While top Democratic lawmakers are wallowing in violent rhetoric — calling out mobs to publicly harass Trump officials, and not firing interns who yell obscenities at President Trump because Mr. Trump is worse — their base is being even less fastidious.
Conservative columnist Michelle Malkin noted an example of direct incitement to murder — and berated Twitter for allowing it to stay despite the obvious violation of Twitter terms of use.
The tweet[1] in question was from a woman named “Kayleigh-Marie,” who wrote “I am f—ing sick of trump and his minions. Can someone just assassinate him already?!?!?!.”
The text was accompanied by a GIF of a gun pointed directly at the camera, making the viewer look down the barrel of the weapon.
The tweet was posted at 11:08 a.m. on June 20 and was screen-grabbed by The Washington Times as still present Wednesday evening. As of 10:33 p.m. Wednesday, the assassination tweet had received 642 retweets and 369 “Likes.”
“Really, @TwitterSafety @jack? One week later and this twisted incitement to assassination against our president is STILL up?” Mrs. Malkin wrote[2] on Twitter, also tagging the Twitter account of the Secret Service.
Conservatives have frequently accused Twitter of having a double standard on the terms of service by, among other things, defining banned “hate speech” on liberals’ terms and having a quick trigger finger against conservative accounts that crossed or neared the line.
In the past week since Kayleigh-Marie’s tweet, besides the rhetoric of Rep. Maxine Waters and Sen. Maggie Hassan, screaming mobs have chased Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen out of a restaurant and picketed her home. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has both been denied service at another restaurant and been granted Secret Service protection, which is not customary for the person in her post....
During the Bush administration, Mrs. Malkin constantly documented what she called “assassination chic,” in which liberal and leftist activists would, in words, images or products, call for or fantasize about killing President George W. Bush.