https://danaloesch.com/media-desperately-trying-to-pin-q-anon-to-trump/
Did the media desperately try to pin QAnon to Donald Trump? Or did he, in fact, endorse them? Is the media being dishonest or are they telling the truth in this particular case? Is Dana Loesch right, or full of shit? Let’s look at the evidence.
For the record, let it be known that Dana Loesch doesn’t know much about the QAnon movement. In fact, she doesn’t know much about anything she talks about.
She doesn’t know that for the entire four years of Trump’s only term, they completely and enthusiastically endorsed him. She knows nothing about the thousands of Q enthusiasts who love Donald Trump so much, many of who have shown up as his rallies dressed in Q clothing, carrying Q signs, shouting Q conspiracies. But none of this means anything, since they have no connection to Trump.
She knows nothing of the dozens of failed predictions involving the enemies of Donald Trump – all of them Democrats, by the way – our greatest American president, and how he would heroically expose and vanquish them all on the day of reckoning known as “The Storm.”
She knows nothing of the hundreds of QAnon connected accounts he retweeted throughout his tenure as president.
She knows nothing of the domestic terrorist attacks by QAnon crazies over the last few years.
She knows none this. But you can bet your ass she knows “that they aren’t the ones in the streets burning down buildings, punching people in the head ( ?? ), burning down houses and blocking first responders from rescuing the trapped children” ( ?? ) – here she links to a fake news article – “or mass-squatting on multiple city blocks ( peaceful protesting is a bad thing in her view, as long as it involves BLM ).”
She also knows that the media “has been fine to give Democrats a pass when the party refuses to condemn the violence but they’re intent on pinning QAnon on Trump.” ( Here she links to a Breitbart article to prove her point, but the article fails to prove her point that Democrats refuse to condemn Antifa ).
“Trump literally says he “doesn’t know much about the movement,” Dana argues, “after quipping that he hears they like him and instead of accurately reporting Trump’s remarks, CNN sensationalizes it with “Trump embraces.”
Trump literally says he doesn’t know much about the movement, she argues, and so we’re supposed to believe it.
“The left and their media surrogates realize how damaging Antifa violence has been to their image ( ?? ) and so are trying to create something similar for which they can attack the GOP… except there isn’t anything similar.
“Ask me again why I question legacy media.”
Alright, let’s Examine Trump’s remarks to determine if CNN was just sensationalizing and deliberately taking his words out of context to “make him look bad.”
During an August 2020 press briefing, Trump was asked about QAnon. He had this to say:
“I don’t know much about the movement, other than I understand they like me very much, which I appreciate. I’ve heard that it’s gaining in popularity. And I’ve heard these are people who love our country and they just don’t like seeing it ( destroyed ).”
When asked if he believed the conspiracy theory that he “is secretly saving the world from this satanic cult of pedophiles and cannibals,” Trump replied: “I haven’t heard that, but is that supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing? If I can help save the world from problems, I’m willing to do it. I’m willing to put myself out there. And we are actually, we’re saving the world from a radical left philosophy that will destroy this country.”
This was taken from the CNN website. For someone who didn’t know much about QAnon, he sure knew enough about them to offer his opinion about how great they were. He very clearly praised them, which sounds like an endorsement to me. He certainly did not denounce or condemn them.
And during the October 15, NBC televised town hall, when Savannah Guthrie asked him if he would denounce QAnon as false, he couldn’t do it. Instead, he denounced and condemned Antifa. Of course he did.
“So, I know nothing about QAnon. I know very little. You told me, yes. What you told me doesn’t necessarily make it fact. I hate to say that. I know nothing about it. I do know they are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard. But I know nothing about it. I’ll tell you what I do know, I know about Antifa and the radical left. I just don’t know about QAnon.”
