The national press spent the last two months virtually ignoring all of the looting, vandalism, and violence taking place in major cities (it’s just our overdue racial reckoning!). But now that a white kid has been charged with shooting someone amid all those “peaceful protests,” the media are suddenly very interested.
And that interest will only intensify since it’s been reported that the shooter, Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, may be a supporter of President Trump.
The Los Angeles Times said in a report on Wednesday that given Rittenhouse’s social media postings, the incident now “present[s] an incendiary challenge to President Trump’s reelection campaign.”
Who knew that an alleged crime in Kenosha, Wisconsin, 800 miles away from where Trump was at the time, could be traced back to the president?
The crucial link between Rittenhouse and Trump, according to the Los Angeles Times, is that Rittenhouse may have once attended a Trump campaign rally (which would probably apply to hundreds of thousands of people) and also that “Rittenhouse’s alleged actions coincide with this week’s Republican National Convention, where the president’s campaign promise of ‘law and order’ is a dominating theme.”
Democrats are readying to jump on this same line. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut wrote Wednesday on Twitter, “I wonder why a deranged white nationalist Trump supporter would show up to a protest with a rifle and start shooting people.”
While there is still a lot we don’t know about the events leading up to the shootings, it’s ridiculous to suggest that this is in any way related to Trump or his campaign or his call for “law and order” (which once upon a time was not a controversial concept).
It’s obvious why the media will want to pay extra close attention to this particular incident. And if they suddenly stop talking about it, the reason for that will be obvious too.
