Democratic politicians and their allies in the media have come under scrutiny for incendiary rhetoric in regard to the Supreme Court, protests, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, …
Democratic politicians and their allies in the media have come under scrutiny for incendiary rhetoric in regard to the Supreme Court, protests, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who recently came under threat of violence from an armed man. Nicholas John Roske, 26, of Simi Valley, California, had a gun, ammunition, a knife, pepper spray, a screwdriver, zip ties, and other gear when he was arrested by Montgomery County Police Wednesday morning, according to a criminal complaint. The media reacted in a variety of different ways to the news, but members never highlighted their own instances of charged language as a possible motivator for the assassination attempt. CNN’s Whitney Wild, following news of the attempt on Kavanaugh’s life, said that Supreme Court justices „certainly“ could be at threat from violent extremists in the coming months. However, Wild asserted that the risk of violence „truly comes from both sides of the abortion debate.“ Kavanaugh has frequently been painted as bent on overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade case. Speaking with Fox News Digital, media analyst and contributor Joe Concha called the media disinterest in Kavanaugh’s attacker both „sad and pathetic.“
„If a Republican Senator or lawmaker had attacked a liberal Justice like Sotomayor or Kagan or Jackson, declared without ambiguity that ‘they will pay the price,’ it is virtually guaranteed you would see wall-to-wall coverage if an attempt was made on their lives“, he said, referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s, D-N. Y. , comments in 2020 about conservative justices, including Kavanaugh. On Thursday, ABC’s „The View“ host Whoopi Goldberg criticized the heated political rhetoric of „both sides.“
„But in this climate, don’t we all have to, like, take a beat and really pay attention from both sides? Because we both are guilty of it. Both sides are guilty of doing this“, Goldberg said. „There are consequences to what you say, and you should be more careful.“
During a Senate floor speech, McConnell said the „reckless“ and „apocalyptic“ rhetoric from media critics since the SCOTUS draft leak was responsible for the incident and called for tighter security.
