In the aftermath of the assault on Paul Pelosi and against all evidence, the Monday edition of CNN Tonight confidently proclaimed that political violence is a “uniquely right-wing problem right now.” Steve Scalise, Lee Zeldin, and Brett Kavanaugh, and the victims of the riots of 2020 were all unavailable for comment.
Journalist and podcaster Mara S. Campo decided to hype “legendary journalist” Dan Rather’s “metaphor that I love. He says, climate change did not create hurricanes, but it made them much worse. And it's the same with political violence.”
Campo isn’t totally wrong. That segment on Bush’s national guard service is legendary, just not in a good way. That aside, she continued, “Political violence has always existed on all sides of the political spectrum, but today's political climate is making it much worse and it is a uniquely right-wing problem right now. We cannot both sides this, given what we've seen in the last few years.”
Instead of pushing back on that objectively wrong assertion, host Alisyn Camerota turned to the Washington Post’s Max Booth to affirm Campo’s declaration, “You wrote a piece for the Washington Post about this yesterday about how -- you -- it's not both sides actually. That the lion's share of this is right-wing political violence and rhetoric.”
Boot, of course, agreed with his own article, “Absolutely. I mean, you saw that threats against members of Congress increased something like tenfold after Donald Trump was elected in 2016, he and his followers still engaged in violent extremist rhetoric.”
Just because threats increased after Trump’s election, does not mean Trump is responsible for them. Some of the increased threats, no doubt, have come from leftists who oppose Republicans.
Somehow, Boot then managed to be even more absurd, “Remember that Trump has been calling Speaker Pelosi “Crazy Nancy” for years. Remember that this attacker in San Francisco was asking, where's Nancy, which is pretty much the same thing that the mob was asking on January 6th when they invaded the Capitol. This is a sickness, but it's not divorced from the Republican Party.”
Alleging that simply calling Pelosi “crazy” is responsible for the assault is insane and just a not-so clever way to demand that Republicans shut up and stop criticizing Democrats.
This segment was sponsored by Consumer Cellular.
Here is a transcript for the October 31 show:
CNN Tonight
10/31/2022
10:07 PM ET
MARA S. CAMPO: And what that shows us now is a lot about the current political climate. You know, Dan Rather, the legendary journalist, has a metaphor that I love. He says, climate change did not create hurricanes, but it made them much worse. And it's the same with political violence. Political violence has always existed on all sides of the political spectrum, but today's political climate is making it much worse and it is a uniquely right-wing problem right now. We cannot both sides this, given what we've seen in the last few years.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Enter Max Boot. You wrote a piece for the Washington Post about this yesterday about how -- you -- it's not both sides actually. That the lion's share of this is right-wing political violence and rhetoric.
MAX BOOT: Absolutely. I mean, you saw that threats against members of Congress increased something like tenfold after Donald Trump was elected in 2016, he and his followers still engaged in violent extremist rhetoric.
Remember that Trump has been calling Speaker Pelosi “Crazy Nancy” for years. Remember that this attacker in San Francisco was asking, where's Nancy, which is pretty much the same thing that the mob was asking on January 6th when they invaded the Capitol. This is a sickness, but it's not divorced from the Republican Party.
