From Diana:
I depend on you to filter all the junk and haven’t heard anything from you about the Omar tweet by the President. Am I to assume you didn’t have anything good to say, so you didn’t say anything; or, did I miss it? The Dems are pitching it pretty hard and it didn’t reflect very well on our guy. ???
From the Gov:
Thanks, Diana, for bringing it up. Actually, I haven’t avoided the story; maybe it just seemed that way because there’s been so much to cover the last couple of weeks! You already know where I stand on Rep. Omar’s provocative anti-Semitism as well as Trump’s compulsive tweeting. Tuesday’s Evening Edition of the newsletter opened with the Omar story, focusing on what some Muslims think of her comments (hint: some call her words “a disgrace to Islam”). Since you wrote, let’s look at the story in more detail...
First, some background: Earlier this month, a disturbed individual named Patrick Carlineo, Jr., was arrested for calling Rep. Omar’s office, allegedly to rant at her staffers: “Do you work for the Muslim Brotherhood? Why are you working for her? She’s a (bleeping) terrorist. I’ll put a bullet in her (bleeping) skull.” It’s been reported that he told investigators that he “loves the President and that he hates radical Muslims in our government.”
Soon after the man’s arrest for threatening Omar, Trump happened to be speaking at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual meeting in Las Vegas, and he referenced the anti-Semitic comments she made several weeks ago. (And, yes, comments like “it’s all about the Benjamins, baby” are inarguably anti-Semitic.) “Special thanks to Rep. Omar of Minnesota,” he quipped. “Oh, I forgot. She doesn’t like Israel --- I’m so sorry!”
This little jab was part of Trump’s overall message that Democrats are advancing an extreme anti-Semitic agenda that, as he said, “could very well leave Israel out there all by yourselves.” (He won’t get any argument from me on that observation.)
Around the same time, Omar referred to White House advisor Stephen Miller as a “white nationalist.” Leftists love to throw this horrid label around with abandon, and this time it was in a particularly inappropriate context, as Miller is Jewish. Trump responded with a tweet in which he quoted campaign adviser Jeff Ballabon accusing Omar of “target[ing] Jews” and included video of Ballabon calling Omar “the most dangerous anti-Semite we’ve ever seen” on FOX Business Network.
Omar responded: “In the words of my 6-year-old daughter, ‘Knock it off. You’re the president.’”
https://thehill.com/homenews/438082-omar-hits-back-at-trump-tweet-knock-if-off-youre-the-president
It should be noted that Rep. Omar, living here in America, can say all the negative things she wants about America but not without verbal repercussion, as other Americans have freedom of speech as well. If she wants to complain about the treatment of Muslims because “some people did something,” she gets to do that, but others will respond accordingly. President Trump chose to respond by sending out a tweet that interspersed her complaints with horrific video of the 9/11 attack. Somewhat over the top, but it did make his point.
Leftists in politics and media have criticized Trump for inciting violence against Omar and claim that we’ve got an “epidemic of hate crimes” in America. (I would say this is true only if you include all the fake hate crimes.) Omar claims she’s been getting more death threats since Trump sent out his dramatic tweet. The left is using the threat of violence as a way to attack the First Amendment, at least as it applies to people who disagree with them. People who agree with them can say all the nasty, hateful, violence-provoking things they want.
As Tucker Carlson put it, “If we let them redefine speech as violence, the First Amendment has no meaning. They can tell you what to say and when to say it. They can use any force necessary to make you be quiet...They are saying your opinions and a terror attack are the same thing. This is a scary argument, and we should be afraid of it.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez used the “speech-I-don’t-like-incites-violence” argument on Sunday. In an interview on the Yahoo “Skullduggery” podcast, she accused Trump of “absolutely” trying to incite violence against Omar with his tweet.
“He acts like one of these shady real estate developer guys,” she went on, “that may or may not be involved with the mob,” elaborating that she waited on guys like that while working in a New York bar, who sort of “suggested” things should happen, until they somehow did.
Okay. AOC criticizes Trump for making remarks against Rep. Omar that she finds incendiary, and in the same breath suggests that he is a shadowy figure from the underworld. That sounds pretty incendiary to me. The thought of having a MOBSTER in the White House might make someone who’s a little too tightly strung want to commit violence against him, even “take him out” in the name of moral courage and patriotism. But that’s the way leftists use the First Amendment: my rules for you, no rules for me.
It should be noted that Trump was not the first to juxtapose images of the 9/11 attacks against Omar’s “some people did something” comment. The New York Post did it in full blazing color, right on their front page, the day before. This is called “freedom of the press.”
This weekend, Omar responded to the President’s tweet: “I did not run for Congress to be silent. I did not run for Congress to sit on the sidelines. I ran because I believed it was time to restore moral courage and clarity to Congress. To fight and to defend our democracy.”
Then she went off the rails: “No one person --- no matter how corrupt, inept or vicious --- can threaten my unwavering love for America. I stand undeterred to continue fighting for equal opportunity in our pursuit of happiness for all Americans.”
If Rep. Omar wants to mix it up and express her opinions in the name of moral courage, she needs to stop whining about others’ responses to what she says. She is going to get pushback. Does she think Muslims are the only ones to get death threats? On the contrary, in many places it’s become downright dangerous to walk around wearing a MAGA hat, thanks in large part to incendiary comments she and others in her party (including the media) make, typically involving the misplaced label “white nationalist.” When she calls the President “corrupt,” “inept” and “vicious,” she fans the flames of hatred and violent thoughts against HIM.
In other words, she herself is a huge part of the problem she’s complaining about. This is called “hypocrisy.”
I’ve said for a long time that the President needs to put his phone down and lay off most of the tweeting, as he’s got much better and more important things to do with his time. But the people criticizing Trump are showing with their own overheated verbal attacks that they have no room to complain about him. They poke the bear; he responds (often with some stunning truth); they up the ante. And in the end, if we’re paying attention, it tells us a lot about who they really are.
LEAVE ME A COMMENT BY CLICKING HERE. I READ THEM!
Permalink: https://www.mikehuckabee.com/2019/4/the-governor-replies-trump-omar-and-the-first-amendment
Leave a Comment
Note: Fields marked with an * are required.