The Patriot Post® · Reuters Paints Trump Supporters as Dangerous

Those who dare to oppose the leftist agenda of Joe Biden and the Democrats must be considered dangerous right-wing extremists who “cling to guns or religion,” to borrow the words of Barack Obama. Not only has this become the political perspective of today’s Democrat Party, but it has become the widely unquestioned and accepted caricature of conservatives among the mainstream media.

However, reality is a stubborn thing, and when reality doesn’t line up with the Democrats’ loudly asserted narrative and threatens to undercut it — for example, the narrative that conservatives are a bunch of racists who just happened to hand a black Republican woman an election victory in Virginia’s lieutenant gubernatorial race — the Leftmedia jumps to the rescue.

One of the more recent egregious examples of the Leftmedia producing Democrat propaganda comes via a Reuters “investigative journalism” piece entitled, “Campaign of Fear: Reuters unmasks Trump supporters who terrified U.S. election officials.” Cue the suspenseful music.

After slogging through the nearly 5,000-word screed, one learns that these deft journos at Reuters have tracked down a total of nine individuals who directed threatening messages toward six elections officials in four states. And here’s the big kicker as far as Reuters is concerned: None of these individuals, who are all identified as Donald Trump supporters who believe the 2020 election results to be fraudulent, have been charged by law enforcement.

So, what was the real point behind this piece of so-called investigative journalism? Beyond broad-brushing all Trump supporters as an existential threat to America’s political system, the more insidious and understated point is an attack against America’s long-cherished First Amendment right to freedom of speech.

Reuters insinuates that the constitutional standard that intentionally limits legal prohibitions against Americans’ free speech rights is problematic because people may say things that intimidate others. It’s a somewhat watered-down version of the radical Left’s assertion that speech is violence. Incitement to violence is about as close as it currently gets to speech being connected with violence, but even that is not necessarily as easily recognized as some may claim.

In the article, Reuters essentially bemoans the fact that even when law enforcement did investigate some of these individuals for threats leveled against public officials, the most that these individuals received was a warning. In one instance, “FBI agents produced transcripts of [Jeff Yeager’s] calls to [Nancy] Pelosi and [Mitt] Romney. Yeager said the transcripts quoted him as saying ‘we will kill you.’ The agents instructed him how to lawfully express his political views … and left without arresting him. ‘I’m not making any more calls to anybody,’ he said. ‘I may have crossed the line in one sentence, but I’m no danger to anybody.’”

Meanwhile, Reuters is apparently deaf when it comes to the threatening speech regularly voiced by those on the Left. Just last week, New York’s Black Lives Matter leader and cofounder Hawk Newsome threatened incoming New York City Mayor Eric Adams — a former cop — that there would be “riots,” “fire,” and “bloodshed” if Adams follows through on his plan to get tough on crime.

Reuters and Democrats endlessly point to the one time a Trump rally turned violent — the January 6 Capitol riot — to justify their calls to suppress the speech rights of Trump supporters and conservatives in general, while completely ignoring the hundreds of violent riots instigated by BLM and antifa that roiled cities across the nation last year. Perhaps we shouldn’t say “ignored.” The Leftmedia covered the riots immediately following the death of George Floyd by referring to them as “mostly peaceful protests.”

Furthermore, it’s not Democrat officials or lawmakers who have most recently suffered physical violence from crazed individuals; it has been Republicans. It was a crazed leftist Bernie Sanders supporter who targeted and attacked Republican lawmakers at a baseball practice, shooting several people and nearly killing Representative Steve Scalise.

It was a BLM mob that surrounded and harassed Senator Rand Paul and his wife as they were walking home from the White House. And these two incidents are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to leftists expressing their views violently. Is this not threatening or intimidating? Where are the Reuters stories doing deep dives into this dangerous leftist radicalism?

What makes this story by Reuters so ridiculous is the massive discrepancy at play. The homicide rate across the country jumped last year, with 2020 logging 5,000 more killings than 2019 — an increase of about 30%. The obvious culprits are anti-police BLM thugs and the “defund the police” movement that many Democrat politicians have sought to placate, resulting in diminished policing. Less enforcement of law invites more lawlessness. Is Reuters highlighting this or seeking to explain the violence and destruction away because the narrative must be upheld? We think the answer is obvious.