You can be forgiven for thinking the biggest story this week is President Trump’s ongoing war with the national press. After all, the press covered it that way themselves, didn’t they?
CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ABC, CBS, NBC, etc. dedicated outsized coverage this week to reporting that journalists feel unsafe and threatened at Trump rallies. A good deal of coverage has also gone to reporting that members of the press feel marginalized and disrespected at the daily White House press briefing.
But as national media worried this week that Trump’s rhetoric might lead to something worse, a much bigger story went mostly unnoticed.
Police arrested two men in connection to death threats made against three Republicans members of Congress.
Law enforcement officers arrested Carlos Bayon of Grand Island, N.Y., Wednesday after they connected him to threatening voicemails made to Republican Reps. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington.
“[W]e are required to treat every single threat as if it’s real,” said Gary Loeffert, special agent in charge of the FBI in Buffalo. “Constitutional protections do not extend to threatening phone calls.”
He added that his agents found evidence in Bayon’s home suggesting the 63-year-old defendant’s phone calls were not idle threats.
Scalise’s office reported receiving a threatening voicemail on June 30. Bayon, 63, allegedly threatened retaliation for the White House’s immigration policies. Here’s a transcript of the voicemail via the criminal complaint filed July 31:
Scalise is still recovering from an assassination attempt.
McMorris Rodgers’ staff reported receiving the exact same voicemail on June 30.
The second man apprehended by law enforcement is Dereal Finklin of New Jersey. Police arrested him over the weekend in connection to a “credible threat” made against Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.Y., according to the Asbury Park Press.
The details are thin, but we know Finklin, 43, “is a registered Democrat.” We also know that he “was charged with making terroristic threats against the congressman on Saturday.”
Meanwhile, the lion’s share of news coverage since July 27 has gone to discussing the White House’s ongoing fights with media, according to data compiled by TVEyes:
It shouldn’t be surprising that Trump vs. the media has been the lead story all week (and it has been). It’s obvious that there’s nothing the national press loves more than talking about the national press. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it, or that we should trust their news judgment on how important it is, especially when there are so many more important stories and trends to cover.
