The facts are still coming in regarding the horrific hammer attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. MSNBC doesn’t need to wait for the particulars though; they already know who to blame—Donald Trump. An article by opinion columnist Ruth Ben-Ghiat, ostensibly about the assault, doesn’t even mention Mr. Pelosi in the first sentence:

“We fight like hell,” then-President Donald Trump told supporters Jan. 6, 2021. “And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

What on earth does what Donald Trump said almost two years ago have to do with the crime, which is still under investigation? Ben-Ghiat writes:

On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, was assaulted in a targeted attack. (The suspect reportedly shouted, “Where’s Nancy?” before striking Paul Pelosi with a hammer.) Meanwhile, armed men watch ballot drop boxes, election offices install bulletproof glass and poll workers undergo active-shooter trainings. To face this peril, it is essential to understand how people can be moved from partisan hostility to outright violence.

The level of journalistic irresponsibility on display here boggles the mind. This is an American news outlet, mind you. We don’t even know if this is a partisan attack; in fact, the motive has not been mentioned by the police. The perpetrator might be a former nudist jewelry maker for all we know, so not likely a card-carrying member of the GOP:

The lunatic who allegedly assaulted Paul Pelosi is a Berkeley resident and a ‘Former Castro Nudist Protester’ and hemp ‘jewelry maker’ …sounds totally MAGA Republican to me. 🤣🤣

— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) October 28, 2022

And yet here’s MSNBC’s Ben-Ghiat implying that somehow the former president caused a polarized environment which led to this violence… Or something.

We don’t know that this attack is political at all. Just like Adam Kinzinger, Gavin Newsom, and others on the left, Ben-Ghiatt wastes no time in politicizing it. She ignores Mr. Pelosi completely and goes back to waxing poetic about Trump:

Trump’s fateful speech—which directly preceded the breach of the U.S. Capitol—shows how demagogues can get people into this different state of mind. Much ink has been spilled in recent years worrying whether increasing polarization in the United States is to blame for increased likelihood of political violence. But that view misses the mark. Trump and his followers engage in something wholly different from polarization: survivalism.

As of this writing, “the motive for the attack remains under investigation.”

Don’t play their game. Look at how they dismiss an assassination attempt on Kavanaugh while demanding you own the attack on Paul Pelosi. https://t.co/BxgqaxorW1

— Bonchie (@bonchieredstate) October 28, 2022

Ben-Ghiatt continues her diatribe, again not bothering to mention the subject of her story, Paul Pelosi, who’s in the hospital with serious injuries:

In the U.S., Jan. 6 further radicalized the Republican Party and broke taboos about the use of violence against police and lawmakers. Trump’s speech was part of a concerted effort to make armed insurrection seem not just acceptable, but also patriotic—a way to save the country from the massive fraud he claimed without evidence was perpetrated by Joe Biden.

By my count, the author mentions Paul Pelosi twice in an article that is ostensibly supposed to be about him. Instead, her entire opinion piece asserts that political tensions driven by Trump’s Jan. 6 speech led to an environment where this could happen. The author supplies exactly zero evidence, however, that a MAGA supporter is behind this.

American journalism in recent years has sunk to shocking new lows, and this drivel is just another example of malpractice. It also shows the mainstream media’s absolute obsession with Jan. 6 even though the rest of the world has moved on.

MSNBC is a joke and should be embarrassed to print stuff like this.