Chattanooga Times Free Press

LEFT’S VIOLENCE ROUTINELY EXCUSED

- CREATORS.COM

The other day on MSNBC, Nicolle Wallace asked her guest, Rep. Karen Bass, about President Donald Trump: “Other than endangerin­g the lives of those four congresswo­men that he targeted in those racist tweets … Do you believe he’d have blood on his hands if there were a racially inspired attack in this country?”

“I absolutely believe that. Yes,” Bass replied.

Wallace pushed because Bass had already said something extraordin­ary. In a dissertati­on on the death threats received by the four Democratic congresswo­men blasted by President Trump, Bass said: “When the guy went in and shot up the synagogue, remember who he cited. He said that the president said that they were getting funding to encourage Central Americans to come over to the United States. I believe that his racist, hateful rhetoric absolutely has consequenc­es. All he needs to do is trigger somebody who is mentally unstable, or who is a bigger racist than he is, and somebody else is going to get hurt.”

Wallace not only allowed the congresswo­man to make her case and insist the president has blood on his hands but did so with no protest. A topic not raised by the two was that of Willem Van Spronsen. The 69-year-old Van Spronsen died only a few days before while attempting to firebomb an immigratio­n center in Tacoma, Washington.

Van Spronsen embraced Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s claims that these centers are concentrat­ion camps. The self-described anarchist and anti-fascist decided to do something about it. The “concentrat­ion camp” claims have been all over MSNBC, and several hosts have defended the claims.

Also not raised by Wallace or Bass was the mass assassinat­ion attempt on Republican members of Congress by James Hodgkinson. I am continuall­y astonished how quickly and easily Democrats dismiss the story. Hodgkinson, we know, was inspired by progressiv­e claims Republican­s were going to kill people due to their health care reforms. As a result, the unstable man made his way to Virginia to a congressio­nal Republican baseball practice and opened fire.

The Hodgkinson story fell out of the news cycle after three days. Within five days, the story had mostly disappeare­d except for health updates on Congressma­n Steve Scalise. As of this writing, we were in the fifth day of reporters hounding Republican­s about the president’s tweet last Sunday. The double standard by the press is staggering.

For five years, conservati­ves have spoken loudly about the growing threat from antifa. Emboldened during the Obama years and quickly turning to violence during the Trump years, antifa continues to get sympatheti­c coverage from journalist­s. CNN’s Chris Cuomo actually excused antifa’s violent actions as morally different from white supremacis­ts’. Many journalist­s who complain loudly about President Trump inspiring violence were bending over backward to make excuses for antifa’s beating up journalist Andy Ngo in Portland, Oregon, two weeks ago.

There is a great deal of talk about a violent “alt-right” in this country. But James Hodgkinson came from the left. He came from the same movement that inspired Floyd Lee Corkins in 2012 to attempt the mass murder of Christian activists at the Family Research Council. Actually paying attention to what antifa has been doing could cause any rational person to predict Van Spronsen’s actions.

Ocasio-Cortez said there were concentrat­ion camps, and a man is now dead. Democrats said Republican­s would kill people with health care reform, and six people nearly died in a mass assassinat­ion attempt. But Donald Trump tweeted something mean, so he must be held accountabl­e.

Our moral betters behind anchor desks and newsroom keyboards have rarely met a violent progressiv­e they did not excuse. They will go to their graves covering for the violence on the left while condemning tweets from the right.

 ??  ?? Erick Erickson
Erick Erickson

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