After Pelosi attack, RNC chair pushes dubious ‘both sides’ line - MSNBC

The violent onslaught against Paul Pelosi continues to travel into sharper focus, and each of the details are horrible. Not lone did the accused assailant interruption into the household and fracture Pelosi’s skull with a hammer, San Francisco constabulary officials said yesterday that zip ties were found astatine the scene.

By each accounts, the accused attacker demanded to cognize wherever House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was and planned to hold successful the location for her return.

Much of the governmental satellite is inactive coming to presumption with the violence, though the Republican effect has been, for deficiency of a amended word, inconsistent. Many GOP leaders and salient voices wrong the enactment person condemned the onslaught successful nary uncertain terms, with unambiguous connection and successful a tasteful and due tone. There are, however, notable exceptions.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin went successful an unfortunate direction connected Friday afternoon, for example, and respective salient Republicans didn’t fuss to accidental anything astatine each — including Donald Trump, who maintained a robust publishing docket implicit the weekend, without commenting astatine all connected Friday morning’s attack. Others successful the party, including Donald Trump Jr., thought it’d beryllium a bully thought to peddle conspiracy theories astir the violence.

But it was Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel’s quality connected Fox News yesterday that stood out, successful ample portion due to the fact that she was truthful anxious to framework the larger contented arsenic a “both sides” problem. Axios highlighted the on-air interview, including this punctuation from McDaniel:

“Violence is up crossed the board. Lee Zeldin was attacked, we had [an] assassination effort against Brett Kavanaugh, and Democrats didn’t repudiate that. Joe Biden didn’t speech astir the assassination effort against Brett Kavanaugh.”

Let’s unpack this a bit, due to the fact that McDaniel’s rhetoric was incorrect successful important ways.

First, successful caller months, a antheral came astatine Rep. Lee Zeldin with immoderate benignant of key-chain ring, and a sick antheral called 911 connected himself adjacent Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home. To perceive the RNC seat archer it, President Joe Biden ignored some incidents. That’s plainly false: Biden condemned what occurred with Zeldin and denounced the menace against Kavanaugh.

Second, the effort to crook this into the latest successful a bid of “both sides” controversies is simply a mistake. Yes, it matters that determination has been unit against salient Republicans — House Minority Whip Steve Scalise was changeable and astir killed successful 2017, for illustration — and those attacks indispensable beryllium condemned successful nary uncertain terms.

It’s besides existent that successful the larger discourse of the speech astir extremists and governmental violence, the scales hardly look even. The Jan. 6 attack, the kidnapping crippled against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and right-wing intimidation campaigns against predetermination workers, educators, and nationalist wellness officials travel to mind.

Writing successful The Atlantic connected Friday, David Frum added, “[I]f some Republicans and Democrats, near and right, suffer governmental violence, the aforesaid cannot beryllium said of those who celebrate governmental violence. That’s not a ‘both sides’ matter successful 2020s America.”

Max Boot added successful his latest Washington Post column:

The New America deliberation vessel recovered past twelvemonth that, since Sept. 11, 2001, far-right terrorists had killed 122 radical successful the United States, compared with lone 1 killed by far-leftists. A survey from the Center for Strategic and International Studies past twelvemonth recovered that, since 2015, right-wing extremists had been progressive successful 267 plots oregon attacks, compared with 66 for left-wing extremists. A Washington Post-University of Maryland survey released successful January recovered that 40 percent of Republicans said unit against the authorities tin beryllium justified, compared with lone 23 percent of Democrats.

And finally, let’s besides not hide that lone 1 enactment is anxious to downplay the value of the menace posed by home convulsive extremists. Rep. Jim Jordan, the Ohio Republican who’ll apt soon seat the House Judiciary Committee, has accused FBI leaders of trying to exaggerate the home convulsive extremist menace — and Jordan’s efforts are poised to intensify aft the midterm elections.

“Both sides” problems mightiness beryllium successful American politics. This isn’t 1 of them.