McEnany: 'Remarkable' to see leftists excuse rioting
Kayleigh McEnany discusses mainstream media and leftists who defend the looting and rioting in Minnesota.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman was roasted on Thursday for suggesting the violence that has plagued cities over the past year was a figment of Republicans' imagination, in a bizarre series of tweets that echoed a recent Gray Lady report.
Krugman made the claim hours after the Times ignored 18 deaths and nearly $2 billion in property damage nationwide in an article slamming Republican bills designed to stop what the liberal newspaper considered mostly "peaceful" protests.
Krugman, apparently in agreement with his colleagues, knocked Republicans on Twitter for "only" being concerned about illegal immigration and the deficit in comparison to Democrats, who according to a Pew study are overwhelmingly concerned about gun violence, racism, coronavirus, climate change, affordable healthcare, and economic inequality.
"You might think that it would be hard to obsess over the deficit when it was actually Trump who blew the deficit up, to zero complaints from his party," Krugman tweeted. "But that would be assuming that R voters know about that, or would even be willing to hear it."
"In reality, given that GOP supporters believe that rampaging mobs burned and looted major cities — somehow without the people actually living in those cities noticing — getting them to see facts about something as abstract as the deficit is a hopeless cause," Krugman added.
Townhall reporter Julio Rosas, who has covered riots on the ground for the past year, responded with images he captured of cities burning.
"I can assure you people who lived in cities and towns last year noticed the rioting," Rosas wrote.
In a separate Twitter thread, Krugman argued the "reality" was Black Lives Matter protests last summer were "overwhelmingly peaceful."
Krugman’s theory coincides with the Times report published Thursday originally headlined, "How the G.O.P. Is Creating Harsher Penalties for Protesters," that was eventually titled "G.O.P. Bills Target Protesters (and Absolve Motorists Who Hit Them)," in the online version. It detailed how "Republican-led states are introducing punitive new measures governing protests" in the wake of former policeman Derek Chauvin's conviction for the murder of George Floyd.
The story blasted Oklahoma, Iowa, Indiana, Florida and other states for steps taken to prevent rioting, looting and violence that has occurred at times during civil rights demonstrations and other protests. Protests and riots following the 2020 killing of Floyd resulted in at least 18 deaths, $350 million worth of property damage in the Minneapolis area and nearly $2 billion nationwide.
However, the Times didn’t highlight deaths or significant property damage when downplaying the protests as mostly peaceful.
"While Democrats seized on Mr. Floyd’s death last May to highlight racism in policing and other forms of social injustice, Republicans responded to a summer of protests by proposing a raft of punitive new measures governing the right to lawfully assemble," the Times reported, before dismissing the violence and destruction tied to the protests.
"Some, like [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis, are labeling them ‘anti-riot’ bills, conflating the right to peaceful protest with the rioting and looting that sometimes resulted from such protests," the Times reported.
NY TIMES IGNORES 18 DEATHS, $2 BILLION IN DAMAGE WHEN BASHING GOP BILLS TARGETING RIOTERS
The Times then claimed, "The laws carry forward the hyperbolic message Republicans have been pushing in the 11 months since Black Lives Matter protests against racial injustice swept the country: that Democrats are tolerant of violent and criminal actions from those who protest against racial injustice."
The newspaper essentially began a public relations campaign for protestors, reporting "the overwhelming majority of last summer’s nationwide Black Lives Matter protests were peaceful," "more than 96 percent involved no property damage or police injuries," and "most of the protests held across Florida last summer were also peaceful."
Krugman was swiftly roasted on Twitter.
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