Again, he knew nothing about QAnon, but he knew they are against pedophilia, and they love him and see him as their savior who will save the world. He couldn’t bring himself to denounce them, their rhetoric or their violence. Instead, he side-stepped the issue as he always did when asked do disavow white supremacy, by denouncing Antifa, and asking why Sleepy Joe refused to denounce and condemn them.
So, did CNN inaccurately report Trump’s remarks to “sensationalize” them as “embracing?” No, they did not. CNN accurately reported everything he said when asked about QAnon. They did not sensationalize or “spin” his remarks to suit their narrative. He praised them after claiming he knew nothing about them, saying they loved him, which he appreciated, so Dana’s argument that CNN sensationalized his remarks to claim he endorsed them, is itself inaccurate. One doesn’t have to say “endorse” as a way of approving of someone’s support. QAnon endorses Trump. Trump said he “heard they loved” him, and he said he “appreciated it.” That’s as close to an endorsement as you’re going to get.
But Loesch didn’t agree. She’s an expert on the word endorsement. Trump had to say the word to make it definitive.
After his Town Hall remarks, a QAnon account tweeted its appreciation in return:
Dana would ignore that too, and pretend Trump has no connection to QAnon.
My verdict on this claim: Bullshit. Trump came as close to endorsing QAnon as he possibly could.
Next, let’s examine Dana’s claims that “Antifa violence has been damaging to the left and their media surrogates, and the media has been fine to give Democrats a pass when the party refuses to condemn the violence, but they’re intent on pinning QAnon on Trump.”
Recently a meme posted to Facebook made the claim that “not a single Democrat has condemned violence linked to BLM and Antifa: “Not a single Democrat has condemned or called for an end of the BLM and Antifa caused violence,” the post read. “They are aiding and abetting mass violence across the country.”
According to USA Today, and other publications, Democrats and Joe Biden have condemned violence connected with BLM protests. But conservatives have conveniently ignored these remarks while continuing to claim Democrats and the left of encouraging and being complicit in violence by not condemning it.
When a MAGA supporter goes on a shooting spree influenced by violent rhetoric from right-wing media pundits and conservative politicians like Donald Trump, it’s never their fault, they’re never culpable. Right media and the Republican party and its politicians cannot be held accountable. Neither were they culpable in the Capitol riot. Antifa was really behind it, so it’s really the let’s fault. Don’t you dare blame Donald Trump, the politicians or the media pundits who played along with his false narrative of election fraud!
However, when property damage occurs during a protest as a result of police violence, law enforcement is never held to account by right media, and the Republican party. It’s always the fault of the victim, the left, Democrats and the so-called liberal media.
Now to Dana’s claim that the left and their media surrogates realize how damaging Antifa violence has been to their image and are trying to create something similar with which to attack the GOP.
Here she seems to be suggesting that so-called left media – MSNBC and CNN – both center-right corporate news network’s – have some kind of love affair with a small rabble of communists, socialists, and anarchists, and thereby supports it wholly and enthusiastically. First of all, MSNBC and CNN are capitalist, corporate owned network’s, as are Fox News. The accusation that they are both hyper-partisan, far left – Communist News Network, as some idiots have labeled it – outlets, is laughable. Most of the journalists, pundits and commentators at these two networks are conservatives and neo-liberal Democrats that have far more in common with Republicans in terms of policy, than so-called socialists like Bernie Sanders and AOC.
Conservatives have been desperate to tie Antifa with the so-called liberal media and the Democratic party – even going so far as to claim they are the military wing of the party – since anti-fascist protesters demonstrated against Milo Yiannapolous at Berkely several years ago. But Antifa, at least the type that Fox News loves to fear-monger about, are nothing more than anti-fascist protesters that show up at right-wing events like Charlottesville, which conservatives have blown up into an evil, anti-American movement of millions of “terrorists” who are rampaging through the streets randomly assaulting thousands of innocent people, and are really fascists themselves. So this claim that Antifa is damaging to the Democratic party because they won’t condemn the violence – which they have – is also bullshit.
