A decade ago, Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head by a crazed gunman in Tuscon, Arizona. Thankfully, and miraculously, she survived.
Imagine if a conservative posted on Twitter, “If I ever meet Gabrielle Giffords’s shooter, I’m going to hug him and buy him as many drinks as he can consume.”
This would be unacceptable at a bare minimum. It would clearly be disgusting. It would reasonably be considered an endorsement and encouragement of violence.
Yet, change the names, and you have exactly the tweet that musical artist and outspoken leftist Richard Marx shared on Sunday. Marx wrote, “If I ever meet Rand Paul’s neighbor I’m going to hug him and buy him as many drinks as he can consume.”
As many might recall, Paul’s neighbor Rene Boucher launched a blindside attack on the Republican in 2017. The libertarian-leaning congressman still deals with health issues related to the incident to this day.
Paul was in bad physical shape for some time after the attack. The chief strategist to Paul, Doug Stafford, replied to Marx in a tweet, ”So, you’re a cheerleader for felony assault that resulted in six broken ribs, 3 displaced, multiple pneumonias and part of a lung being removed?”
Marx never replied. But the implied answer: Yes, he is a cheerleader for assault. Marx wants to hug and share beers with the man who attacked a member of Congress.
Marx encouraged political violence.
This point was also made by Paul on Monday when a suspicious package arrived at his family home.
“Just this weekend Richard Marx called for violence against me and now we receive this powder filled letter,” Paul said in a statement.
The letter is being investigated by the FBI and the Capitol Police.
In a time when Big Tech is constantly accused of censoring conservative speech, a common argument from the Left is that some right-wing language can lead to an event such as the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. For those of us on the Right, Big Tech’s suppression of conservative speech feels like something far more than protecting public safety. But for the sake of my argument here, let’s stick to that point: Social media should not be a place where political violence can be encouraged.
So why is a tweet such as Marx’s allowed to remain on Twitter, with over 8,000 likes and more than 600 retweets at the time of this writing?
Why is Bette Midler allowed to tweet, “Where’s Rand Paul’s neighbor when we need him?” That 2018 tweet, less than a year after his attack, has nearly 20,000 likes and over 3,000 retweets.
These are just the famous people. A simple Twitter search of “Rand Paul neighbor” reveals countless tweets encouraging violence against the Kentucky Republican in explicit terms.
Has a smidgen of attention been paid to Twitter users encouraging political violence against Paul compared to the forces Twitter mustered to suppress the New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s financial dealings in October 2014?
It’s almost as if Big Tech is more interested in shaping political narratives, and possibly even election results, than discouraging violence.
Paul tweeted Monday night, “I have been targeted multiple times now, it is reprehensible that Twitter allows C-list celebrities to advocate for violence against me and my family!”
It is reprehensible. But I expect Paul to receive more suspicious packages before I would expect Twitter to police itself as a platform for encouraging political violence against Republicans.
It turns out that the Left seems to have no problem with political violence so long as it agrees with the target.
Jack Hunter (@jackhunter74) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is the former political editor of Rare.us and co-authored the 2011 book The Tea Party Goes to Washington with Sen. Rand Paul.
