Last Tuesday, former President Donald Trump had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with eccentric rapper/hip-hop artist Kanye West, who in October landed in hot water on social media after posting content widely viewed as anti-Semitic, as well as Holocaust denier/white nationalist Nick Fuentes, and the mainstream media has talked about little else.
Trump, who earlier this month formally declared he was running for president, did not deny meeting with West – who says he’s running for president as well – but said that unbeknownst to him, West decided to bring Fuentes along. Trump also denied knowing anything about Fuentes, and posted several times about the dinner on his Truth Social platform in defense of the dinner:
Here:
Here:
And here:
As the wisdom of Trump meeting with West and why his aides didn’t intervene when it was discovered that Fuentes was also along for the ride continues to be hotly debated on the right, it was only inevitable that the mainstream media began playing their “does XYZ Republican condemn this or not?” game, because silence is violence or something.
Not surprisingly, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman, whom some have described as a “Trump whisperer,” was among the first to engage in this predictable, tiresome tactic.
Haberman went big, skipping rank and file Republicans, and instead dragged Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – a potential 2024 contender and someone who is definitely on Trump’s radar – into the mix since the dinner just so happened to take place in his state and stuff:
So DeSantis is now on the hook to respond every time a Republican in his state behaves badly at dinnertime? If so, that’s a standard that needs to be applied across the board:
Further, and as others observed, Trump was relentlessly criticized in the press during his four years as president for allegedly being undisciplined and for exploiting the media’s circus-like tendencies. And yet DeSantis has indicated more than once that he’s not interested in playing the same game yet gets criticized for it by the same people:
Most importantly, however, is the fact that DeSantis’ record on condemning anti-Semitism is crystal clear not only with bills he’s signed into law but also with public statements he’s made:
Earlier this year, DeSantis also blasted the Usual Suspects in the media and on the left for trying to pin anti-Semitic rallies held in the state on him, telling them in no uncertain terms that he would not take lectures from the same party that welcomed anti-Semitic members of Congress like Ilhan Omar with open arms:
“You know, some jackasses, you know, doing this on the street – first of all, state law enforcement is gonna hold them accountable because they were doing stuff on the overpass,” he said. “I’m not gonna have people try to smear me that belong to a political party that has elevated anti-Semites to the halls of Congress like Ilhan Omar, that have played footsie with the BDS movement, that even have people in their party that have cavorted with Farrakhan,” he continued.DeSantis’ record on anti-Semitism includes what he calls the “strongest anti-Semitism bill in the country,” which includes funding for Jewish day schools and a strong relationship with Israel.
Lastly, judging by the MSM’s standards when it comes to condemning things, I guess Maggie Haberman not condemning white supremacy Saturday means she’s totes okay with it, right?
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY