Rob Goldman, Facebook’s vice president for advertising, said some extraordinary things last week. After news broke of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictments against 13 Russian individuals and three organizations, Goldman went on a tweet storm debunking major media myths about the Russia investigation. 

Consider these tweets:

“Most of the coverage of Russian meddling involves their attempt to effect the outcome of the 2016 US election. I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the election was NOT the main goal.

"The majority of the Russian ad spend happened AFTER the election. We shared that fact, but very few outlets have covered it because it doesn’t align with the main media narrative of Trump and the election.

"The main goal of the Russian propaganda and misinformation effort is to divide America by using our institutions, like free speech and social media, against us. It has stoked fear and hatred amongst Americans.”

Goldman’s comments align perfectly with Friday’s indictments. Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein noted that after the election, Russian front groups sponsored a pro-Trump rally and a much larger anti-Trump demonstration in New York City on the same day. “We Reject The President-Elect” was a popular chant at the anti-Trump event, which attracted 25,000 people. 

Our friends at the Media Research Center went back and looked at the media reporting of the anti-Trump rally. CNN and MSNBC gave it hour-by-hour coverage. 

MSNBC highlighted a minority woman who was worried she might get shot. The left-wing reporter suggested her view was widely held by others at the demonstration because Trump’s election was “almost a license to carry in terms of hate.”

By the way, Marxist filmmaker Michael Moore also spoke at the Russian-sponsored anti-Trump demonstration. Is that evidence of collusion with Russia?

My friends, the media and the Left did exactly what the Russians wanted. They were sowing discord and anger against the president-elect simply because they refused to accept the results of the election.

Whatever the Russians did was never intended to be a serious effort to influence the election for Donald Trump. As Goldman noted, most of the social media spending occurred after the election.

According to congressional testimony by Facebook executives, the Russian operation spent about $100,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads. In contrast, the Clinton and Trump campaigns spent more than $80 million on social media advertising alone.

As Byron York put it, the Russian spending amounted to “rounding errors in a race in which the Clinton and Trump campaigns spent a combined $2.4 billion.”

Liberal Overreach

Once again, the Left is exploiting a terrible tragedy to attack the Constitution and law-abiding gun owners. Liberal students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High are being used as a battering ram to achieve the Left’s dreams. 

There was a die-in in front of the White House over the weekend. School walkouts and yet another “March on Washington” are being planned. 

The Left wants to destroy the NRA — one of the most effective grassroots organizations on the conservative side — and it wants to effectively repeal the Second Amendment. 

Several left-wing media outlets attacked the NRA over the weekend by suggesting that it trained the shooter, Nikolas Cruz. That is a disgusting smear. The NRA gave a grant to the school’s Junior ROTC program. Cruz was once part of that program as were some real heroes.

Think about this: The abortion lobby is responsible for more deaths of innocent unborn children than school shooters. There are millions of children who will never be able to try out for the high school football team or enjoy any of the rights we take for granted. 

That lobby is embraced by the Left. But one group that defends the rights of citizens is reviled by the Left. Go figure.

But in the wake of the Florida school shooting, polling suggests the Left is overreaching. 

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll asked whether Americans supported banning so-called “assault weapons.” The public was divided 50% to 46%. That’s down from 80% support when such a ban was enacted in 1994.

The poll also found that 51% of parents with children under 18 felt that such shootings could be prevented if teachers were allowed to be armed, whiled 42% of parents with children under 18 disagreed.

In addition, the public does not see mass shootings as justification for more gun control. Fifty-seven percent of adults said the shootings were a reflection of the complexities involved in treating people with mental illness, while just 28% blamed inadequate gun control laws.

What’s Next?

While a lot of ideas are being floated right now, I have not seen one specific proposal being offered by the Left in this rush to restrict rights.

Rush Limbaugh recently made a sad but true point: The next mass shooter, probably the next five shooters, are already out there and most likely already have their weapons. There isn’t much that could stop the next few school shootings other than armed guards.

The Left and its media allies want to ignore all the laws already on the books today. FBI regulations require it to follow up on calls with specific names and threats of school shootings. They didn’t get one call — they got two calls and did nothing. The bureau concedes that its protocols were not followed. 

Local law enforcement was called to Cruz’s home more than 30 times in recent years, yet he had no criminal record.

President Trump is open to strengthening laws related to background checks and mental illness. I think most Americans would gladly support that, but the devil is in the details. 

It is far more complex than it sounds. What level of mental illness should result in limits to a person’s constitutional rights? Would such laws deter kids or adults from going to a counselor in the first place?

And why do we seemingly have so many more mental health issues these days?

Is it the breakdown of the family? Does it have anything to do with the proliferation of pernicious violence and social media? Is it due to the constant cultural assault on faith and the idea that man is created in the image of God?

Sadly, the Left refuses to talk about any of these things.