Ninety minutes after Donald Trump was nearly assassinated, a Democratic strategist emailed journalists suggesting the shooting might have been ‘staged.’
"...we are able to disagree passionately with our fellow Americans about the border or the climate or TikTok or whatever and still, somehow, not fall for the most insidious lies about them. That we can make basic moral distinctions. For example, Trump is not Vladimir Putin. Nor is he Adolf Hitler. He’s just the presumptive Republican nominee."
I'm not so sure that presuming "we can make basic moral distinctions" is true. As much as I appreciate that Twitter / TikTok etc can amplify and present views that imply things are more "commonly agreed" than is actually the case IRL when one goes off the platform, it wasn't just fringe players comparing Trump to Hitler. That type of talk came from the top on the D side - and it has been repeated all the way down an expanding chain. I am not expressing any opinion or defending Trump here or saying the R side is innocent - but there has been a distinct lack of ability to make basic moral distinctions which took an assassination attempt to at least temporarily slow down mainly due to the hyperbolic vitriol from the Left. As a consequence, very few out there actually seem to take the time to think - and those that do question it get villified.
Mehlhorn's apology is less than thorough. What exactly does he regret? Making the vile accusation, bereft of any shred of evidence, that the shooting was staged? Or simply putting out publicly what he may still think? Mehlhorn deserves the same opprobrium heaped on Alex Jones. And last night's central fact is not that an innocent life was taken, horrific though that was; the central fact is that we came within an inch, and a split-second turn of the head, from having the leading candidate for the presidency assassinated.
Biden " the one endangering democracy with his lies about his mental acuity"
Biden's attempts to setup a Disinformation Council in Homeland Security, to defend govt directed big tech censorship and to encourage frivolous legal charges against his political opponents, as described by former Gov Andrew Cuomo among others, could also be construed as endangering democracy.
Clearly, Mr. Savodnik has never played ice hockey.
You don’t get to make a cheap shot at a defenseless opponent and then demand that both sides calm down because if we don’t then people might get hurt (and, in this case, killed). You don’t send your instigator out to slew foot the other team’s star forward and hope their enforcer will just stay on the bench. You can try to appeal to the refs, but even they know that a cheap shot is either answered honorably or by a cheap shot in-return. Peter Savodnik, Joe Biden, etc., are the Gary Bettman of journalism and politics - you don’t have to understand how things are done on the rink or how it is real blood being spilled and real principle being abandoned, as long as the right people in the front office don’t have to see the blood.
That exact approach - ducking a fight because it’s inconvenient and unseemly - is exactly what brings uncompromisable issues to deadly consequences; hockey fights get bloody, but the sticks stay on the ice and no one dies.
Compromise is a beautiful thing, but it is not always a viable option:
You cannot cut a fetus in half and win over the pro-life.
You cannot demand I inject an experimental chemical into my body and expect me to let you anywhere near me with a needle.
You cannot rape my wife or daughter and expect me to accept a jury’s acquittal or a judge’s dismissal.
You cannot take away my rifle to replace it with a BB gun (no “and” in that equation).
You cannot punch me in the face and expect me not to retaliate just because you claim someone might get hurt - because so many have already BEEN hurt through your myopic and partisan influence - and, despite your seeming sense of entitlement, YOU do not have the right to hit ANYONE without consequence.
I’m definitely NOT calling for gunfire in-answer to some sad kid who clearly couldn’t shoot well. I’m not even sure of his motivation.
I’m not even a Republican.
What I do know is that you telling me to not react to your (the MSM/White House/etc.) partisanship with similar entrenchment is you trying to hide behind the refs. Compromise isn’t sacrifice in the name of peace, that is slavery.
Stick to covering (*edit - ducking autocorrect) science and sports; you are a fan of politics, not a reporter of such.
Thank you Peter. Life is just so much more palatable with “the bad guys” to blame everything on. I for one find it impossible to believe that half of the people in this country are evil.
This is like the children’s song about the song that never ends….
REMEMBER: The lead to Bari’s 6/28 “They Knew” Bari, correctly wrote: ”Biden is no longer fit to be president. Last night's debate exposed the lies we've been told. By Bari Weiss. June 28, 2024.”
WHAT HAS CHANGED???
Timeline below.
