CBS, Obama Advisor Talk Up 'Retaliatory Violence,' Cite January 6 Riot

Breaking-news live coverage can get things wrong in the heat of the moment, but there's no excuse for partisanship to break out. After the assassination of former president Donald Trump on Saturday, I was looking out for talk of the January 6 riot. It happened at about 9:16 on CBS, as anchor Margaret Brennan was talking to Samantha Vinograd, a former Obama official at the Department of Homeland Security (who became a CNN contributor before joining CBS).

Vinograd raised the prospect of "retaliatory violence" based on anger at vicious criticism of Donald Trump, called it "frankly unpatriotic" to tie this, for example, to President Biden who said on July 8 that "It's time to put Trump in a bullseye."

CBS wasn't explicitly citing that, they blurred it into blaming "the government." Vinograd then connected this notion to January 6 and the hammer attack on Paul Pelosi:

On CBS, Margaret Brennan and Samantha Vinograd talk up "retaliatory violence" from right-wingers, and then we hear of January 6. Knew this line was coming.... pic.twitter.com/JO9572UlXn
— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) July 14, 2024

MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, and the reporting so far is that the threat was neutralized, which would suggest there isn't necessarily a reason for broader security concerns directly related to this, is that right?

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD: Well, it is. But as a former operator I'll say what is happening at the moment is really two concurrent investigations. One is an investigation into the perpetrator, whether he did act alone, and whether any other individuals could be inspired by his actions to copy what he did. So there's that piece of it. There's an investigation into the security failures that resulted in this incident. And then the biggest threat that officials are telling me tonight is in the form of retaliatory violence.

BRENNAN: You're taking me to exactly what I've been underscoring and is, frankly, very concerning in the rhetoric we are seeing at this hour already. We are seeing some Republican lawmakers come out with statements directly drawing a line between the shooter -- whose name we do not know. We do not know if he's a lone actor or somebody else, but drawing some connection to the government. We have nothing to base that on at this hour.

VINOGRAD: At this hour leading officials within the U.S. Government still don't know what transpired, and it is frankly unpatriotic at this moment to be stoking the flames when we know we are sitting on a cauldron of tensions. We know that tensions were already high before this incident, and the counter terrorism officials and homeland security officials that I've spoken to in the last few hours are deeply concerned that this event will be used as a rallying cry to launch attacks against individuals associated with the Biden campaign and lead to broader domestic distress. So right now the goals are to investigate the incident, both the perpetrator and the security failures as well as to try to tamp down any tensions that may arise coming out of it. Now, in this country there is a First Amendment, and what we're seeing on Twitter, while it is First Amendment-protected activity, I will say again it’s unpatriotic in the sense that we know this kind of rhetoric has a nexus to violence. We saw that on January 6th, we saw that in the attack against Nancy Pelosi's husband, and multiple other instances.

At CNN, Vinograd, a Hillary Clinton for President donor, was an anti-Trump hothead who claimed in 2020 that Trump contracting Covid was "may be the most dangerous moment that the U.S. government has ever faced." After the U.S. under Trump took out Iranian terrorist Qasem Soleimani, Vinograd ranted "All American citizens are now walking prime targets" for retaliation.

Then there's her vicious attack in 2019 comparing Trump to Hitler, who killed members of her family: