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Wednesday, July 17, 2024

When motive matters

Orin Kerr has a Twitter thread* on whether Thomas Matthew Crooks' motive matters.

[*] On Gerard's post on leaving Twitter: In one sense, I was never "on" Twitter because I never posted; I only got an account when Twitter stopped allowing people to read without joining. But I regularly read those law profs, lawyers, and journalists--including Orin--who continue to blog there and highlight new cases and issues that I may write about here, use for my own work, or use in class. Even if fewer people do this, I think it is enough to keep checking and keep reading. Still have not posted and never will.

Orin posits three possible reasons: 1) Crooks was insane; 2) Crooks was a lefty who believed the "Trump is a threat to democracy" of Mother Jones and Rachel Maddow; 3) Crooks was hard right and believed Trump too moderate. Orin asks how much the actual reason matters to understanding what happened or to how to respond.

I would argue it matters whether it was # 2 because of Republican efforts, aped and aided by the media, to use this to silence sharp (if accurate) criticism of Trump. If we know he is not a lefty, then the narrative of "violent rhetoric from the left" cannot (or at least should not) take hold or be given credence. But that is, to this point, the most consequential effect of the event (along with, I suppose, the BS "Trump has changed narrative").

Posted by Howard Wasserman on July 17, 2024 at 03:49 PM in Howard Wasserman, Law and Politics | Permalink

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