I watched some of this play out on Twitter myself yesterday, but it quickly spiraled out of control. When liberals get together to march, protest and issue their list of whatever the demands of the day happen to be, it’s not unusual for them to celebrate cop killers. (Remember this girl?)
The recent Women’s March was no exception and at least some of the participants and organizers decided to “celebrate” the life of Assata Shakur. You may remember Shakur as the convicted murderer of a police officer in New Jersey back in the day. She’s been hiding out in Cuba ever since she escaped prison and is quite popular in some quarters on the left. Our own Cortney O’brien describes some of the hot, cop-killer-loving action over at Townhall.
The Women’s March, part of the “Resistance” that has emerged in the era of President Trump, has a knack for championing convicted cop killers. The group, which recently went on a 17-mile march in Washington, D.C. against the NRA, declared its love for Assata Shakur on Twitter.
Shakur, also known as Joanne Deborah Chesimard, is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted list for murdering a New Jersey police officer in 1977. She escaped prison two years later and is now hiding in Cuba. What a perfect person to celebrate!
The matter might have dropped off the radar right there were it not for CNN anchor Jake Tapper jumping into the action. He took to Twitter to ask the obvious question.
Shakur is a cop-killer fugitive in Cuba. This, ugly sentiments from @lsarsour & @dykemarchchi …Any progressives out there condemning this? https://t.co/rXnHLgE2hR
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 18, 2017
This brought down the wrath of the march organizers on Tapper’s head. Despite Jake pointing to documentation such as this FBI document and this article at the Washington Post, the protesters were having none of it. The FBI, one of them argued, was immediately suspect because of their “history” of not treating black activists fairly.
Sophie Ellman-Golan, who serves as the deputy head of socials and outreach for the group, responded to Tapper’s tweet with a sarcastic message that read, “Right, because the FBI has a history of being really fair to well-known Black activists.”
Things just went downhill from there, with the CNN anchor responding, “You can excuse the celebration of a fugitive/murderer’s birthday if you want. It’s a free country. I choose to condemn it.”
#AssataShakur was convicted of first degree murder, escaped from prison and fled to Cuba. More on her story here-> https://t.co/7ktRJ1sQ46
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) July 19, 2017
Once you’ve got somebody at Tapper’s level calling you out, obviously you need to bring in the big guns to defend yourself. Who better than Linda Sarsour, the same woman who previously called for a Jihad against the President? (From the Daily Caller)
Left-wing activist and Woman’s March organizer Linda Sarsour accused CNN anchor Jake Tapper of being a member of the alt-right, a small white nationalist faction on the far-right…
Sarsour responded by saying that Tapper has joined “the ranks of the alt-right to target me online.” (There is no evidence to suggest that Tapper is a member of the alt-right.) “Welcome to the party,” she added.
.@jaketapper joins the ranks of the alt-right to target me online. Welcome to the party.
— Linda Sarsour (@lsarsour) July 18, 2017
Here’s one way you can tell that a journalist is doing their job in this era of political news media turmoil: when you repeatedly tick off people on both the left and the right and draw scorn and insults from each side of the aisle. Tapper has dug into a bunch of stuff on Donald Trump and been excoriated for that, but some of us too often forget that during the 2016 election the Clinton campaign thought he was a total… well, I won’t repeat the word here, but you get the idea.
But… a white nationalist? I’ve heard Tapper called a lot of things, but even if you set aside the fact that the guy is Jewish that’s a pretty odd label to try to hang on him. But hey… politics is a circus so you might as well get out some popcorn and watch the women’s march organizers try to keep this play moving.
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