Because of the pandemic, graduation at West Point was always going to be bizarre this year.

It's been bizarre everywhere.

Some schools have staged drive-through graduations.

Others have gone online.

But West Point was the only university that forced its graduates to return to campus,

quarantine themselves for two weeks,

and then sit for a ceremony that none of their friends or family could attend,

all in order to watch a half-hour speech from the president.

Music all in order to watch a half-hour speech from the president. The heads of the Army had begged the president. Slate's Fred Kaplan watched the whole thing over the weekend.

The other academies, they had virtual ceremonies. We're fine on doing that. He insisted on it.

He'd never spoken at West Point before.

Clearly, he wanted, he wanted the great photo op.

So the West Point band played from behind Plexiglass,

and nearly a thousand newly minted officers sat on chairs positioned six feet apart.

Yeah, they walked in with masks and then they took them off, I guess, out of respect to the president who doesn't like masks.

He wanted originally, he wanted them to be in tight formation.

The question was, what would the president say to these graduates?

After weeks of protest over George Floyd's death, after suggesting the U.S. military should

restore order around the country, and especially after federal agents used pepper spray against protesters

who were in front of the White House.

Were you expecting the president to say something to address what's been happening in the

country over the last couple of weeks?

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