A peculiar juxtaposition occurred on Monday following the FBI releasing a letter written by the man behind the second assassination attempt of former President Trump. The letter contained a call for people try again since he failed, even offering up a $150,000 bounty to person who completed the job. But while CNN put that part of the letter up on the screen MSNBC refused to share that detail and said they didn’t want to “encourage” someone to be violent.
Late in the 12:00 p.m. hour, during CNN’s Inside Politics, senior reporter Katelyn Polantz ended her report on the latest developments in the case by not only mentioning the bounty but had them throw it up on screen:
A civilian witness who was given by Routh a box of materials. In that box, a letter from Routh that was opened after Routh was picked up by the cops. Writing: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
“Boy, is that chilling,” added host Dana Bash.
Contrast that with the way MSNBC’s national law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter decided to address that part of the letter a little earlier in the same hour on Andrea Mitchell Reports:
There’s a call to action and other things in the letter, which we're not going to share because there so no reason to encourage any sort of potential violence, Andrea, but that's at least the focus on this letter.
Winter’s model gets the point of cross that the shooter wanted others to do something violent but didn’t share the part that could entice someone to follow in his footsteps.
This presents an interesting debate for journalists. One is giving the public more details about an important and impactful story related to a presidential candidate in an bitter election year, while the other was keeping information close to the chest. The flipside is that giving a dollar amount and a plea for others to try again could spur on another lunatic.
Definitely a dilemma.
The transcripts are below. Click "expand" to read:
CNN’s Inside Politics
September 23, 2024
12:41:31 p.m. Eastern(…)
KATELYN POLANTZ: A civilian witness who was given by Routh a box of materials. In that box, a letter from Routh that was opened after Routh was picked up by the cops. Writing: “This was an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, but I failed you. I tried my best and gave it all the gumption I could muster. It is up to you now to finish the job and I will offer $150,000 to whomever can complete the job.”
That piece of evidence, now, very likely, being discussed in court as prosecutors want to keep him behind bars.
DANA BASH: Boy, is that chilling. Thank you so much Katelyn for that report. I appreciate it.
(…)
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Report
September 23, 2024
12:(…)
ANDREA MITCHELL: That's why we're no longer calling it an apparent assassination attempt, cause in his writing, he says it was.
TOM WINTER: That's right, Andrea. Of course, all along, nobody thought he brought a long gun, a semi-automatic rifle to the Trump golf course for any other reason other than potential threat to Donald Trump. So, that's at least a little bit more detail now why the FBI was saying what it was saying.
And so. they have this additional detail, apparently came up from an individual who received a box of documents, ammunition, and building materials from Routh, a month before this alleged shooting -- before the incident involving the Secret Service took place.
And so. he has this box of documents, and after he finds out about Routh’s alleged role that day, he looks through it and finds this letter. And in the letter, according to federal prosecutors, he does reference an assassination attempt on Donald Trump and says he's sorry that he failed. So, it is not clear why he writes this is a failed assassination before he undergoes this potential effort. He hasn't been charged with, but people assume he was there to carry out a violent attack against Donald Trump, just a little over a week ago. So, that remains a little bit of a question involving the timing of all this.
There’s a call to action and other things in the letter, which we're not going to share because there so no reason to encourage any sort of potential violence, Andrea, but that's at least the focus on this letter.
(…)
