As PJM’s Matt Margolis noted yesterday, “Robert Telles, a Las Vegas Democratic official, was arrested Wednesday night on suspicion of killing a Las Vegas Review-Journal reporter Jeff German, allegedly over negative media coverage he received.” This shooting represents an alarming escalation in the Left’s proclivity for political violence, but as far as at least one “journalist” is concerned, the incitement isn’t coming from the Left at all, but from — you guessed it — Donald Trump, who for many Leftists appears to be the source and summit of all evil in the modern world, responsible for the actions even of people who oppose and hate him.
At a Thursday press conference on the killing, a reporter addressed Las Vegas Sheriff Joseph Lombardo, saying that it was probably not an appropriate time to talk politics. Lombardo asked the obvious question: “So why are we talking politics then?” Undaunted, the reporter plowed on with her political question, asking Lombardo if he thought Telles’ violent action was a result of “former President Trump’s normalization of violence against journalists.”
A *DEMOCRAT* elected official allegedly stabbed an investigative reporter to death last Friday in Nevada.
At a press conference Thursday, somebody asked the sheriff whether he condemns *DONALD TRUMP* for the violence. pic.twitter.com/vFORtEnto7
— Vince Coglianese (@VinceCoglianese) September 9, 2022
Lombardo responded mildly: “No, I think this is probably an inappropriate venue to speculate on that or opine on that.” All right. But when exactly did Trump normalize violence against journalists? It would have been inappropriate indeed for the Las Vegas sheriff to rush to defend the former president, but the reporter’s question itself was even more inappropriate, as it was yet another manifestation of one of the Left’s favorite Big Lies: that conservative speech is tantamount to violence and at the very least constitutes incitement. Trump harshly criticized the establishment media, and with ample justification, but the claim that he normalized violence against journalists is just hysteria, not to mention defamation.
It’s also beyond absurd to assume that Telles, a Democrat, would be influenced by a man for whom Telles’ party has had nothing but contempt at best. The Democrats tell us every day, even now when he has been out of the White House for over a year and a half, that Trump is evil, stupid, corrupt, dishonest, and utterly bereft of redeeming qualities. But when he criticized far-Left journalists, then supposedly the far-Left Robert Telles was moved to violence.
Maybe it’s something in the water in Las Vegas. Back in February, a man named Quintez Brown shot at Louisville, Kentucky mayoral candidate Craig Greenberg. Brown was a black activist who had been interviewed on MSNBC by Joy Reid, has agitated for gun control, and his $100,000 bail was paid by Black Lives Matter. Despite all this, however, the Las Vegas Sun did its best to obscure that record, referring to Brown only as a “political activist” and adding: “While there’s been no indication yet that the activist had ties to any right-wing organizations, the shooting comes amid a rise in threats against politicians fueled by increasingly violent rhetoric coming from extremist Republicans.”
After a backlash, the revised its editorial to read: “While it’s been reported that the activist was involved in the Black Lives Matter and gun-safety movements and there has been no indication yet that he had ties to any right-wing organizations, the shooting comes amid a rise in threats against politicians fueled by increasingly violent rhetoric coming from extremist Republicans.”
The Sun went on to chronicle the alleged inundation of right-wing violence all over America: “Trump drawing cheers at rallies by suggesting violence his opponents, GOP lawmakers and candidates trying to whip their followers into a frenzy with talk of taking up arms against so-called forms of ‘tyranny’ like mask mandates, Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar posting an animated video showing him killing Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with a sword, etc.”
Not a word, of course, about Kathy Griffin holding Trump’s bloody severed head, or Madonna saying she wanted to blow up the White House, or Robert DeNiro saying he wanted to punch Trump in the face, or Nancy Pelosi, Maxine Waters, and Kamala Harris inciting Leftist violence. For Leftists such as the reporter who questioned Joseph Lombardo and the editorial writers at the Las Vegas Sun, none of that counts as incitement at all, because the people who were speaking were righteous and their targets were evil. If someone incites violence against Trump supporters, well, they had it coming, because they dared to dissent from the Leftist agenda that is taken as the embodiment of all that is good. And if a Leftist activist shoots at someone, well, that must be the Right’s fault, too, because ultimately, everything is.
Ultimately it comes as no surprise that a reporter would blame Trump for a shooting by a Democrat pol. After all, the Left is in an all-out war with reality; this was just one minor skirmish. How exhausting it must be to be a Leftist.
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