By Tristan Justice | The Federalist
After excusing and ignoring riots from
leftists all year, Democrats and their allies in the media are ready to condemn
riots now that the turmoil has shifted to fit their narrative.
Democrats and their allies in the media are ready to
condemn riots now that the turmoil has shifted to fit their narrative.
On Wednesday, a mob of Trump supporters stormed the U.S.
Capitol building. It was an astonishing display of anarchic protest that
delayed congressional certification of the Electoral College vote formally
handing former Vice President Joe Biden the keys to the White House.
The scenes from the dark day of disaster demonstrations
illustrated a deteriorating country, repulsed millions, and traumatized a
nation still recovering from the death, despair, and disruption that came to
define the dystopian months of 2020. Above all, what happened Wednesday served
as a grim reminder that the institutional stress test of 2020 has followed us
into 2021.
For the left, however, the chaos at the Capitol has
opened an opportunity to refute the perception they own the monopoly on
widespread political violence. Democrats and left-wing media elites have already
capitalized on the violent outbreak, where four
people died, to characterize conservatives as the creatures of chaos.
At this point, it’s undeniable that the political
far-right calls home to its own Antifa-like anarchists. It is also undeniable,
however, that reaction to the protests from conservative leaders roundly
condemning the violence from their own side stands in remarkable contrast to
the way Democrats and corporate media spent months going out of their way
attempting to justify the deadly actions of militant leftists.
Not one prominent conservative pundit or politician with
any significant platform was reported to have tried endorsing the mob of Trump
supporters infiltrating the U.S. Capitol. To the contrary, conservatives spent
months vilifying Democratic leaders for not doing enough in their own states
and cities to crack down on the militant mobs of leftists taking streets under
siege, normalizing the kind of political violence on track to appear routine in
the nightmare 2020 decade.
It was only seven months ago that Washington D.C. was
last on fire.
A trip down memory lane chronicling the left’s reaction
to last year’s eruption of unrest claiming the lives of at least 30
people not only exposes the hypocrisy suffusing Democrats’ condemnation of
political violence, but also illustrates a sobering reality that there’s plenty
of blame to go around for the situation in which the United States now finds
itself.
1. Kamala Harris Urges Followers to Cover
Rioters’ Bail
Incoming Vice President Kamala Harris encouraged her supporters last summer to donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, which provided bail money to the militant anarchists facing charges for setting fire to Minneapolis.
2. Chris Cuomo: Who Said Protests Were Supposed To Be Peaceful?
CNN’s Chris Cuomo showcased his ignorance of the First
Amendment in June when dismissing the idea that militant protests sweeping the
nation in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death were illegal.
“Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to
be polite and peaceful,” Cuomo demanded.
Here’s the text
from the First Amendment, emphasis added:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to
assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
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TWEET
CNN's Chris Cuomo: "Please, show me where it says protesters are supposed to be polite and peaceful." As riots and looting have broken out in cities across the country, this is the message the brother of New York governor Andrew Cuomo shares at the top of his show.
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3. MSNBC Reporter Describes Fiery Scene
‘Mostly A Protest’
MSNBC’s Ali Velshi stood in front of a liquor store
burning behind him in Minneapolis and called the riots surrounding the camera
crew “mostly a protest” that is “not, generally speaking, unruly.”
“But fires have been started,” Velshi made clear to note.
4. CNN Labels Burning Protest ‘Fiery But
Mostly Peaceful’
CNN continued to parody itself in August as a second wave
of mass unrest swept the country with Kenosha, Wisconsin as its focal point.
After the label “fiery but mostly peaceful” had become a trolling phrase online
to describe legacy media’s coverage of the summer riots, the network literally adopted
the words to describe events unfolding in Kenosha while a reporter stood in
front of a several burning vehicles.
5. Democratic National Convention Refuses To
Condemn Riots
Democrats went through their entire online convention without
condemning the epidemic of left-wing violence that engulfed the nation in
the preceding months.
6. Pulitzer Prize-Winning New York Times
Writer: Destroying Property Isn’t Violence
The New York Times’ architect of the “1619
Project,” Nikole Hannah-Jones, explicitly rejected the
idea that destroying property fits the definition of “violence.”
“Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not
violence,” Hannah-Jones said on CBS, to which the anchors offered no challenge.
“It’s a great point that you make, Nikole,” CBS’s
Vladimir Duthiers replied.
Hannah-Jones also said it would be “an honor” for 2020 riots be deemed the “1619 Riots” despite destroying minority businesses.
7. Government-Funded PBS Reporter Denies
Anarchists Are ‘Anarchists’
PBS White House Correspondent Yamiche Alcindor tried and failed
to fact-check President Donald Trump in May, apparently faulting the president
for not providing any evidence when calling the anarchists terrorizing cities
“anarchists.”
