Former World Series champion and six-time baseball all-star Curt Schilling's talk of running for Congress is drawing "combustible" reactions from hostile media, along with strong support from his pal, President Donald Trump. The former major league pitcher especially incited the rancor of The Washington Post and USA Today.
Schilling lives in Massachusetts, but grew up in Arizona, and on Sunday he told Armed American Radio’s Mark Walters he's considering a run at an Arizona House seat currently held by a Democrat. “It’s something that my wife and I have talked about, and she’s now becoming more and more pumped at the potential. Obviously, we’re still quite a few discussions away, but yeah, it’s something we’re absolutely considering.”
Schilling commented in an email to the Arizona Republic, "Not ready to do any of that right now. If/When things solidify I will but right now it's something in the 'I'm considering it' stage." He did comment on the border invasion though:
“The state is not the state I grew up in. Making Arizona citizens of EVERY Race, religion and sexual orientation 2nd class citizens to illegal immigrants is about as anti-American as it gets. When you have homeless veterans, children, and you’re spending tax dollars on people smuggling drugs and children across our border someone in charge needs their ass kicked.
"The illegal immigration issue is not a joke. I understand the seriousness of it. I've seen how it impacts and affects people, communities, the state. It's been so long since I've been there and we were hearing from people who were the tip of the spear."
This morning, President Trump tweeted enthusiastic support:
However, the news was anything but "terrific" to sports media attack dogs reporting on this breaking news.
USA Today's Jesse Yomtov immediately set out to torpedo a would-be Schilling campaign by attacking "Five of Curt Schilling's most controversial political opinions".
Schilling once compared Muslims to Nazis. He said lynching journalists is "awesome." He's opposed to transgender rights, tried to excuse away Trump's "locker room talk" and echoed Trump's Clinton conspiracy talk on the Jeffrey Epstein suicide.
Like practically every other post on this story, Cindy Boren of The Washington Post referred to Schilling as an "outspoken conservative." Democrats apparently are never outspoken.
Boren focused on Schilling's firing by ESPN "for controversial political comments." In 2015, ESPN suspended Schilling from its baseball coverage after he "shared a meme that compared extremism in the present-day Muslim world to Nazi Germany in 1940."
Schilling, who pitched for Arizona, Boston, Houston, Baltimore and Philadelphia in his MLB career, worked for ESPN "until it ran out of patience with his unwillingness to temper controversial comments on social and political topics" in April 2016, Boren writes. "In the episode that finally doomed him at ESPN, he shared a Facebook meme about transgender issues that many found offensive." Boren describes it this way:
"However, weighing in on the so-called bathroom laws enacted in several states in the manner that Schilling did apparently served as the last straw. He had shared a meme, presumably created by someone else, of a man in a wig and an unusual tight outfit, adding a comment that made clear his feelings on the matter."
Boren incorrectly states that "Immigration" -- rather than "illegal immigration" "seems to be paramount among the reasons Schilling is considering a political career and that would obviously attract Trump's attention."
The Boston Globe also jumped into the Schilling story with this jab by Nik DeCosta-Klipa: "After getting fired from ESPN in 2016 for sharing a transphobic meme, Schilling joined the conservative website Breitbart to host a fledging political podcast. Since then, he has repeatedly come under criticism for promoting inflammatory content and conspiracy theories on social media."