6/27 1st DEBATE & the emperor had no clothes was actually murmured… enough that everyday people dared to question the legitimacy of our mainstream press. But we woke to ⤵️⤵️
6/28 Bari’s brave, “They Knew” - the THEY being the mainstream press.
7/05 1st INTERVIEW since the DEBATE, directly followed by the First Lady’s Vogue interview.
7/11 1st PRESS CONFERENCE since nine months elapsed.
7/12 Free Press’s awesome truth telling Baiya Ungar-Sargon article. In this we knew the 1st amendment & freedom to speak & write about such things was intact & this article confirmed that.
NOW it’s mainstream media AGAIN for another ⤵️⤵️
FIRST ➡️fill-in-the-blank SINCE fill-in-the-blank
7/15 1st INTERVIEW since the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
Our country is facing challenges like never before and it's showing just how vulnerable we are. When the American dream feels out of reach, it shines a light on our shaky cultural foundation. Unlike older nations with deep roots and strong community bonds, we're revealing a selfish streak and a decline in our morals at the heart of it all. Our struggle to come together stems from this belief that prosperity should come easily, and when it doesn't, trust among us falters because money has become our only common ground. I think the only hope we have is to find more reason to unite in abundance rather than divide in scarcity.
I'd like to think that he meant "this one's on me alone - my team shares no responsibility". Your point is well taken - he probably should have read and re-read before sending the apology.
Fair point. I believe your reading of his context is correct.
I don't believe he should have ever sent his original comment about the shooting possibly being staged by the Republicans. That is what is despicable in my view.
After reading the Semafor report, I'm now less inclined to give Dimitri Mehlhorn the benefit of the doubt and more inclined to think your original assessment of his conscience and morals may have been accurate. That article identifies Mehlhorn as a long time author or promoter of smear campaigns against Trump. And, based on the content and timing of his original email, he appears to have been at the very least acting recklessly when he pressed the "Send" button on the email without first having engaged in some basic fact checking, including seeking out updates on whatever information he was relying on when he first started to compose his message. In that message, he put parentheses around the word "shooting" to suggest that he at least questioned whether there was a shooter who had shot live ammunition. Also, in his apology he refers to the innocent individual(s) killed by the shooter. Had he been more honest, I suspect he should have at least further confessed to having written his message during whatever period of time had lapsed after the initial reports came out when it might have still been plausible to wonder if the sounds that were reported were from something other than a rifle shooting live ammunition. And, assuming that is the case, he should have further confessed to being more concerned with being the first to get his spin out the gate than with exercising any kind of due diligence to try to determine what the facts might actually have been.
Partisan politics is one thing, but TDS has been spread like a cancer by all the institutional foot soldiers who work on behalf of the Democrats - the regime media, the cultural elite, academia, NGOs. They have elevated the guy to Hitler-like status and dehumanized him to the point where an assassination attempt was almost inevitable.
We don’t know why this deranged killer did it, but I’m pretty damn sure this guy thought he would become the most infamous assassin in history by targeting a Hitlerian figure like Trump.
No, no, no. I'm sorry, but Trump Is Not a threat to our Constitution. Nothing he did in his term comes close to suggesting this. Biden, on the other hand has in fact violated and threatened "our democracy." You want proof? The SCOTUS ruled Biden could not cancel student debt, but he's gone ahead with it anyway. Who engaged in lawfare? Seriously, Savodnik, yes, we need to ignore the crazy theories and we ought not give into the rhetoric. Trump supporters and the man himself are not fascists, but the Dems have behaved as such. It's not simply a matter of perception.
But there is a threat to our democracy. This threat suppressed a legitimate news story by the country's oldest newspaper to swing a Presidential election their way. They sent the FBI after a journalist to discover his source and recover a diary with unflattering truths about their party leader. They impeached the President, twice, then tried to have him removed from ballots for what he was acquitted of in one of his failed impeachments. They silence the free speech of dissenters; they force ludicrous belief systems on children with our money and through our schools and the leader of their party met in the White House with three prosecutors who went on to sue and indict his opponent. The pinnacle of which was prosecuting and convicting their chief political opponent for his bookkeeper calling a check for a lawyer's invoice 'legal fees' ostensibly to cover up a crime he's never been charged with and that the prosecution refused to name during the trial. And the judge allowed the trail to proceed not only without a conviction record for that crime, but ended up instructing the jury they didn't have to unanimously agree on that matter of fact in order to convict him. It is not a case of both sides being equally bad. One side is utterly lawless, abusing their elected offices to deny people their fundamental rights in order to win elections and further their partisan politics. It must stop and the man who is about to do it was nearly assassinated due to an extremely suspicious security lapse that allowed a man with a rifle to get into an overwatch position just 150 yards away. There must be impartial justice for the people doing these things before the country can forgive and forget.
