Fox News reporter Alicia Acuna gave the impression that Donald Trump had responded to Sen. John McCain’s death with kindness and consideration. In fact, Trump behaved with petty vindictiveness.

On Friday, the day it was revealed that McCain’s death was near, The Washington Post’s Josh Dawsey tweeted that Trump “doesn’t plan to say a laudatory word about the ailing senator.” When McCain died the next day, Trump issued a terse statement that looked like it had been written by an aide. Yet it said nothing about McCain:

It was quite a contrast to Trump's recent warm words for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un upon cancellation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea: "I would like to send my warmest regards and respect to Chairman Kim. I look forward to seeing him soon!”

As I previously reported, Fox’s own Brit Hume noted on Twitter that Trump’s refusal to “put hard feelings aside” at such a time for a devoted public servant “doesn’t speak well” for Trump.

But during a report on McCain’s death on Fox News Sunday yesterday, Acuna deliberately suggested that Trump had generously risen above his maliciousness – when nothing of the sort had actually happened:

ACUNA: Within minutes of his passing Saturday, tributes poured in from across the political world. President Trump, who has so often criticized McCain, took to Twitter to express his deepest sympathies to the McCain family, saying, “Our hearts and prayers are with you.”

You’d have to have been paying close attention to catch that later, when Acuna reported on the praise, respect and appreciation from “former presidents, colleagues on Capitol Hill and others” for McCain, she mentioned none from Trump.

But Acuna wasn’t finished misleading viewers.

ACUNA: And we soon expect to hear official details on the memorial services in the days ahead, both here in Phoenix as well as Washington, D.C. We do know that the senator will be buried at the Naval Academy cemetery in Annapolis, Maryland.

In fact, it had already been reported by The New York Times late Saturday night that former Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama will deliver eulogies at a service at the National Cathedral. “Under initial plans for Mr. McCain’s funeral, Vice President Mike Pence was to attend, but not President Trump,” the Times reported. Meanwhile, CBS News has confirmed, possibly after Acuna went on air, that not only will Obama and Bush speak but former Vice President Joe Biden will speak at a separate service honoring McCain in Arizona.

Later, on Sunday evening, it was reported that Trump actually rejected plans for a White House statement praising McCain.

Watch Acuna put lipstick on Trump’s piggy behavior and whitewash his banishment from McCain’s funeral above, from the August 26, 2018 Fox News Sunday.

Originally published at Newshounds.us