American comeback” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, in a speech resembling an 81-minute re-election rally that prompted the most powerful woman in Congress to rip up her copy of the speech on national television.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, said she tore up the address, which he delivered on the eve of the verdict in his impeachment trial, because she couldn’t find “one page with truth on it”.
Only the third president to be impeached in US history, Trump addressed a joint chamber of Congress on the eve of his almost certain acquittal by Republican loyalists in the US Senate. Despite the ignominy of that position, he struck an upbeat, at times euphoric, tone.
Taunts, groans and walkouts: Trump stokes division with cascade of lies
“In just three short years, we have shattered the mentality of American decline and we have rejected the downsizing of America’s destiny,” Trump began, to shouts of “Four more years!” from Republicans in the chamber. “We are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago, and we are never going back!”
This is not the first time a president has delivered a State of the Union speech in the midst of impeachment. Bill Clinton was still three weeks away from acquittal for lying in the Monica Lewinsky scandal when he gave his State of the Union in 1999.
But Trump also faces an election, now only nine months away. As such it was no surprise that the theme of the speech was the “great American comeback”.
The president delivered a speech rippling with jingoism, xenophobia and untruths just feet away from the Democratic leaders who inflicted on him the impeachment trial that he has tried so hard to dismiss as a “witch-hunt”.
Several Democrats, including Congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, walked out during the speech. One senator, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, compared it to a “2020 campaign rally”.
“It was a total mistake for Democrats to be there. That was a 2020 campaign rally; that was not a State of the Union,” he said. “I regret stepping one foot inside.”
But Pelosi’s protest overshadowed all others. As Trump came up to the podium, Pelosi reached out to shake his hand. In a striking moment, the president declined to return the gesture. She had the last laugh, though: the moment he finished speaking she calmly tore in half her copy of his script.
Play Video
0:35
Nancy Pelosi rips up State of the Union speech after Donald Trump snubs handshake – video
Republicans quickly seized on the moment, with former speaker Newt Gingrich accusing Pelosi of “childishness”.
“Next week, when the president presents his budget, the American people will see the stark reality of his agenda,” Pelosi later said in a statement defending the move. “A federal budget should be a statement of our national values, and the president has sadly shown that he does not value the good health of the American people.”
Trump’s advisers and senior Republicans had been pleading with him to take the high ground and focus on positives rather than unloading on his Democratic rivals in the joint chamber of Congress before him. As the White House counselor, Kellyanne Conway, put it: “Success is the best revenge.”
Hewing to that advice, Trump devoted a lengthy part of his speech to what he called the “roaring” US economy, boasting that it was “the best it has ever been”. Mindful that the economy is certain to be a major – potentially even decisive – factor in November’s election, he ticked off all the electoral blocks that he needs to seduce if he is to have a shot at securing a second term.
He focused on low unemployment rates for African Americans, women, young people, workers without a high-school diploma – all of whom will be critical in November’s poll.
Trump said his administration had created 7m new jobs and reduced unemployment to the lowest in almost half a century. “Our agenda is relentlessly pro-worker, pro-family, pro-growth, and most of all pro-American.”
But in common with his three previous State of the Union addresses, Tuesday night’s was packed with misleading statements, exaggerations and blatant untruths. In one of the most memorable passages, Trump claimed that he was increasing social mobility in America.
“The vision I will lay out this evening demonstrates how we are building the world’s most prosperous and inclusive society – one where every citizen can join in America’s unparalleled success, and where every community can take part in America’s extraordinary rise.”
In fact, income inequality has reached its highest level since the Census Bureau began tracking the data 50 years ago.
Trump also repeated several of his favorite falsehoods in other areas. “We will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions,” he said, when in truth he has encouraged numerous Republican attempts to overturn President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and abolish protections for people with pre-existing conditions.
(…)
But for most of the 81 minutes the president addressed one half of the room, and one half of the nation.
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