OPINION:
On Tuesday, the No. 1 trending question on Google was: “Who wanted to shoot Trump?”
That’s right.
People across the country were looking for more information on GOP presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump and the man accused of potentially assassinating him. It was a real story — a story the press ignored.
Michael Steven Sandford, a 20-year-old British citizen who was in the U.S. illegally overstaying his visa, allegedly tried to pull a gun from the holster of a police officer at at Trump rally in Las Vegas on Saturday. Mr. Sandford was arrested and later told Secret Service he had been planning the attack for about a year, driving to Las Vegas from California.
It was a total failed attempt, yes, but I can’t imagine the press staying as quiet on the issue if the target were say presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton or President Obama. It’s also worth noting, Mr. Trump himself hasn’t brought attention to it, and the press has been consumed with other Trump-related stories like the firing of his campaign manager and lagging fundraising numbers.
Still, the lack of attention of the attempt hasn’t been lost within conservative news organizations.
Hot Air raised this hypothetical on Tuesday: “Can you imagine the coverage we’d be seeing if someone had attempted to shoot Hilary Clinton? The same could be said if had happened with Barack Obama in the summer of 2008. Questions would be debated on air for weeks on end about the evil lurking in the hearts of men and why someone would be so desperate to prevent the election of the first black or female president. But when someone plots for more than a year to kill Trump, travels across the country to find an opportunity and then launches his attempt, it creates barely a ripple in the media pond.”
The Washington Post, in an online article, attempted to explain the lack of news coverage. This was the same outlet that decided not to even mention the assassination attempt in its daily paper.
“News outlets have certainly reported on the incident, but it hasn’t gotten anything resembling wall-to-wall coverage. Cable news shows devoted little time to Sandford Tuesday morning and afternoon,” The Post writes.
It then defends the press’ point of view, citing Mr. Trump’s other campaign news, Mr. Trump not tweeting about the information himself, and the press not wanting to give credit to an illegitimate, failed attempt.
The Post also pointed fingers at Mr. Trump — saying if perhaps Mr. Sandford wasn’t British, they would’ve made it a bigger deal — that a “Briton who overstayed his visa isn’t a very good poster boy” for Mr. Trump’s call to build a wall or ban Muslim immigration.
That kind of logic never fails with the mainstream media: Some one tries to kill Mr. Trump, blame Mr. Trump.
No word if Mr. Sandford, who is accused of attempting to commit an act of violence on restricted grounds, will be deported.
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