Despite Wednesday’s Dallas Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) facility shooter having scribbled “anti-ICE” on an unused bullet and, well, attacking law enforcement, NBC correspondent Priscilla Thompson channeled her liberal media comrades from the early days after the Charlie Kirk assassination by ruling on Thursday’s Today the “motive remains unclear” for why someone would attack ICE.
Spoiler alert: Not only do the “anti-ICE” messages and the bizarre poster on his car about nuclear war speak for themselves, but hours later, FBI Director Kash Patel revealed the suspect was inspired by the Charlie Kirk assassination:
Thompson went there right off the top of her story:
She then huffed: “President Trump blaming the shooting on what he called ‘radical left Democrats, constantly demonizing law enforcement and comparing ICE officers to ‘Nazis.’‘”
Further painting the Trump administration as the side with toxic rhetoric, she then played an out-of-context soundbite from Vice President JD Vance: “If your political rhetoric encourages violence against our law enforcement, you can go straight to hell.”
She bolstered her strawman by boasting Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson (R) “call[ed] for peace and unity”
Here’s what Vance actually said about political discourse:
Despite having said the “motive remains unclear,” Thompson said at the end of her piece she spoke with a scoutmaster from when the shooter was in Boy Scouts (emphasis mine):
[W]e did speak with a Boy Scout trooper who has known the alleged shooter since he was a teen and he described a conversation several years ago about the migrant caravans that were heading into the U.S. and he said that the shooter expressed being upset with how immigration was being handled in the country and the idea that people did not understand the desperation of people to try to get out of a bad situation. But that trooper also said that he did not know the shooter as someone who was violent. He knew him as someone who was against gun violence, so he found it surprising to find that he would be responsible for an attack like this.
To her credit, ABC correspondent Mireya Villarreal backed down from her both-sides-ing on Wednesday’s World News Tonight of attacks on law enforcement and political violence.
Villaareal dropped this line from the night prior: “While critics say the mask-wearing, often plain clothes ICE officers often terrorize communities, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons says they’re just doing their jobs and he says attacks on ICE officers are up 1,000% since January.”
Instead, here’s what she said about motive (click “expand”):
FBI agents finding rounds of ammunition on the rooftop where the alleged shooter, 29-year-old Joshua Jahn, was perched with the writings on one unspent round reading “anti-ICE.” Police say the suspect’s vehicle had a poster taped to the rear fender showing a map of an alleged nuclear fallout although it’s unclear if there’s any link to the shooting. According to his friends, the alleged gunman was not overly political and was mainly interested in video games and internet culture. This attack comes on the heels of a bomb threat on the same facility just last month, and in July, authorities say multiple armed assailants attacked and ICE facility in Alvarado, Texas where one officer was wounded.
(....)
All of this coming amid a new pole that was released asking Americans, do you feel like the violence in this country is happening because of how people talk about politics? 82 percent said yes[.]
Over on CBS Mornings, co-host Gayle King noted local “[o]fficials say the gunman targeted using ammunition that had anti-ICE messages on it,” but then said law enforcement was “trying to learn why he did all of this.”
Correspondent Omar Villafranca said from the scene: “As the Trump administration has doubled down on immigration enforcement, DHS says attacks against ICE agents have increased by around 1,000 percent since the President took office, including the bomb threat just last month at this same facility.”
He also sympathized with illegal immigrants, saying “[t]his violence may also have a chilling effect on immigrants who are pursuing legal status.”
To see the relevant transcripts from September 25, click here (for ABC), here (for CBS), and here (for NBC).
