OPINION:
An Illinois state senator has apologized for photographs taken during his recent fundraiser that showed his supporters acting out a mock assassination against President Donald Trump.
Presidential assassinations — they’re all fun and games, aren’t they. So long as they’re targeting Republicans, that is.
Could you imagine the outcry had a Republican fundraiser included mock attacks on Barack Obama? When a rodeo clown with a long record of poking fun of presidents dared in 2013 turn mocking eyes at Obama, the full weight of the Missouri State Fair officials came down on him and banned him from ever performing at the venue again. The cowboy lost his job, all because he did to Obama what he did to ex-Presidents Reagan, Nixon and Bush the W — that is, donned a mask of the White House chief and had a little rodeo fun.
Guess it’s OK to mock about Republicans but not Democrats.
It’s OK to joke about killing Republicans, but not Democrats.
“Jemele Hill Jokes About Assassination of Trump,” the Washington Free Beacon wrote in February.
“Kamala Harris’s ’Ellen’ Appearance: Jokes about Killing Trump,” the National Review wrote in April of 2018.
“Actress Carole Cook Jokes About a Trump Assassination,” The New York Times wrote in 2018.
“Johnny Depp Jokes About Presidential Assassination,” The Daily Beast wrote in 2017.
“Comedian Limmy sparks outrage with Donald Trump assassination joke,” NME wrote in 2017.
And let’s not forget that whole Kathy Griffin debacle, the one where she played that oh-so-funny joke of holding a bloody head of Trump, for all the world — including little Barron Trump — to see. Or, that curiously placed photo from The Associated Press that showed an image of a gun pointing right at Sen. Ted Cruz’s head.
The left just doesn’t learn.
Photos posted on social media by a woman who saw the mock assassination of Trump at state Sen. Martin Sandoval’s fundraiser show a man pointing a gun inches from the head of another who’s wearing a Trump mask. The man in the Trump mask is then shown grabbing his chest and falling back — as if he’s been shot.
What fun.
What games.
And then there was the photo of Sandoval himself standing alongside the guy holding the gun.
“I don’t condone violence toward the president or anyone else,” Sandoval later said in a statement of apology.
Of course not.
Hopefully not, anyway.
But then again, the condoning does seem to be a bit more lenient when it’s a Republican as the target, than Democrat. The left does have its suspiciously abundant share of assassination and killing jokes about this president, about Republicans, about conservatives. It’s enough to make one wonder how the left defines condone.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter @ckchumley.
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