This is what is completely mind-numbing. I see all these posts with literally hundreds if things the Democrat party has done to break all the rules. Laws, civility, safety be damned! We have to stop Hitler.
Democrats seem dumbfounded when republicans say no thanks to their platitudes for civility. Are they out of their minds?
Guess what, you just lost your (but) Trump! Card. I hope you are trounced come November and your legions of obstructionists are forever extricated from the myriad bureaucracies in our government. That us the way power is transferred peacefully. Not by Sniper but by the ballot box!
Too little, too late for the "left-wing" Peter Savodnik and the Free Press...
This publication THRIVES on the division, mayhem and hatred that the media has created. Without the insidious "causes" of the left, there would be nothing for TFP to even write about. Their best, most hard-hitting or influential pieces so far have ALL been about the disaster that is Democratic policies in action throughout the United States.
One side is literally in support of kids getting life-altering surgeries without parental consent... you know that, don't you, left-wing Peter Savodnik?
Sorry. But I want no part of any coll-headed union with the left. I am quite comfortable with my level of permanent hostility to all socialists, leftist and their ilk...
"...we are able to disagree passionately with our fellow Americans about the border or the climate or TikTok or whatever and still, somehow, not fall for the most insidious lies about them. That we can make basic moral distinctions. For example, Trump is not Vladimir Putin. Nor is he Adolf Hitler. He’s just the presumptive Republican nominee."
I'm not so sure that presuming "we can make basic moral distinctions" is true. As much as I appreciate that Twitter / TikTok etc can amplify and present views that imply things are more "commonly agreed" than is actually the case IRL when one goes off the platform, it wasn't just fringe players comparing Trump to Hitler. That type of talk came from the top on the D side - and it has been repeated all the way down an expanding chain. I am not expressing any opinion or defending Trump here or saying the R side is innocent - but there has been a distinct lack of ability to make basic moral distinctions which took an assassination attempt to at least temporarily slow down mainly due to the hyperbolic vitriol from the Left. As a consequence, very few out there actually seem to take the time to think - and those that do question it get villified.
When does Partisanship Rise to the Level of Treason?
Mehlhorn's apology is less than thorough. What exactly does he regret? Making the vile accusation, bereft of any shred of evidence, that the shooting was staged? Or simply putting out publicly what he may still think? Mehlhorn deserves the same opprobrium heaped on Alex Jones. And last night's central fact is not that an innocent life was taken, horrific though that was; the central fact is that we came within an inch, and a split-second turn of the head, from having the leading candidate for the presidency assassinated.
Biden " the one endangering democracy with his lies about his mental acuity"
Biden's attempts to setup a Disinformation Council in Homeland Security, to defend govt directed big tech censorship and to encourage frivolous legal charges against his political opponents, as described by former Gov Andrew Cuomo among others, could also be construed as endangering democracy.
Clearly, Mr. Savodnik has never played ice hockey.
You don’t get to make a cheap shot at a defenseless opponent and then demand that both sides calm down because if we don’t then people might get hurt (and, in this case, killed). You don’t send your instigator out to slew foot the other team’s star forward and hope their enforcer will just stay on the bench. You can try to appeal to the refs, but even they know that a cheap shot is either answered honorably or by a cheap shot in-return. Peter Savodnik, Joe Biden, etc., are the Gary Bettman of journalism and politics - you don’t have to understand how things are done on the rink or how it is real blood being spilled and real principle being abandoned, as long as the right people in the front office don’t have to see the blood.
That exact approach - ducking a fight because it’s inconvenient and unseemly - is exactly what brings uncompromisable issues to deadly consequences; hockey fights get bloody, but the sticks stay on the ice and no one dies.
