Tonight we heard, from NBC’s Lester Holt, the kind of papering over of a shocking act normally reserved for the initial outset of an Islamist terror attack: a declaration of ignorance over the motive that could’ve possibly possessed the individual to do such a thing, to wit: attempt to murder former President Donald Trump at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Watch as Holt lets that fly while speaking to a rally attendant:
NBC NEWS SPECIAL REPORT
7/13/24
8:02 PM
LESTER HOLT: But you bring up a point. I think we all will be talking about it and that is, of course, that we don't know what the motivation was for this, but it certainly comes at a time that we are all keenly aware of the deep divisions and the risk of political violence. Is it something you even thought about as you set out to attend this rally tonight?
It is true that there isn’t a granular, specific, underlying idea as to why this shooter climbed up a ladder and onto a roof and attempted to assassinate the former President of the United States. But the motive was clearly to assassinate the former President of the United States. If an al-Qaeda or ISIS terrorist decides to drive a van through a pedestrian thoroughfare, we don’t ponder what may have possessed this “troubled youth” to undertake such a task.
The evil in men’s hearts is what possesses them to do these things, just as an evil man took a rifle to a baseball field and nearly killed Congressman Steve Scalise. And, as we did at the time, it will become necessary to examine the rhetoric that incited the Pennsylvania shooter into acting on the evil within him. Because if there is in place an ecosystem, in media and online, devoted to advancing the idea Trump is Literally Hitler and must be stopped at all costs, over and over again, then eventually someone is going to take it upon themselves to rid the world of Literally Hitler.
That, Mr, Holt, is ultimately what the “motivation” was.
