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SOTU Psychosis in the Press, and the USA Hockey Team Continues to Enrage With Patriotism

Brad Slager
Brad Slager  |  Feb 25, 2026
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.

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Prose & Contradiction – CNN

  • They never saw a display like this one because they never looked.

As expected, the press regarded last night’s State of the Union address as bad. And dark. And negative. Huh, seems you might only take that viewpoint if you were a Democrat, given that party was his primary target in his speech.

At CNN, Jake Tapper was rather miffed to see the president regard the opposition party as “crazy.” Use of that word seems to have set Jake off, which is mildly surprising from the journalist crowd. After all, they are the crowd that has no compunction in hurling Nazi references at the man. We could also bring up the Democrats who do not hesitate to call the president a pedophile. 

But we will highlight another discrepancy. Considering Jake was appalled at the use of “crazy” during the SOTU, he was not so bothered when Democrat Ilhan Omar was seen yelling out that Trump was a murderer. Seems a very sinuous line to draw for this standard, Jake.

DNC PR Firm – CBS NEWS

  • He was very successful in his speech, which is what makes it so unacceptable.

In the network’s post-speech analysis, veteran analyst Major Garrett was brought on to give his impressions. He referenced one portion of the speech, where the president made a distinction between supporting American citizens and illegal aliens, and he seems to have been quite successful in delivering it. And this is…a bad thing?

Garrett explained that the president made this very plain and clear for the audience, and this somehow displayed a “dark” skill that Trump used:

It oversimplifies the issue dramatically. But if anyone has learned how to master that art, some call it a dark art, in American presidential politics, it's Donald Trump that was on full display to tonight.

Gilded Reframe – CNN

  • So you really thought trivializing war heroes was a good look, AP?

A fair portion of the SOTU involved the president handing out a number of honors to military vets and other true heroes. These displays always seem to rankle Democrats and the press, but they manage to grasp that being critical does not sit well with the public. They usually try to deliver a specific critique, where they do not demean the honorees but come off as only opposing how Trump managed the display.

One who was unable to thread this needle was Abby Phillip, who came off sounding like a bitter crone as she compared recognizing these heroes to winning a dishwasher on “The Price Is Right.”

Matching Media Memorandum – GLOBE & MAIL

  • One day soon, the Syrupeans will understand we are savoring their bitterness.

Look, we completely grasp this. Hockey is a national passion for Canada, so losing the gold medal to the U.S. last weekend was going to have an impact. But the imbalanced reactions have been reaching crisis levels. The outrage is in two main forms: declaring the team is not celebrating properly, and losing their minds over the political connections.

Continuing this hysterical trend was the Globe & Mail, as it saw the team brought out during the speech last night, and collapsing into a new surge of tears into their Labatt's Blue.

Demo-lition Project – HUFFINGTON POST

  • You guys are just married to this anti-American position, aren’t you?

Recently, we covered how HuffPo had come out with a hot take over the weekend about feeling bad seeing all of the pro-USA imagery and great results coming from the Olympic Games, and getting that post ratioed into the sun as a result. Well…the outlet is not content that it has driven off enough potential customers on this matter.

Not only was an attempt made to insult the U.S. hockey team, but in so doing it features a socialist account that is also pro-Palestinian to deliver this sub-patriotic messaging.

Matching Media Memorandum – MS NOW

  • Truly, we do not want them to stop with this bitterness…

Adding to the media distemper over the hockey team was Symone Sanders, someone we have full confidence in saying is completely oblivious to the nuances of the game. If she were able to explain how the delayed offside rule worked, we might entertain her opinion on the game.

As it is, just drink in her disdain for the heroic team daring to attend the SOTU.

Gilded Reframe – THE DAILY BEAST

  • We have moved from “he took no meetings” to “he did not take enough meetings.” Okay then…

At The Beast, they continue flogging the expired equine that is the Kash Patel locker room non-troversy. (Some advice, guys? Wanting to become Ken Dilanian is not a noble goal.) To rehash, the claim being made is that Patel flew to Italy to only watch hockey games. Then it became that he only took a couple of perfunctory meetings to make it appear it was a business trip. Now the story has morphed again.

Since the accusations have unraveled further, as it was now learned that he had taken SIX different meetings, the solution at the outlet was to crack out a stopwatch, in order to PROVE hockey was his priority. They claim to have timed out all of the minutes spent at those official meetings, and by their measurement — which conveniently excludes many portions of his schedule — he spent more time watching hockey than on official business.