Compromise is a beautiful thing, but it is not always a viable option:
You cannot cut a fetus in half and win over the pro-life.
You cannot demand I inject an experimental chemical into my body and expect me to let you anywhere near me with a needle.
You cannot rape my wife or daughter and expect me to accept a jury’s acquittal or a judge’s dismissal.
You cannot take away my rifle to replace it with a BB gun (no “and” in that equation).
You cannot punch me in the face and expect me not to retaliate just because you claim someone might get hurt - because so many have already BEEN hurt through your myopic and partisan influence - and, despite your seeming sense of entitlement, YOU do not have the right to hit ANYONE without consequence.
I’m definitely NOT calling for gunfire in-answer to some sad kid who clearly couldn’t shoot well. I’m not even sure of his motivation.
I’m not even a Republican.
What I do know is that you telling me to not react to your (the MSM/White House/etc.) partisanship with similar entrenchment is you trying to hide behind the refs. Compromise isn’t sacrifice in the name of peace, that is slavery.
Stick to covering (*edit - ducking autocorrect) science and sports; you are a fan of politics, not a reporter of such.
Thank you Peter. Life is just so much more palatable with “the bad guys” to blame everything on. I for one find it impossible to believe that half of the people in this country are evil.
Nice whitewash job you’re doing for Melhorn. The last quote was telling.
“When I texted Mehlhorn to see if he had anything else to add, he texted back: “Nope that’s it,” adding a sideways smiley face.”
Sideways smiley face. I’d take that as either:
- wink, wink, I was really just bullshitting. I’m not really sorry.
- isn’t all this funny? Y’know shooting people and stuff?
- that comment was all the civility I can muster. I can’t think of anything nice to add.
QUESTION:
This is like the children’s song about the song that never ends….
REMEMBER: The lead to Bari’s 6/28 “They Knew” Bari, correctly wrote: ”Biden is no longer fit to be president. Last night's debate exposed the lies we've been told. By Bari Weiss. June 28, 2024.”
WHAT HAS CHANGED???
Timeline below.
6/27 1st DEBATE & the emperor had no clothes was actually murmured… enough that everyday people dared to question the legitimacy of our mainstream press. But we woke to ⤵️⤵️
6/28 Bari’s brave, “They Knew” - the THEY being the mainstream press.
7/05 1st INTERVIEW since the DEBATE, directly followed by the First Lady’s Vogue interview.
7/11 1st PRESS CONFERENCE since nine months elapsed.
7/12 Free Press’s awesome truth telling Baiya Ungar-Sargon article. In this we knew the 1st amendment & freedom to speak & write about such things was intact & this article confirmed that.
NOW it’s mainstream media AGAIN for another ⤵️⤵️
FIRST ➡️fill-in-the-blank SINCE fill-in-the-blank
7/15 1st INTERVIEW since the assassination attempt on former President Trump.
WHAT HAS CHANGED? ??
Lester Holt *is* very much mainstream MEDIA.
So he sent a smile emoji so it’s all good
Our country is facing challenges like never before and it's showing just how vulnerable we are. When the American dream feels out of reach, it shines a light on our shaky cultural foundation. Unlike older nations with deep roots and strong community bonds, we're revealing a selfish streak and a decline in our morals at the heart of it all. Our struggle to come together stems from this belief that prosperity should come easily, and when it doesn't, trust among us falters because money has become our only common ground. I think the only hope we have is to find more reason to unite in abundance rather than divide in scarcity.
“Last night, I sent an email I now regret. I drafted and sent it without consulting my team."
That was his big mistake, not consulting his team?! What a low life; devoid of conscience and morals.
I'd like to think that he meant "this one's on me alone - my team shares no responsibility". Your point is well taken - he probably should have read and re-read before sending the apology.
Fair point. I believe your reading of his context is correct.
I don't believe he should have ever sent his original comment about the shooting possibly being staged by the Republicans. That is what is despicable in my view.
