Mainstream media members and liberals active on social media are “absolutely raging with hatred” against President Donald Trump — and they “don’t care what collateral damage” they “leave on the roadside,” Fox News host Laura Ingraham said Tuesday night on “The Ingraham Angle.”
A video went viral several days ago showing Native-American activist Nathan Phillips’ interaction with MAGA hat-wearing teenagers from Covington Catholic High School in Kentucky — specifically, Nick Sandmann (shown above left) — near the Lincoln Memorial after the March for Life rally in Washington, D.C.
Social media users initially targeted Sandmann and the other students and accused them of racism, thinking they had surrounded Phillips on purpose to mock him.
But far more complete videos showed otherwise. Instead, it was Phillips, 64, who approached the teenagers while beating a drum and chanting. The students had been standing there waiting for the buses that would take them back home to Kentucky. They did not move from their original positions.
Yet the damage was done — and as a result of messages spread by many in the media and others, the Covington teens have received death threats and torrents of verbal abuse on social media platforms.
Related: Pro-Life Kentucky Student Seen Standing with Native-American Activist Speaks Out
“So many of these other people really haven’t pulled it back because they hate Trump. They are absolutely raging with hatred at Donald Trump and they don’t care what collateral damage that they, you know, leave on the roadside,” Ingraham said on Tuesday night.
“Well, here’s our wish — that this type of sadistic online savagery be shut down by Twitter and other powerful social media platforms,” she also said. “It’s time that they start evenly enforcing the rules of conduct against all parties, including ones on the Left.”
The viral video also arose after the fallout from BuzzFeed’s bombshell report alleging that Trump ordered former lawyer Michael Cohen to lie to Congress about scrapped plans for a Trump Tower in Moscow. Although certain people salivated over the Thursday report and predicted Trump’s impeachment as a result, special counsel Robert Mueller’s office took the extraordinary step on Friday of rebuking the BuzzFeed article and disputing its accuracy.
“BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements to the special counsel’s office, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s congressional testimony are not accurate,” Mueller spokesman Peter Carr said in the statement.
Military historian and political columnist Victor Davis Hanson told Ingraham that liberals and media figures were all too ready to pounce on the Covington kids because “they had MAGA hats on, and they were white, and they were Catholic.”
“They’re trying to make these kids afraid of speaking out, being pro-life — heck, being Catholic, being conservative, being a Trump supporter.”
All these aspects provided “a turkey shoot for all of these bullies,” Hanson said. “And then when you look at the upside, when you combined the electronic mechanism with the hate [for] Trump, the result is there’s two values: rapidity and extremism.”
“So there was a race — like a dog race, almost — at the starting blocks” to see “who could get out first” to “virtue signal” and “be the most extreme,” Hanson said.
Ingraham said the media “have not learned anything” about the dangers of jumping to conclusions in their quest to take down Trump.
Related: Questions Emerge About the Vietnam Veteran Status of Nathan Phillips
“When you have Silicon Valley and you have the great fortunes in America … and foundations and Hollywood and the media and the universities, this story starts out on — it’s a force-multiplying effect and it permeates our entire society,” Hanson warned.
“Metaphorically, our sheriff is Facebook and Twitter, and they’re on the side of the mob,” Hanson said. “So these people feel they’re not going to be censored. There’s no downside.”
If this type of behavior continues, Ingraham said she worried that “someone is going to get badly hurt” as a result of the social media mob mentality.
“I’m all for the First Amendment. I think there should be a vigorous debate of the issues. And I’m not for clamping down on that type of speech. But this is not that type of speech. What they’re doing is putting their lives in danger,” Ingraham said.
“They’re trying to make these kids afraid of speaking out, being pro-life — heck, being Catholic, being conservative, being a Trump supporter. And they are succeeding,” Ingraham added. “A lot of these kids are really scared tonight.”
Former federal prosecutor Andrew McCarthy said the Covington controversy, for the media, was all about “the narrative.”
“The fact that [Sandmann] had the MAGA hat on means he must be guilty of something. No, no … the MAGA hat is the guilt,” McCarthy said. “We’re about narrative here. We’re not about objective reality. And the fact that they’re wearing that hat feeds into a narrative that basically you are condemned by wearing it.”
Check out more in the video below:
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