Stop me if you’ve heard this before. The media lauded Democrats as brave and revolutionary when they did something but now decry it as dangerous and a breach of decorum when Republicans do it. Shocking, right?

That’s exactly the dynamic at play with the current consternation over Republicans entering the SCIF (which they absolutely have a legal right to do as Congressional members) and we’ve got receipts.

You may recall back in 2016 when Democrats decided to shut down all proceedings by staging a sit-in on the House floor. For nearly two days, they stayed there.

Here was the media’s response.

Do you think reporters will cover the Republican sit-in the same way?

Media Flips Out for Democrats Holding Gun Control Sit-In pic.twitter.com/wCYoa9PYLV

— Andrew Kugle (@AndrewJKugle) October 23, 2019

The slobbering praise was so bad that NBC reporters were lauding the fact that Kim Kardashian was tweeting about it. You heard words like “historic” over and over. Brooke Baldwin is almost salivating over John Lewis’ “impassioned” speech. Chuck Todd said this would be the “recipe” for getting a vote. Comparisons to the Civil Rights movement were made.

It was unbelievably positive. There were zero concerns about decorum, holding up other work, or the fact that it was clearly just a political stunt. None at all.

But when Republicans do it in protest, it’s suddenly really, really awful. Funny how that works.

Remember that time Democrats occupied the Capitol for a stunt on gun control, and the media couldn’t stop drooling? And remember the time Republicans occupied the SCIF room for a stunt on impeachment, and the media couldn’t stop screaming bloody murder? So. Much. Journalisming.

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) October 24, 2019

If you read the responses to that tweet, what you’ll see is a ton of “THAT’S DIFFERENT!!” hot takes because of the SCIF being involved.

Here are the facts, some of which I shared in a piece last night. The SCIF is legally accessible by all Congressional members. Period. The fact that Schiff is choosing to abuse it does not turn it into his own personal sanctuary. There was also nothing going on that was classified within those proceedings and no matter what happens in there, authorities would have been checking for breaches afterward. That’s standard procedure. They don’t otherwise have no security measures unless Republicans hand in cellphones while inside. To suggest such is to paint a false picture of what is actually occurring.

This stuff is so obvious that even Lawfareblog’s anti-Trump editor extraordinaire points out the outrage over having a phone in the SCIF is silly and being misconstrued.

But it isn't like bringing a phone into the room and then out of the room compromises the ongoing integrity of a secured facility. It only matters if classified information is discussed while an unsecured device is present. People bring phones into SCIFs by accident all the time.

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) October 23, 2019

And again, there was nothing classified in the room at the time.

What we are seeing here is pure hypocrisy, plain and simple. These media giants absolutely loved political stunts before they were against political stunts. No one should be taking their criticisms as anything other than more partisan rancor.

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