SUBSCRIBER-ONLY NEWSLETTER
By Jamelle Bouie
Opinion Columnist
The assassination of Charlie Kirk, the conservative activist and media personality, is not the reason President Trump and his allies have pursued a crackdown on their critics in media and civil society. As terrible as Kirk’s killing was, it has become, for the administration, a pretext.
At no point have either Trump or JD Vance or any of their fellow travelers shown any particular concern for truth, fairness or accuracy. Recall that the vice president said, during the campaign, that he would fabricate stories — such as the false charge that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were stealing and eating the pets of their white neighbors — if that is what it took to get the attention of the press. “If I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do,” Vance said.
