God only knows what she means.

On CNN, Sen. Hirono is asked about protesters harassing senators in restaurants and at home. Her answer: 'This is what happens.' And something about white supremacy… pic.twitter.com/fEpQa8OQ8h

— Byron York (@ByronYork) October 8, 2018

Does she mean it’s unfair to focus on left-wing intimidation tactics when the far right is willing to intimidate people too?

Or does she mean that because the far right exists, people are scared and therefore it’s understandable that they’d show up at Mitch McConnell’s house or chase Ted Cruz and his wife out of restaurants?

Or is she going full Antifa here, suggesting a la Hillary Clinton that civility is for chumps in the present political climate and it’s time to get rough with the “white supremacist” enemy, which presumably includes her GOP colleagues?

Gotta be one of those three. If she keeps it up, she’s going to vault past Avenatti and become the frontrunner for the 2020 nomination. Meanwhile:

Colleague Peter Doocy rpts a GOP senator says senators have had death threats texted to their person phones. Calls that "unusual." Also says some senators who flew home after Kavanaugh vote were accompanied by police for protection

— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) October 6, 2018

If someone ends up getting shot, the reply, presumably, will be “This is what happens.”

Here’s the clip of her from Sunday, followed by one of Lindsey Graham last night describing the “Hirono standard” of guilty until proven innocent as “horrific.” If there’s any silver-bullet explanation for Graham’s anger lately in the Kavanaugh matter, Hirono’s demagoguery might be it. He’s been jabbing at her for days, even alluding to one of her most obnoxious comments when he opened his remarks to the Judiciary Committee on September 28. She’ll fade soon from the Republican radar, I think, as actual Democratic 2020 contenders elbow past her to try to become the right’s public-enemy number one but it’s amazing how she managed to carve out a niche in the opposition’s imagination in such a short period of time. Gotta go waaaay over the top to pull that off. She did it.

Exit quotation via Rand Paul: “I really worry that someone is going to be killed and that those who are ratcheting up the conversation … they have to realize that they bear some responsibility if this elevates to violence.”