Watching my social media timelines fill up with people celebrating or offering justifications on behalf of the accused murderer of a health insurance executive, I've grown disgusted. Some of these reactions are rooted in genuinely evil Communist ideology. Some of them are more about sexually thirsting after the alleged shooter. Regardless, it's appalling. Civil societies don't settle disagreements and grievances with violence, and the only morally-correct response to a cold-blooded, premeditated murder is revulsion and condemnation.
I said as much on my radio show this week, venting about social media's festival of enthusiasm for the disturbed man who authorities say pulled the trigger:
The bone-chilling glorification and performative sexual objectification of the alleged murderer is sick. The victim left behind two sons of prime social media consumption age. They’re likely seeing this grotesque online reaction to someone shooting their dad in the back. pic.twitter.com/q3sPvgex0q
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) December 11, 2024
Democratic Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman evidently agrees with me, saying so bluntly to reporters (language warning):
“He’s the asshole that’s going to die in prison. Congratulations if you want to celebrate that. A sewer is going to sewer. That's what social media is about this. And I don't know why the media wants to turn that into a story, just with these trolls saying these kinds of things anonymously like that. I don't know why that's news. Remember, he has two children that are going to grow up without their father… It's vile. And if you've gunned someone down that you don't happen to agree with their views or the business that they're in, hey, you know, I'm next, they're next, he's next, she's next.”
Compare that clarity with this garbage from his colleague, Elizabeth Warren. Maybe there's a reason she notably under-performed even the weak and unappealing Kamala Harris in Massachusetts:
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Elizabeth Warren is willing to justify assassinations. Of course. https://t.co/lIZHvsjzCy
— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) December 11, 2024
Really leaning into the “but” on this one in ways no Democrat has been comfortable doing. No, it is not inevitable that some weird rich kid assassinates an insurance CEO — what is this framing? https://t.co/dG2zjhvtjq
— Benjy Sarlin (@BenjySarlin) December 11, 2024
But pic.twitter.com/jWLPPDRQG7
— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) December 11, 2024
Charles Cooke tees off on Warren, and lauds Fetterman, here. I'll also note that Bernie Sanders exploited the occasion of this horrifying murder to attack the healthcare industry and push for Socialized healthcare. Setting aside the merits of his arguments for that system (which I strongly reject), it's ghoulish to use this slaying to advance your agenda, almost as if the killer is a conduit for your goals. If some nutcase blew up an abortion clinic and killed some abortion workers, would anyone accept the takeaway from pro-life politicians being, 'this is why we need to ban abortions'? Back to Fetterman. He also posted his strong endorsement of Rep. Elise Stefani to serve as the US ambassador to the United Nations:
Always was a hard YES for @EliseStefanik but it was a pleasure to have a conversation.
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) December 11, 2024
I support defunding UNRWA for its documented Hamas infiltration and fully look forward to her holding the @UN accountable for its endemic antisemitism and blatant anti-Israel views. https://t.co/DvyYIYCd0h
Holding the UN accountable for its depravity is a worthy goal, as is permanently defunding UNRWA, precisely for the reason he states. There's even more evidence of it now:
The refugee agency, known as UNRWA, operated schools across Gaza before they were shuttered in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel and the ensuing war. The agency, which employs roughly 13,000 people, including thousands in the schools, has a duty to maintain the neutrality of its facilities in the conflict zones in which it operates, including by keeping militants off its premises and payrolls. But interviews and an analysis of the records shared with The Times by the Israeli military and foreign ministry indicate that Mr. al-Khatib was one of at least 24 people employed by UNRWA — in 24 different schools — who were members of Hamas or Islamic Jihad, another militant group. Before the war, the agency was responsible for a total of 288 schools, housed in 200 different building compounds, in Gaza. A majority were top administrators at the schools — principals or deputy principals — and the rest were school counselors and teachers, the documents say. Almost all of the Hamas-linked educators, according to the records, were fighters in the Qassam Brigades.
I'll leave you with a reminder that despite Fetterman's welcome and refreshing willingness to buck his party's "progressive" base in some key areas, he has not suddenly become a conservative:
Many members of this community oppose irreversible, medically-disputed gender interventions for children & don’t see support for that as support for us. https://t.co/eWpEOKMXZw
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) December 5, 2024
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