To be clear, this column is about influential media pundits and reporters choosing which violent groups they report... and which they ignore.
“...anti-fascists stand up and kick the sh** out of fascists. That’s what we need!”
As reported by The Daily Caller, that’s Norman Clement, a member of the left-wing ANSWER Coalition, introducing speakers at a Hartford, Ct. Sunday night vigil to “reflect” on the Charleston, Va. violence over the weekend.
This profane rallying cry for violence on whomever they decide is a fascist was directed to the hundreds of attendees, including New Haven mayoral candidate Marcus Paca and current Mayor Toni Harp.
It’s reflective of the violence fomented at Trump rallies by Scott Foval, former national field director of the left-wing Americans United for Change.
He confessed, on video, of staging the violence at Trump rallies for the Democratic National Committee to provoke Trump supporters into violence.
In Berkeley, California this year, left-wing activists attacked unarmed Trump supporters, hurled Molotov cocktails and smashed windows in protest of a planned speech by conservative antagonist Milo Yiannopoulos, causing $100,000 in property damage.
On top of that was an incident where two Berkeley College Republicans “were attacked while conducting an interview” on the campus, and another where a woman wearing a red Trump hat was pepper-sprayed in the face while being interviewed by a local CNN affiliate.
This is the violent left that pundits “outraged” at Trump’s incompetent initial articulation dangerously ignore.
After an unsatisfying statement excoriating violence “on both sides” while shockingly omitting any reference to the murdered Heather Heyer, Trump later clearly denounced the Klan and white supremacists as “criminals” and “thugs.”
His DOJ is prosecuting the racist who, in his words, “murdered” Heather Heyer.
On Tuesday, Trump spoke the truth:
“You had a group on one side and you had a group on the other and they came at each other with clubs and it was vicious and it was horrible and it was a horrible thing to watch,” Trump said.
CNN hosts went nuts.
“It is impossible to imagine President Trump saying that both sides are responsible for the violence, saying that the people that came out against these extremists are equally to blame,” said The Lead host Jake Tapper.
“This is a sad moment for the country,” opined Don Lemon. “I think it was an awful moment for the person who is supposed to represent the highest office of the land.”
“There today,” he told, Wolf Blitzer, “you saw the real Donald Trump proving all of his critics right in that moment.”
Lemon defended the alt-left group because “that group protests fascism. So that group was protesting fascism.” Then, Lemon forgave the left-wing violence saying, “Maybe their tactics weren’t exactly right... it’s messy.”
Their tactics were to come to the white supremacist rally armed with bats and pepper spray and attack the racists. That’s messy, alright.
Lemon ignored those violent thugs because the other side “is a Nazi, white supremacist group” and “what they want to do in their hearts is extinguish people who look like me and who look like you, Wolf, Jewish people, black people, even women.”
They overlook that the violent left is also using fascist tactics, and if their ultimate goal is an all-powerful government with control over its people and businesses, as many espouse, then they, too are fascists.
Yes, the klan and white supremacists are evil and, as Republican Ted Cruz says, “These bigots want to tear our country apart, but they will fail. America is far better than this.”
I hope so, because while it’s as easy to hate nazis as it is to love puppies,
CNN seems to have an especially difficult time accepting the fact that there are leftwing criminals and thugs ideologically justifying violence.
By ignoring and forgiving the violent left, are the Don Lemons of the media suggesting the shooting of Republican Representative Steve Scalise by a left-winger is not so bad compared to the murder of Heather Heyer by a neo-nazi?
Once violence is accepted as legitimate political speech, only violence remains.

Rick Jensen is Delaware’s award-winning conservative talk show host on WDEL, streaming live on WDEL.com from 1pm ---- 4pm EST. Contact Rick at rick@wdel.com, or follow him on Twitter @Jensen1150WDEL.