On Wednesday, The Los Angeles Times published a report by Robin Abcarian, belittling former First Lady Melania Trump for expressing her concerns about the propriety of the Aug. 8 raid on her home by 31 federal agents.
In a remarkably partisan piece for a journalist, the Times reporter attempted to justify the FBI’s “rummaging through Melania Trump’s unmentionables” during the raid by noting her “wardrobe was “legal” and that “she deserved it for being married to a sticky-handed former president.”
In a strained reach to disparage the first lady, Abcarian argued that a message on Melania’s $38 jacket in 2018 (“I really don’t care, do you?” — a message to the “fake news” — somehow disqualified her from complaining about feeling “violated” by a questionable FBI search and seizure in 2022.
Radar Online reported: “After FBI agents reportedly searched her Mar-a-Lago bedroom for purloined government documents, former First Lady Melania Trump recently told friends she felt ‘violated.'”
Abcarian mocked how Melania was made to feel uncomfortable when the FBI agents rummaged through her clothing and her son Barron’s room. Abcarian wrote: “‘What were they looking for,’ quipped my reliably funny friend Roy Rivenburg, ‘Victoria’s National Security Secret?'”
In an attempt at character assassination, Abcarian then noted that “Mrs. Trump isn’t a very sympathetic figure,” adding, “Melania never seemed comfortable in the role of the first lady, and it was always painful to watch her strained interactions with her husband. And yet, even while she seemed sometimes an object of pity, she was not a particularly sympathetic figure. She left office as the least popular first lady since such surveys were conducted.”
Abcarian did not note that the survey she referred to was coordinated by the fiercely anti-Trump CNN outlet that has faced multiple credibility issues and scandals in the last few years.
Abcarian argued that the “unprecedented search of Melania’s bedroom and closet was legal.” She added, “The warrant applied to all the rooms of Trump’s residence — his office, his storage rooms and all other rooms or areas within the premises used or available to be used by [Trump] and his staff.”
Again, Abcarian’s selective reporting omitted that the broad nature of the warrant is being fiercely contested and may well be found to have been inappropriately issued.
After claiming Melania “deserved it,” Abcarian wrote: “This is simply the price you pay when you are married to a sticky-handed former president who is unable to grasp the difference between things that belong to him and things that do not.”
Abcarian continued: “Turns out you have to put up with the occasional search warrant in service of the occasional suspected felony. And the occasional besmirching of your panties by government hands, even gloved ones.”
Abcarian’s lengthy post included a crass, unprofessional quote from an anonymous source who claimed: “It’s her bedroom. Even her husband isn’t allowed in her bedroom.” To which Abcarian quipped, “Well, then, where do they … ah, never mind.”
Abcarian mocked Melania for standing by her husband and concluded her piece by suggesting that if the former first lady is unhappy about any aspects of the raid, she should direct her frustration toward her husband:
“Melania Trump may have felt besmirched by the FBI rifling through her drawers,” Abcarian wrote, “but the blame is squarely on her husband. Acting as if he is above the law, he brought the FBI to Mar-a-Lago in the first place.”
Many see Abcarian’s piece and the L.A Time’s decision to post it as validating Donald Trump’s claim that the mainstream media is plagued with “poor journalism” and “fake news.”
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