If you thought the liberal onslaught of blame on conservatives and Fox News before the San Bernardino shooters were identified couldn’t get worse, think again. On Thursday night, CNN’s Gary Tuchman badgered one victim’s wife to insinuate that her husband was “asking for it” because he bothered to talk about religion at work.
On the Dec. 3 Anderson Cooper 360, Tuchman interviewed Jennifer Thalasinos, wife of one of the killed victims, Nicholas Thalasinos. Thalasinos was a Messianic Jew (a “born-again” Jew) who would frequently evangelize and sometimes engage in heated discussions with the gunman, Syed Farook, over Islam.
Leading up to the interview, Tuchman described the victim as “very blunt and open about his criticism of the Muslim faith.”
THALASINOS: “He wanted to evangelize to everybody and that’s what he did.”
TUCHMAN: “Did he evangelize with this guy Farook?”
THALASINOS: “Um, I’m sure he would’ve talked to him. And probably evangelized with him. I’m sure they would’ve had discussions about religion because my husband would discuss religion with anybody that would listen. And the fact that they were coming from two different backgrounds. But as far as I know, um, there had been no, um, arguments or um, bad feelings or anything like that prior to what happened yesterday.”
TUCHMAN: “You’ve been open about this and so has your husband, what he has said about Muslims in the past?”
THALASINOS: “Yes.”
TUCHMAN: “What has he said?”
THALASINOS: “Um, he’s just very ... he’s very upset about what ISIS has been doing and the radicalized Muslims, Al-Quaeda, the whole situation, um, he’s upset about the fact that the majority of the Muslims, you know--it’s like they won’t come out and do something about it.”
TUCHMAN: “Do you think he talked to Farook about that?”
THALASINOS: “Um, he might have.”
TUCHMAN: “Do you have any knowledge at all … what happened at the function yesterday with Farook?”
THALASINOS: “No. I know that supposedly there was an argument and very easily could’ve been an argument with my husband, I wouldn’t be surprised.”
To be fair, after the interview, Anderson Cooper confirmed on air with Tuchman that they had no evidence that an argument actually occurred.
Still, this kind of interview ironically takes the tactic that the left frequently blames the right for: victim-blaming. CNN seems to be saying that if Thalasinos had not evangelized to Farook, maybe he wouldn’t have turned violent and caused that mass episode of violence.
The New York Post also insinuated that Thalasinos’ outspoken condemnation of radical Islam on social media led him to make enemies that could’ve led to his death as well. Breitbart reported that he received death threats from Muslims on Facebook days before for his posts.
H/T: Red State
