The left-leaning Huffington Post is defending an op-ed it published by a contributor who said violence that takes place during protests against Donald Trump is “logical.”
The op-ed piece, written by liberal Jesse Benn and published Monday, argued that Trump’s often heated rhetoric against illegal immigration and Islamic extremism justifies violence that may follow.
“In the face of media, politicians, and GOP primary voters normalizing Trump as a presidential candidate — whatever your personal beliefs regarding violent resistance — there’s an inherent value in forestalling Trump’s normalization,” he said in the piece. “Violent resistance accomplishes this.”
In light of several incidents of violence against Trump supporters at campaign rallies in Arizona and California, some readers thought the piece went too far.
“So it’s ok to sucker punch an innocent Trump supporter?” said former GOP congressman Joe Walsh on Twitter.
The piece remains on HuffPost even after the website deleted a similarly controversial op-ed from late May. That post, written by an obscure online writer named Frank Huguenard, argued that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is likely to be indicted by federal authorities for “racketeering” related to her Clinton Foundation charity and allegations that it has illegally profited using her government connections.
A spokesperson for HuffPost said that the op-ed endorsing anti-Trump violence is permitted under the site’s guidelines since it is “currently being debated in the media,” whereas the op-ed by Huguenard contained “major claims” unsubstantiated by other sources.
“The Jesse Benn piece is an opinion piece published on our open platform on a topic that is currently being debated in the media,” a HuffPost spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “Alternatively, the Hillary Clinton post used anonymous sourcing. The standard for factual claims in HuffPost contributor pieces has always been reputable published sources. Our rule is that blogs cannot rely on anonymous sources. There is nothing in the public record that substantiates the major claims made in the Hillary Clinton post.”
The spokesperson said that contributed pieces are self-published without any editing from HuffPost staff.
