The father of Devarjaye ‘DJ‘ Daniel, the 13-year-old cancer survivor honored by President Donald Trump during his congressional address Tuesday (March 4) night, fired back at MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow after she claimed Trump “made a spectacle out of” praising the child.
“She needs to shut her mouth if she has nothing nice to say,” Theodis Daniel told the New York Post.
“This lady didn’t even serve time in the military,” he added. “I was on the USS Kitty Hawk. She does not need to put her bad energy on us.”
DJ, who was made an honorary U.S. Secret Service agent by Director Sean Curran, and his father were flown from Texas to Washington after the White House contacted them about potentially meeting with the president.
“The White House reached out to us and said that President Trump wants to meet Devarjaye,” Theodis told the New York Post. “They flew us out and FBI agents picked us up at the airport.”
Maddow called Trump spotlighting Daniel during his address to Congress ‘disgusting” as she inferred that it was simply a political ploy.
“For the record – and this is disgusting – the president made a spectacle out of praising a young man who’s thus far survived pediatric cancer – as if the president had something to do with that,” Maddow said, though later noting she felt “joy” over the boy’s moment.
“I hope he has a long life as a law enforcement officer, but I hope he never has to defend the United States capitol against Donald Trump’s supporters and if he does, I hope he isn’t one of the six who loses his life to suicide,” she added in response to journalist Chris Wallace during the segment. “And I hope he isn’t one that has to testify against the people who carried out acts of seditious conspiracy and then lived to see Donald Trump pardon those people.”
DJ was diagnosed with Stage 3 brain cancer at the age of 6 in September 2018, with a CAT scan revealing “a tumor the size of a lemon.” The child was given five months to live and, despite still having terminal cancer, has outlived the expectancy by more than six years.
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