After reading the Semafor report, I'm now less inclined to give Dimitri Mehlhorn the benefit of the doubt and more inclined to think your original assessment of his conscience and morals may have been accurate. That article identifies Mehlhorn as a long time author or promoter of smear campaigns against Trump. And, based on the content and timing of his original email, he appears to have been at the very least acting recklessly when he pressed the "Send" button on the email without first having engaged in some basic fact checking, including seeking out updates on whatever information he was relying on when he first started to compose his message. In that message, he put parentheses around the word "shooting" to suggest that he at least questioned whether there was a shooter who had shot live ammunition. Also, in his apology he refers to the innocent individual(s) killed by the shooter. Had he been more honest, I suspect he should have at least further confessed to having written his message during whatever period of time had lapsed after the initial reports came out when it might have still been plausible to wonder if the sounds that were reported were from something other than a rifle shooting live ammunition. And, assuming that is the case, he should have further confessed to being more concerned with being the first to get his spin out the gate than with exercising any kind of due diligence to try to determine what the facts might actually have been.
Partisan politics is one thing, but TDS has been spread like a cancer by all the institutional foot soldiers who work on behalf of the Democrats - the regime media, the cultural elite, academia, NGOs. They have elevated the guy to Hitler-like status and dehumanized him to the point where an assassination attempt was almost inevitable.
We don’t know why this deranged killer did it, but I’m pretty damn sure this guy thought he would become the most infamous assassin in history by targeting a Hitlerian figure like Trump.
Why would he need to consult a team to prevent him from saying stupid things? If you need a team to form an opinion you don't have an opinion.
No, no, no. I'm sorry, but Trump Is Not a threat to our Constitution. Nothing he did in his term comes close to suggesting this. Biden, on the other hand has in fact violated and threatened "our democracy." You want proof? The SCOTUS ruled Biden could not cancel student debt, but he's gone ahead with it anyway. Who engaged in lawfare? Seriously, Savodnik, yes, we need to ignore the crazy theories and we ought not give into the rhetoric. Trump supporters and the man himself are not fascists, but the Dems have behaved as such. It's not simply a matter of perception.
Well said!
But there is a threat to our democracy. This threat suppressed a legitimate news story by the country's oldest newspaper to swing a Presidential election their way. They sent the FBI after a journalist to discover his source and recover a diary with unflattering truths about their party leader. They impeached the President, twice, then tried to have him removed from ballots for what he was acquitted of in one of his failed impeachments. They silence the free speech of dissenters; they force ludicrous belief systems on children with our money and through our schools and the leader of their party met in the White House with three prosecutors who went on to sue and indict his opponent. The pinnacle of which was prosecuting and convicting their chief political opponent for his bookkeeper calling a check for a lawyer's invoice 'legal fees' ostensibly to cover up a crime he's never been charged with and that the prosecution refused to name during the trial. And the judge allowed the trail to proceed not only without a conviction record for that crime, but ended up instructing the jury they didn't have to unanimously agree on that matter of fact in order to convict him. It is not a case of both sides being equally bad. One side is utterly lawless, abusing their elected offices to deny people their fundamental rights in order to win elections and further their partisan politics. It must stop and the man who is about to do it was nearly assassinated due to an extremely suspicious security lapse that allowed a man with a rifle to get into an overwatch position just 150 yards away. There must be impartial justice for the people doing these things before the country can forgive and forget.
This is what is completely mind-numbing. I see all these posts with literally hundreds if things the Democrat party has done to break all the rules. Laws, civility, safety be damned! We have to stop Hitler.
Democrats seem dumbfounded when republicans say no thanks to their platitudes for civility. Are they out of their minds?
Guess what, you just lost your (but) Trump! Card. I hope you are trounced come November and your legions of obstructionists are forever extricated from the myriad bureaucracies in our government. That us the way power is transferred peacefully. Not by Sniper but by the ballot box!
Too little, too late for the "left-wing" Peter Savodnik and the Free Press...
This publication THRIVES on the division, mayhem and hatred that the media has created. Without the insidious "causes" of the left, there would be nothing for TFP to even write about. Their best, most hard-hitting or influential pieces so far have ALL been about the disaster that is Democratic policies in action throughout the United States.
One side is literally in support of kids getting life-altering surgeries without parental consent... you know that, don't you, left-wing Peter Savodnik?
Sorry. But I want no part of any coll-headed union with the left. I am quite comfortable with my level of permanent hostility to all socialists, leftist and their ilk...
The Democratic Party of America, DELENDA EST!