Lawlessness, big government and its media enablers
by Robert Knight · The Washington TimesOPINION:
What are we up to now — four attempts on President Trump’s life? And possibly one on the life of Vice President J.D. Vance?
This has happened amid constant Democratic vilification of Mr. Trump, his staff and conservative Supreme Court justices, who have had to increase their security. Several Cabinet members and other top staff have left their homes and moved to military bases to protect their families from crazies.
In Virginia, Arlington County Commonwealth’s Attorney Parisa Dehghani-Tafti basically declared Tuesday that it was open season for harassing Trump administration officials and their families.
One of many Democratic district attorneys elected with aid from leftist financier George Soros, Ms. Dehghani-Tafti dropped criminal charges against a woman who had gone to Trump adviser Stephen Miller’s Arlington County neighborhood to scare him and his family.
On Sept. 11, 2025, the day after Charlie Kirk’s murder on a Utah campus, activist Barbara Wien and her husband, Robert Herman, handed out flyers bearing a photo of Mr. Miller with a red line through it.
“Wanted for crimes against humanity,” the flyer read, along with the Millers’ home address and “No Nazis in NOVA,” referring to Northern Virginia.
Upon spotting Mr. Miller’s wife, Katie Miller, on the Millers’ front porch, Ms. Wien, a “retired peace studies professor,” made a gesture to indicate that she was watching her, The Washington Post reported.
You know, just free speech stuff. Nothing to worry about. Especially if you have children. The Millers have three young children and a baby on the way.
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A Virginia statute says, “It shall be unlawful for any person, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass another person, to publish the person’s name or photograph along with identifying information … or identification of the person’s primary residence address.”
The Class 1 misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence of 12 years and a $2,500 fine.
But wait. It was only a Trump official and his family who were being targeted. Also, Ms. Wien said she didn’t know who made the flyer and hadn’t been aware that the Millers’ address was on it. Right.
Ms. Dehghani-Tafti said that pursuing the charge would “risk having a chilling effect on others wishing to engage in peaceful, political protest.”
Not feeling the warmth after being doxed in their own neighborhood, the Millers moved to military housing.
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When shots were fired outside the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner on April 25, Mr. Miller instantly shielded the pregnant Mrs. Miller with his body, an act of chivalry that has gone viral on social media.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, of California, was arrested and charged with attempting to assassinate the president.
On May 4, a gunman who had been tracking Mr. Vance’s motorcade a block from the White House exchanged fire with Secret Service agents. A child was struck and briefly hospitalized. Michael Marx, 45, of Texas, was arrested.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Mr. Marx exclaimed, “F the White House” after being arrested.
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We are constantly being told that “both sides” are responsible for the rise in violence and that “both sides” should turn down the rhetoric. That is a lie propounded by legacy media, which see no enemies to the left, even as that side grows more violent.
You might think the shooting near the White House, which occurred around 3:30 p.m., would be front-page news, especially after the attempted assassination of the president only days earlier.
The Washington Post buried it in the second section, on page B-20. It was, in fact, the very last story in the entire publication.
On the front page, however, The Post gaily celebrated its latest Pulitzer prizes. The paper won for feature photography and for the big one: the Public Service Award.
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It got the latter largely for siccing hard-left reporter Hannah Natanson to crusade against the Trump administration’s attempts to rein in the federal bureaucracy through the Department of Government Efficiency.
The best argument for freedom of the press is that it is there to keep government honest and in check. The Post news staff appears to feel otherwise. Instead, it goes after any attempt to impose accountability on the ever-growing permanent state.
It may have helped Ms. Natanson’s case for a Pulitzer that the FBI had executed a search warrant at her home in January, looking for leaked classified information from a federal contractor who was charged under the Espionage Act. The agents told her she wasn’t a target of their investigation, but what a feather in her cap.
In its glory days, The Post brought down a sitting president, Richard Nixon, by regurgitating leads fed to it by FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, whose cover was “Deep Throat.”
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During the Obama and Biden administrations, The Post was incurious about any number of reportable scandals, including mass illegal immigration and lies about COVID-19 and the Russian collusion hoax. The latter netted Pulitzers for The Post and The New York Times, which played key roles in manipulating the public.
That itself should be a major news story. Yet it doesn’t fit the narrative, so don’t hold your breath.
When the New York Post broke the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020, the legacy media pointedly ignored it while leftist-controlled social media crushed it.
Dave Burge, who writes at Iowahawkblog, put it best when he observed, “Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving.”
• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.