President Donald Trump on Twitter Wednesday praised Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann for suing the Washington Post for $250 million.
“The Washington Post ignored basic journalistic standards because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump.” Covington student suing WAPO. Go get them Nick. Fake News!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 20, 2019
The day before, the Post published an article stating that the Sandmann family filed the defamation lawsuit against them last month. The family is seeking $250 million because the newspaper was purchased for that amount by Amazon chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos.
“The Post wrongfully targeted and bullied Nicholas,” reads the lawsuit. “Because he was the white, Catholic student wearing a red ‘Make America Great Again’ souvenir cap on a school field trip to the January 18 March for Life in Washington, D.C.”
The lawsuit suggested that the Post engaged in a modern-day act of “McCarthyism,” a term popularized by a political cartoon published by the newspaper in 1950, criticizing former U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy for his use of smear tactics in his campaign against communism. In this case, the suit states that the Post used smear tactics against the Sandmanns to attack President Trump’s reputation.
“The Post ignored basic journalist standards,” the suit continues. “Because it wanted to advance its well-known and easily documented, biased agenda against President Donald J. Trump (“the President”) by impugning individuals perceived to be supporters of the President.”
The lawsuit references seven articles published by the Post which the family accuses of spreading “false and defamatory” information against them, along with three tweets made by the newspaper.
You can read the entire lawsuit below:
Nick Sandmann was one of the many Covington Catholic High School students who went to Washington on Jan. 18 to partake in the March for Life rally. They were confronted at the Lincoln Memorial by members of the Black Hebrew Israelites, who began shouting racist comments directed at the students.
The students were then approached by Nathan Phillips, a Native American who claimed to be a Vietnam veteran despite evidence suggesting otherwise.
??Nathan Phillips, January 3, 2018??
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) January 24, 2019
"I'm a Vietnam Vet. I served in Marine Corps 72 to 76. I got discharged May 5, 1976. I got honorable discharge and one of the boxes shows peacetime or, what my box says is that I was **in theater**. I don't talk much about my Vietnam times." pic.twitter.com/nIoYxGoPqM
Navy SEAL Don Shipley who calls out stolen valor obtained Nathan Phillips DD-214.
— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) January 23, 2019
Phillips was a USMC Reservist who never left the U.S., and went AWOL numerous times. pic.twitter.com/ob2KnEwnSZ
Phillips went face-to-face with Nick Sandmann, beating on a drum and singing to him. Sandmann responded by smiling. Media outlets like the Post were quick to put the spotlight completely on Phillips without including statements from the other side.