The other day on MSNBC, Nicole 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 to get Bass on record 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. I believe people have already been hurt because of his racist rhetoric."
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 of the network's hosts have defended the claims.
Also not raised by Wallace or Bass was the seemingly forgotten mass assassination attempt on Republican members of Congress by James Hodgkinson. I am continually astonished by how quickly and easily Democrats dismiss the story. Hodgkinson, we know, was inspired by progressive claims that 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 regular news cycle after three days. Within five days, the story had mostly disappeared except for health updates on Congressman Steve Scalise. As of the writing of this column, we in the fifth day of reporters hounding Republicans about the President's tweet last Sunday morning. 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 against reporters 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 on the left and in the media about a violent, out-of-control "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 both and what Antifa has been doing could cause any rational person to predict Van Spronsen's actions.
Alexandria 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 as a result of those claims. But Donald Trump tweeted something mean, so he must be held accountable.
Our moral betters behind the anchor desks and keyboards of American newsrooms have rarely met a violent progressive they did not want to excuse. They will go to their graves covering for the growing violence on the left while condemning mean tweets from the right.
To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
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