As is so often the case, left-leaning media outlets only cover news that makes the Left look bad from the angle of Republican reaction. Often, these headlines use words like “seize” or “pounce” to indicate that Republicans are responding to something that should be its own news story.
Typically, the original news story gets little to no coverage on its own. The latest example comes from Politico, which did not report on a van purposefully ramming a GOP tent full of volunteers, but did see fit to cover the Republican response to the attack. The headline for the article reads, “Republicans vow ‘revenge’ at ballot box after volunteers nearly hit by van.”
“Revenge,” is doing a lot of work in the title, making it appear as though the GOP wants violence in response to violence. Politico’s article takes extra care to downplay the attack and emphasize how the Republican Party of Florida has reacted to the event.
“During a press conference in Jacksonville, they described how Timm nearly hit people, made an obscene gesture, and started recording the incident on his phone. They used the event to make a plea for donations to the party,” the outlet reported.
The outlet noted that the man driving the van, who is not being named by The Daily Wire, was arrested and charged with “aggravated assault, criminal mischief and driving with a suspended license.” Then the outlet again downplays the attack and even questions whether it was politically motivated.
“No one was injured in the attack, but Republicans say their volunteers jumped out of the way to avoid the van,” the outlet reported. “Local authorities are looking into whether the attack was politically motivated.”
The attack on Republican volunteers was largely ignored by mainstream media outlets, leading pundit Stephen Miller to speculate how a similar incident would be treated if someone drove a van into Democrat volunteers.
“Going out on a limb and suggesting if a MAGA hat wearing yokel drove a van through a Warren or Sanders voter registration tent, it would be the only thing journalists & major news outlets would be talking about right now,” Miller tweeted on Sunday.
Going out on a limb and suggesting if a MAGA hat wearing yokel drove a van through a Warren or Sanders voter registration tent, it would be the only thing journalists & major news outlets would be talking about right now.
— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) February 9, 2020
“They would be clearing graphite off the roof at CNN right now,” he continued. “There would be Charlottesville comparisons. Jim Acosta would chain himself to the [White House] Fence. [Jake] Tapper would be demanding Kelkyanne [sic] Conway personally accept responsibility and Fredo [Chris Cuomo] would be quote tweeting people with 12 followers.”
“There would be 5 NY Times OP-Eds about Trump’s SOTU speech was the motivation. NBC reporters would be scouring 4Chan. Wash Post front page would read TERROR IN JACKSONVILLE. Candidates would be gathering for candlelight vigils,” Miller continued.
“Jacksonville and #DefeatHate would be top trends on Twitter. Every celebrity with a political following would be making Hitler comparisons. Stelter & Darcy would be blaming some Fox & Friends segment because that’s what Media Matters would be doing. There would be marches,” he added.
“But of course there’s none of that, and you don’t have to like Trump to notice this. You just have to have a pulse,” Miller concluded.