Marine Corps Publicly Calls Out The Hill for Misleading Story About Marine One at Trump Rally

Julio Rosas | October 29, 2020 4:45 PM

The U.S. Marine Corps publicly called out The Hill and a Washington Post reporter for pushing false information about the use of a Marine One helicopter at a rally for President Trump in Florida.

The Hill published the following story, "Trump campaign event use of Marine Corps helicopter raises ethics questions," on Wednesday where it takes issue with a video Trump posted on his Twitter account. The footage shows Marine One arriving at a rally with supporters.

According to The Hill, Trump "appeared to use a Marine Corps helicopter to hover over a large crowd of cheering supporters, raising questions about the ethics of using the military aircraft for such purposes."

Greg Miller, a national security correspondent for the Post, also raised concern if Marine One was being improperly used. He also snarked if this was a new way to give Trump supporters COVID-19.

Is Marine One really swooping over rally crowds to whip up supporters of the president?

(Or is this a new way to disperse covid droplets?) https://t.co/hvKbtIl1VZ
— Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) October 28, 2020

The answer was really quite simple, due to the angle of the camera, it gave a false impression as the helicopter was not hovering over the crowd as it was landing in an open area.

"The entire flight was conducted in accordance with U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps regulations, operating procedures, and safety protocols," Marine Corps spokesman Capt. Joseph Butterfield told The Hill. "Marine One landed a safe distance from the crowd, which the camera angle in the video . . . does not appear to fully capture."