Last Saturday, a gunman killed five people at Club Q in Colorado Springs. Guy has highlighted some red flags with the suspect, Anderson Lee Aldrich. Most telling is that he was known to authorities and yet still had a gun, even with Colorado's red flag law in place. The more we find out, the weirder it's gotten, as Ed Morrissey pointed out at our sister site HotAir. Rather than focus their frustrations on Aldrich and what's potentially a failed system, leftists and mainstream media figures have their sites set elsewhere.
Our friends at Twitchy have been keeping track of such reactions. Keith Edwards, formerly of the scandal-plagued Lincoln Project, directly blamed Tucker Carlson and the Libs of TikTok account for the shooting.
this has made its way over to fascist side of twitter. They’re saying I’m a groomer and this tragedy is because of us. Just deranged.
— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) November 20, 2022
Don’t stop sharing. Don’t back down.
And there's plenty more ugliness than what Twitchy highlighted, which included retweeting those who shared Edwards' tweet above with their own two cents. Yet Edwards kept doubling down.
The real “groomer” is @libsoftiktok, who grooms her followers to hate and to kill LGBTQ people.
— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) November 20, 2022
Carlson was also blamed for the shooting at a grocery store in a predominantly black neighborhood in Buffalo last May, despite how the suspect had a manifesto of sorts that demonized Fox News, Carlson's employer.
Speaking of the Lincoln Project, earlier on Tuesday, they blamed Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and other "MAGA sycophants." Edwards did the same, taking issue with the congresswoman daring to mourn for the community.
This hate stems from the same line of Christian nationalism that has overtaken the Republican Party. Nothing in politics is as effective as fear. And MAGA sycophants such as @laurenboebert know exactly how to weaponize it.https://t.co/Qw0fbiLCtE
— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) November 22, 2022
https://t.co/6EtGkCPRCM pic.twitter.com/wy4fixLXGL
— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) November 20, 2022
Edwards wasn't alone in blaming Libs of TikTok, and neither were those he retweeted. NBC News's Brandy Zadrozny joined in as well, as our friends at Twitchy likewise highlighted, and then tried to push back when she was the subject of a tweeted clip from The Washington Free Beacon.
Hateful and violent online rhetoric targeting LGBTQ people has been ratcheting up for months. Now, just hours after a deadly mass shooting at #ClubQ, the worst of these hate accounts, LibsofTikTok is targeting another drag event in Colorado.
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) November 20, 2022
https://t.co/K7vDqVvHvK pic.twitter.com/ak0aQwxKFy
This absolutely not true and if you had a shred of legitimacy you’d delete and correct. I won’t hold my breath.
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) November 21, 2022
Recall that Zadrozny was also among those in the media who went after the Libs of TikTok account and the Manhattan Institute's Christopher Rufo in light of alleged threats targeting Boston Children's Hospital over what supporters may call "gender-affirming care," but in reality, results in sterilization and genital mutilation of children. It wasn't even enough that Libs of TikTok appropriately condemned the threats once such allegations were confirmed by the FBI and a suspect, Catherine Leavy, was arrested for a hoax bomb threat.
The tragic shooting at Club Q has resulted in people politicizing the issue, as Guy called out in his piece mentioned above. It's not just about gun control, either, but drag shows and whether or not they are appropriate for minors to attend. The same goes for the so-called "gender-affirming care" performed on minors who cannot legally consent to such a procedure. Exposing such events is often something the Libs of TikTok account does. It's also why she's been unfairly maligned.
Edwards also joined in on promoting drag shows for children.
Every year since 2016, over 3,500 children or teens have been killed by guns in America. You know what has not killed a single child or teen in any year in history? Drag performances.
— Richard Marx (@richardmarx) November 21, 2022
Kids are safer with drag queens than they are with cops. pic.twitter.com/AP5BMD4FSu
— Keith Edwards (@keithedwards) November 22, 2022
Zadrozny similarly defended them while doubling down. "I think it's a pretty good summation of the right wing moral panic targeting this community," she said about the shooting at Club Q. So much for her trying to walk back putting the blame on Libs of TikTok.
Yep I said this. And while we don’t yet know the motivation behind the Colorado Springs attack, I think it’s a pretty good summation of the right wing moral panic targeting this community. https://t.co/dbtp3PbnSJ
— Brandy Zadrozny (@BrandyZadrozny) November 21, 2022
Perhaps no other has more so defended drag shows than Ben Collins, also of NBC.
NBC's Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__): "An all ages drag brunch..that a child might go to meet a drag queen, just to show them they're human beings & people. They go there and they read Dr. Seuss..It is not some hypersexual event, but that's what it's viewed as on the far right." pic.twitter.com/n4pZhSQYy4
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) November 21, 2022
MSNC's Joy Reid used the shooting as a way to prop up and try to normalize these drag show s, as NewsBusters' Kevin Tober highlighted. This is after a whole panel of characters on "Deadline: White House," also on the network, blamed conservatives for the shooting earlier on Monday.
Joy Reid aired a clip of a "Drag Queen Story Hour" at the New York City Public Library in an attempt to show people that they're normal. (Spoiler alert: it wasn't). She then said it makes her sad that conservatives want to ban them. pic.twitter.com/1nwBpTvMG0
— Kevin Tober (@KevinTober94) November 22, 2022
Nicolle Wallace, who hosts "Deadline: White House," again addressed the topic on Tuesday night's show, during which she, as well as a guest, former Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) joined in on piling on against Carlson.
.@NicolleDWallace: "Tucker Carlson gives a lot of air time to hate toward the LGBTQ+ community. A lot of elected Republicans do as well. And this tragedy has not shamed them at all." pic.twitter.com/meG09STVrZ
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 22, 2022
MSNBC GUEST: "Hateful language" on Twitter "plays in to violence happening."
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 22, 2022
"Tucker Carlson...glorifies violence against a community..." pic.twitter.com/vVyslgP8L9
Beyond the politicization is the product of potential lawsuits. Matt Walsh was also maligned by an article from Lauren Sue at the Daily Kos, with her headline claiming, "Matt Walsh only upset 'more people weren't killed' at Club Q: Twitter takes highlight GOP hypocrisy."
I’m used to being defamed by the media but this from the vile rodents at @dailykos is atrocious even by their standards. They use the quotes in their headline to make it seem like I said this, but of course I never did. These ghouls will stoop to anything. Nothing is beneath them pic.twitter.com/f3uWkOw6PA
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 22, 2022
The link to the story as of Tuesday afternoon merely bears the headline "Redacted." The article is no more, and instead, the text reads, "In a previous headline for this article, we misattributed a quote to Matt Walsh. We regret not properly quoting Walsh's tweet. This article is in direct violation of our editorial policy, and we have removed it."
Update: Daily Kos has deleted the article but that’s not going to be nearly good enough. I need a full published retraction and an apology in writing. They aren’t going to be able to get out of this by deleting it and moving on. pic.twitter.com/FZ2RnibxvW
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) November 22, 2022
While Sue's bio page on the Daily Kos website includes a link to her Twitter, as of Tuesday evening, her tweets are protected.
