OPINION:
When Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, canceled his book tour this month, CNN said it was because he feared his events would be disrupted by rowdy leftist protesters.
It was interesting, but the reporting was unremarkable because it was obviously true: Radicals in Mr. Schumer’s party were apoplectic that he had backed down in a showdown over federal spending with President Trump.
CNN’s congressional correspondent Manu Raju mentioned it matter-of-factly.
“The backlash from the left is real,” Mr. Raju said. “[Mr. Schumer] canceled that book tour, we are learning, because of protests that were scheduled from activist groups who wanted to go after his decision to agree and allow the government funding bill to go forward to avoid a government shutdown. They are furious at his decision to do that. It just shows you the anger on the left in the Democratic Party.”
But when hordes of Democrat activists organized, invaded, and disrupted town hall meetings held by Republican members of Congress this month, the same news outlet reported the fracases as though they were organic uprisings from constituents.
Take, for example, their coverage of the reddest of red states, Wyoming.
Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Republican and a client of my public affairs firm has held 75 town hall meetings since she first campaigned for Congress in 2022, and the first 73 went by without incident. However, when the last two ran off the rails, CNN’s coverage markedly differed from how they reported on Mr. Schumer’s issues.
“Shouts of ‘January 6’ and ‘tax the rich’ flooded a town hall in Laramie, Wyoming, on Wednesday, where GOP Rep. Harriet Hageman faced a hostile crowd as she attempted to drown out the noise and answer questions – the latest such Washington lawmaker to be grilled in their home states,” CNN reported.
This is purposeful obtuseness on CNN’s part since Ms. Hageman became a member of Congress after destroying former Rep. Liz Cheney—the vice chair of the January 6th Commission—by nearly 40 points in the 2022 Republican primary. Ms. Hageman was just elected to her second term with 71% of the vote in a state that Mr. Trump won three times with an average vote of 70%.
The people of Wyoming quite obviously support Ms. Hageman, Mr. Trump, and the America First agenda. It’s the last place on earth you would hear spontaneous shouts of “January 6th!” unless they came from people demanding an investigation of the Commission itself.
After a subsequent town hall that required more than 20 police officers to control the raucous crowd, Ms. Hageman was followed out of the venue by an irate leftist who “initiated a physical confrontation with staff, into which local police were forced to intervene,” according to a statement from the congresswoman’s office.
After that, Ms. Hageman switched to virtual town halls because of the strong possibility of violence.
“It’s not safe for attendees, it’s not safe for law enforcement, and it doesn’t do anything to encourage a meaningful dialogue at all,” she said since protesters seem bent on “escalating tensions to a point where violence seems inevitable.”
It turned out that the local Democratic Party had advertised their plans for chaos on social media and held gatherings to prep protesters for their performances.
This is happening all over, with reports of similar premeditated bedlam in New York, North Carolina, Nebraska, Utah, Wisconsin and Colorado, among other states.
The D.C. Beltway publication The Hill, to its credit, noted that this is happening “with progressive groups like Indivisible and local Democratic groups encouraging activists to turn up at the events.”
There’s no mystery because Mr. Schumer expressly described what they’re asking the radicals to do.
“We have people going to the Republican districts, going after Republicans who vote for [Trump policies], forcing them to change their vote or face consequences,” he said on PBS Newshour.
This prompted Speaker Mike Johnson to call on Mr. Schumer to end the heated and dangerous confrontations.
“His recruits are now crashing and disrupting private gatherings and even local school events, screaming profanities, and physically assaulting people,” Mr. Johnson posted on X. “The madness must stop before someone gets hurt!”
All this is on top of the firebombings at Tesla dealerships because CEO Elon Musk is a Trump ally and the targeting of prominent conservatives through swatting—the potentially deadly reporting of a phony hostage situation or other crisis to draw an armed police response to an unsuspecting household.
The left has indeed descended into madness and can do nothing but shout and threaten. They’re raging because they haven’t come to grips with their resounding defeat in the 2024 election, and based on their behavior, it’s clear that they still have no idea why they lost.
• Tim Murtaugh is a Washington Times columnist and founder of Line Drive Public Affairs. He served as a senior advisor on the 2024 Trump campaign and as communications director on the 2020 Trump campaign.
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