Screen grab via Giphy.

What with all the talk from Democrats about how President Trump is a “warmonger” and an “assassin” who should be impeached over the Iran conflict, it only seems fitting to end the week pointing out how Never Trumpers are reacting to the successful strike against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Iraq, and the Ukrainian passenger jet that was shot down by Iran just hours later.

Washington Post “conservative” columnist Jennifer Rubin and Atlantic staff writer David Frum tag teamed on Thursday to lay partial if not full responsibility for the shooting down of the Ukraine plane on Trump. Frum linked to a piece he wrote talking about how the issue was complicated:

Trump disclaims all responsibility for the lives lost on UA 752. It's not that simple or that easy https://t.co/jkxQgeCS1W — David Frum (@davidfrum) January 9, 2020

Rubin referenced Frum’s piece in reply to a tweet taking Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg to task for saying Trump shoulders some of the responsibility for the plane’s downing:

Frum’s piece, however, went beyond just saying “it’s not that simple or that easy” to absolve Trump from guilt:

Yet the United States cannot shove all blame on Iran for the human disaster of Flight 752. Nobody intended for civilians to die. That’s the way it is with unintended consequences—and why governments are supposed to weigh carefully the decision to employ deadly force.



The Trump administration is telling an obviously false story about the decision to kill Soleimani. Instead of acknowledging that Soleimani was killed in reprisal, the Trump administration instead argues that the killing was necessary to avert attacks that were simultaneously so imminent that only killing could thwart them and so non-imminent that by attacking the top of the chain of command, the gunmen on the ground would somehow be stopped.

[…]



Soleimani abundantly deserved to die a violent death. The 176 innocents he took with him did not. President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama both flinched from doing justice to Soleimani, because they asked, “And what will happen next?” Trump did not ask that question. Families across half the world are now grieving a consequence that Trump’s ego forbade him to imagine or ponder.

These responses to Frum’s piece pretty much sum up the situation:

Always. The beauty of TDS is that it brings to light their real character, and their masks fall off for all to see. The lack of self-awareness by blaming Trump for the downing of the airline from the architect of the Iraqi war is quite incredible. — Zvonimir Siljkovic (@Zsiljkovic1) January 10, 2020

Yes, it is simple. Iran allowed commercial air traffic in an area they were using to fire rockets. It is 100% on them. It has been since 1979. — PetsareNOTdisposable⭐⭐⭐ (@LrElias3) January 9, 2020

Stupidest thing I've seen today. — T Price (@70s_Child) January 9, 2020

Now that’s an understatement if I’ve ever seen one. Unfortunately, it’s not just Never Trumpers and Democrats who are blaming Trump for what happened to the plane.