Democrats Pounce
Republicans, not completely without justification, frequently argue that papers like the New York Times and Washington Post often frame mis-steps by Democrats in terms of the Republican response. So instead of "Biden makes racist gaffe" the headline might read "Republicans pounce on Biden over his latest statements." I will confess that I don't really notice this so much but Conservatives in my feed are often posting examples.
For balance, I thought it would be useful to demonstrate that Conservatives are perfectly willing to do the exact same thing. Take this story by Rick Moran. The headline is "Trump Has Democrats Acting Like Pavlov's Dogs." After a couple of grafs describing Pavlov's famous work, he writes:
Donald Trump gets Democrats hysterical with just about anything he tweets. It's a classic Pavlovian response and Trump plays his opponents like a well-tuned fiddle. He doesn't even have to say anything necessarily controversial. Whatever he tweets, his opponents see 1) racism, 2) fascism, 3) white supremacy, or 4) his enabling one or more of the previous. Trump tweets, Dems salivate. It's classic. He knows exactly which buttons to push, which subjects are liable to turn liberals into sputtering, spitting, stammering piles of gelatinous goo.
It's not until like the 13th paragraph that we find out what the article is actually about, which is this:
Trump shared a tweet and video from conservative comedian Terrence Williams that claimed without evidence that former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton -- Trump's 2016 presidential election rival -- were responsible for Epstein's death. The Federal Bureau of Prisons and Attorney General Bill Barr said Epstein died in an "apparent suicide" while in federal custody.
I consider myself to be one of the last people in America who can evaluate Trump's actions on a case-by-case basis without resorting to a default tribal position. And I will say that this is ... pretty f*cking egregious. On a number of dimensions. First and and foremost, the DOJ has already announced an investigation into this matter, so Trump is effectively commenting on an active Federal investigation in its very early stage. I encourage you to check Mr. Google and search for times where Conservatives criticized Obama for commenting on an active investigation. I remember a number of such occasions, e.g. here.
Second, not only is he commenting on an active investigation, he is suggesting a suspect. Yes, I know the comic is having fun with the Clintons-knocking-off-their-opponents meme. That is fine for a comic, but it is unacceptable for the person at the top of the federal law enforcement establishment. This is how people like Richard Jewell had their lives ruined. The fact that the suspected targets here are a former US President and Mr. Trump's opponent in the last election just make this all the worse.
This behavior of Trump is indefensible, which I suppose is why Mr. Moran chose to play the "Democrats pounce" card.
