Trump’s Trolls Hurl Anti-Semitic Garbage At Another Reporter

Jonathan Weisman on a 2009 trip to China (image from Weisman's Facebook)
Jonathan Weisman on a 2009 trip to China (image from Weisman’s Facebook)

Last week, I told you what Julia Ioffe had to endure after she wrote a profile about Donald Trump’s wife, Melania. A number of Trump’s supporters on Twitter thought it was a hit piece. They bombarded Ioffe with ugly anti-Semitic tweets and emails that reminded her of the garbage her family had to endure before they moved from Russia. Well, on Thursday, a reporter for The New York Times got similar treatment–all because he shared an article that called out the Donald.

On Wednesday night, Jonathan Weisman, a deputy Washington editor at the Old Grey Lady, shared this article on Twitter.

It linked to a scathing op-ed from Washington Post columnist Robert Kagan suggesting what a lot of us in the blogosphere have already suggested–that the Donald’s campaign displays unmistakable fascist characteristics.

When Weisman checked his Twitter feed the next morning, he was greeted by this:

https://twitter.com/Rusted_Ovum/status/733262411281530880

Weisman asked for an explanation, and got this response:

https://twitter.com/Rusted_Ovum/status/733269898831355904

It went downhill from there. Weisman spent most of the day bombarded with anti-Semitic garbage. Here’s a sample of some of the more noxious tweets.

https://twitter.com/PaulTown_/status/733352765200666624

https://twitter.com/godempdonald69/status/733324585605693440

https://twitter.com/either_orwell/status/733343106003652610

https://twitter.com/HelloRaspberry/status/733356488761081856

https://twitter.com/PaulTown_/status/733358177677418496

https://twitter.com/AgentTimothy/status/733359737425829889

It turns out that Weisman is just the latest Jewish reporter to get pounded for daring to speak out against the Donald. Back in March, Ben Shapiro of The Daily Wire recalled that he has been subject to a nearly daily dose of anti-Semitic garbage for daring to criticize Trump, such as this.

https://twitter.com/molonlabe72/status/704438885233758208

What is really telling is that Shapiro is a staunch conservative. He and a number of other conservative critics of Trump have frequently been attacked for daring to criticize Trump. In a column for National Review, Shapiro blames Trump’s nomination for stirring up more anti-Semitism than he has ever seen in his political lifetime. He doesn’t think Trump is an anti-Semite, but is guilty of “pat(ting) these movements on the head” rather than denouncing them.

Shapiro is being extremely kind. As we saw last week, Trump isn’t just patting them on the head. He doesn’t even have the guts to condemn them, as we saw last week.

So we have a major-party candidate who, at the very least, is willing to tolerate the worst kind of garbage and bile from his supporters. And this is the guy that the religious right seems to have anointed as its champion. The mind reels.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.