8. CNN’s Don Lemon Compares Leftist Riots to
Boston Tea Party
CNN prime time anchor Don Lemon celebrated the Floyd
riots as a 21st-century version of the Boston Tea Party.
“And let’s not forget if anyone is judging this, I’m not
judging this,” Lemon said as CNN cameras rolled with footage of riots in
Washington D.C. and Los Angeles. “This is how this country was started.”
9. CNN’s Chris Cillizza Complains About the
Term ‘Riot’
10. New York Times Columnist Finds Portland
Anarchists In Piece Titled, ‘Help Me Find Trump’s ‘Anarchists’ In Portland’
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof penned an op-ed
in July headlined, “Help Me Find Trump’s ‘Anarchists’ In Portland,” in which he
actually appears to find them.
11. MSNBS’s Joy Reid: BLM Riots Are Really
Just Undercover White Nationalists Causing Trouble
https://twitter.com/JoyAnnReid/status/1300114584859299841?s=20
12. Huffington Post Releases Video Outlining
‘How Riots Built America’
The Huffington Post published a brief four-minute mini-documentary
outlining “How Riots Built America” to draw parallels between the 2020 riots
against police with periods of unrest throughout American history.
13. NBC News Allegedly Instructed Staff to
Avoid the Term ‘Riot’
14. Seattle Mayor On Anarchists Taking
Control of Downtown: Don’t Be Afraid of Democracy
Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan returned fire on Trump in June
when the president demanded an end to the city’s partial occupation by
socialist protestors.
“Seattle is fine,” Durkan wrote on Twitter despite the
insurgency. “Don’t be so afraid of democracy.”
15. Washington Governor Unaware of Seattle
Occupation
Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee was caught being completely
oblivious to the anarchist insurrection taking over his state’s largest
city when he was asked about the rogue militia during a coronavirus press
briefing.
16. Pelosi When Mobs Tore Down Statues:
‘People Will Do What They Do’
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi just shrugged when asked about
a militant mob tearing down the statue of legendary explorer Christopher
Columbus in Baltimore in June 2020.
“People will do what they do,” Pelosi said.
The Democratic leader likely had a different reaction
Wednesday at the sight of a random Trump anarchists lounging around in her own
office.
17. Rolling Stone Re-Publishes Article to
‘Rethink Property Destruction’
Rolling Stone Magazine re-published a 2014 article first
out following the Ferguson, Mo. riots in 2104 titled,
“9 Historical Triumphs To Make You Rethink Property Destruction,” promoting the
devastation as progress in May last year. The “historical pedigree of
property destruction as a tactic of resistance is long and frequently
effective,” the authors wrote.
18. GQ Magazine: Violent Protests Work
GQ Magazine published a lengthy feature in June amid the
Floyd riots headlined,
“Why Violent Protests Work.”
19. Slate: Riots Are A ‘Proportionate
Response’
Slate Magazine ran a piece
amid the Floyd riots justifying the chaos ripping the nation’s cities apart
titled, “Proportionate Response.”
20. Mother Jones: ‘Riots Aren’t Irrational’
Mother Jones joined the crowd in mid-June with a piece titled,
“Riots Aren’t Irrational.”
21. TIME Magazine: The Term ‘Riot’ Is
‘Loaded’
Time Magazine published a piece
in June headlined, ‘A War of Words.’ Why Describing the George Floyd Protests
as ‘Riots’ Is So Loaded.”
22. Vox: Woke Riots Are Scary But Productive.
Capitol Riots Were Devastating
23. New York Times Has Sympathy For BLM
Riots, While Blaming Trump As Sole Perpetrator For Wednesday Mob
24. Jacobin Magazine: Looting Is Justified
Only For Social Justice
The left-wing publication also published a piece headlined,
“When Rioting Works,” in June.
25. AOC: The Whole Point of Protesting Is to
Make People Uncomfortable
This is what Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said
about rioting in December 2020. Her staff began trying
to get Twitter to stop people from retweeting images of this in the wake of the
Wednesday riots.
26. Author Writes Book Titled, ‘In Defense Of Looting’
Writer Vicky Osterweil published a book late last summer
titled, “In Defense Of Looting,” and earned a feature
in National Propaganda Radio (NPR) for the work.
27. NPR Guest: Floyd Demonstrations Are Acts
Of Rebellion, Not Riots
Temple University Professor Marc Lamont Hill went on NPR complaining
that dismissing protestors as rioters “dehumanizes” them, impeding political
progress.
28. NPR Makes Up Right-Wing Violence
________________
Tristan Justice is a staff writer at The Federalist
focusing on the 2020 presidential campaigns. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan
or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com.
