Mainstream Media Scream: Trump blamed for assault on reporter

Joe Scarborough: “You can draw a straight line from Republican candidates thinking that sort of behavior is okay when you have Donald Trump berating reporters, throughout the entire campaign, suggesting terrible things, calling them – using the Stalinist term ‘enemy of the people.’ A term so offensive even in the Soviet Union that Khrushchev outlawed it after Stalin died…This is not a big leap from what the head of the Republican Party is saying every day and what happened last night in Montana.”

Mike Barnicle: “On that straight line, Joe, I mean, you can track all of the candidates’ prior statements about the media, the media is against us, the media is against you the people and it leads inevitably to something like this.”

Scarborough: “The fish rots, again, from the head and at what point do Republicans start criticizing Donald Trump for attacking federal judges? At what point do Republicans start criticizing Donald Trump for using a Stalinist trick calling the press enemies of the people? At what point – are Republicans going to come out today and distance themselves from a candidate they endorsed and gave money to that beat up a reporter? At what point does our party say enough? Because I will tell you this is not the party I grew up in and I’m not just talking about now, I’m talking about the brutish behavior from the top.”

Media Research Center Vice President of Research Brent Baker explains the pick: “Greg Gianforte’s behavior is inexcusable, but to blame President Donald Trump’s rhetoric for Gianforte’s physical attack on a journalist shows just how deranged about Trump too many cable stars remain, eager to fault him for all things bad which happen. Were any so eager to hold anti-police rhetoric of left-wingers for ambush murders of police officers?”

Rating:
Four out of five screams. Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]