No news network is more obsessed with Antifa than Fox News. All one had to do was tune into Fox News during the summer protests to find them obsessively fear-mongering about so-called Antifa terrorists instigating the “riots.” But in reality, Federal authorities have found virtually no evidence that Antifa instigated the BLM protests. But that has never stopped conservatives from making that claim, without evidence.
I would argue that hyping the threat of Antifa has been more damaging to not only the image, but the reputation of right-wing media. Antifa, as insignificant as it is, has no love for Sleepy Joe and the Democratic party. The Democratic party has no love for them. Antifa has never been seen carrying signs favoring the Democrats. They are anti-capitalists. And the Democrats have never praised Antifa, so the obsession of linking “Antifa” with the Democratic party, is disingenuous and laughable.
As for her charge that the “left is trying to create something similar” to Antifa “to attack the GOP, except there isn’t anything similar.”
Is that so? Let’s look at the evidence. In 2018, the ADL released its annual report that found that all of the domestic murders in the U.S. were linked to right-wing extremism. In his article in the Intercept, Mehdi Hasan displays a list of domestic murders connected not only to the former president Donald Trump, but the GOP and right-wing media, which includes Fox News.
All of these incidents, one could argue, were either inspired by the rhetoric of Donald Trump, Republican politicians, and or Right-wing media pundits. For months leading up to the El Paso, Texas shooting, Fox News hosts and Republicans complained of an “invasion” of migrants. It’s no secret that most of the Fox News hosts and the GOP are xenophobic and have never been shy about reminding their viewers and voting base that immigrants are filthy invading criminals who want to steal their jobs and commit crimes. It’s no surprise that someone took their rhetoric seriously and did something about it. The left has never had any reason to try to create anything similar to Antifa. Trump’s supporters have been worse than anything conservatives could dream up about the left. Among his voting base were white nationalists and hardcore Nazis who unabashedly showed up to many of his rally with their racist flags and symbols, and some of them carried out acts of domestic terrorism in his name. Charlottesville was the start of it.
There has never been anything similar on the left or among the Democrats. No one ever showed up to an Obama speech or rally when he was president, proudly waiving a Communist flag. But that didn’t stop Republicans from calling him a far left radical every chance they could. And none of his supporters were enthusiastic enough to pick up an assault weapon and massacre a mosque full of Muslims, as a result of his rhetoric, which was never violent, or racial.
So, her claim that Democrats and the media have given the party a pass for “refusing to condemn the violence,” and trying to create a boogeyman similar to Antifa… is hogwash. If anyone has been given a free pass, it is right-wing media, including Dana Loesch, in refusing to condemn and call out the violent racial rhetoric of Donald Trump and Republicans.
And since the incident at the Capitol, does Dana really have any right to complain that the left is more violent than the right? I think not. After four years of simping for Trump, defending every embarrassing thing he said and did, her constant whining about the media being Obama’s personal lapdog, was not only hilarious, but downright embarrassing. But this woman is incapable of feeling embarrassment about her bootlicking for Trump and the GOP.
In conclusion, Dana asks her readers why she questions the “legacy media.” The answer is simple: because the MSM – MSNBC and CNN – that she and others constantly criticize as biased against conservatives, is not another Fox News, is not 100% biased toward conservatives. It doesn’t mirror her view of reality, it has the audacity to fact check conservative lies and misinformation.
So, was the media desperate to pin QAnon to Trump? No. QAnon has signal boosted their support for Trump, even including him in their ridiculous conspiracy theories, and even though Trump has never – that I know of – officially endorsed their support, neither has he ever disavowed them. QAnon was tied or pinned to Trump during his tenure. Its members and followers showed up at his speeches and rallies with their Q flags and symbols. He couldn’t get more “pinned” than that. The media had no need to try and pin them to Trump. By refusing to disavow them, he pinned himself to them.
My verdict. Dana Loesch is full of shit, and it’s a shame she will never realize it.
