On Tuesday night, we saw the second MAGA attack targeting a Democratic member of Congress in just the past week. This most recent event occurred when a very vocal supporter of Donald Trump sought to terrorize one of Trump’s favorite targets, Rep. Ilhan Omar. It was just days before that on Friday that Rep. Maxwell Frost—who identifies as Afro-Latino—was assaulted at an event by a man who declared Trump was going to deport him.
These were both politically motivated attacks carried out by Trump supporters that fulfill the elements of “domestic terrorism” under federal law. But what we didn’t hear is the corporate media call these incidents what they are: MAGA terrorist attacks. That is not only wrong from a journalistic point of view—more importantly, this also makes our nation less from future MAGA attacks ranging from assaults on elected officials to even another Jan. 6 attack.
These MAGA supporters are not hiding who they are or why they are waging these attacks. Look at the person who sought to terrorize Rep. Omar on Tuesday night, 55-year-old Anthony Kazmierczak. Per his family, friends and social media posts, he was a devout Trump supporter who hated Omar. He not only had donated to Trump’s campaign, but last year also he changed his Facebook profile photo to that of his beloved Trump. In addition, he had supported the Charlie Kirk founded Turning Point USA—the youth wing of MAGA—expressed support for Kyle Rittenhouse who killed three protesters as well as touted other MAGA articles of faith.
And this attack by Kazmierczak was not a spur of the moment. His friend told the media that before the event, Kazmierczak surprised him by saying he was going to the Omar event. Kazmierczak then added ominously, “I might get arrested.”
In other words, Kazmierczak went there on a mission to terrorize one of Trump’s favorite enemies. That is why he angrily approached the podium while the Rep. was speaking and demanded she resign. That was followed by Kazmierczak spraying Omar with a rancid smelling liquid from a syringe. At that point, Kazmierczak was held back by security but you can see from the photo below, he was angry and intent on attacking Rep. Omar.
If Kazmierczak had been Muslim, had vocally espoused views supporting ISIS and changed his Facebook profile photo to one of the leaders of ISIS, there would be no doubt that he would’ve been labeled as a terrorist if he targeted a member of Congress. But when the person is a white MAGA terrorist—targeting a person of color--the media won’t call him that.
Same goes for the event Friday at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah when 29-year-old Rep. Maxwell Frost was at an entertainment industry party. That is when 28 year-old angry white male named Christian Joel Young was heard--per Variety—alarming people in the bathroom by talking about how proud he was to be “white.” From there, Young began speaking to a Black woman where he spewed racist comments.
That is when Young approached Rep. Frost, assaulted him and then told him Trump was coming for him. As Frost wrote on social media on Saturday morning, “Last night, I was assaulted by a man at Sundance Festival who told me that Trump was going to deport me before he punched me in the face.”
Young fled the scene after punching Frost but was arrested. The charging documents note the political nature of the attack, quoting Young as telling people of color at the party, “we are going to deport you and your kind.” Young was charged with various crimes—with the judge denying bail for Young because concerns he would constitute, “a substantial danger to any other individual or to the community.”
Again, if Young had been an ISIS supporter and did the same, would there be any hesitation to label him a terrorist? Of course not. But when a white MAGA supporter does the same, you will never see the word terrorist in corporate media.
This refusal to call MAGA supporters terrorists when they commit acts of terrorism is not new. After the Trump incited Jan. 6 attack, did you hear any corporate media outlets call that an act of MAGA terrorism?! Nope. Some did note that Jan. 6 was “domestic terrorism” under federal law because at the time, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified to that fact. But in general, we saw corporate media use every term from “riot” to “protest” to of course on Fox News downplaying the attack as a tourist visit.
Same goes for the deadly attack last year when a Trump supporter who espoused right wing anti-abortion views stalked and then killed State Representative Melissa Hortman, a Democrat, and her husband, Mark. This Trump supporter also wounded a Democratic lawmaker and his wife. As the DOJ at the time of charging stated about the gunman, “He carried out targeted political assassinations the likes of which have never been seen in Minnesota.”
Again, despite the political nature of the killing, corporate media still wouldn’t use the term “MAGA terrorism” or terrorism at all.
This matters. In fact, Trump’s own words from the 2016 campaign tell us he would agree we must name the threat posed by MAGA terrorism. At that time, Trump repeatedly used the term “radical Islamic terrorism” to describe ISIS, saying if you can’t “name the threat,” you can’t defeat it. As Trump stated, “Just as we won the Cold War by exposing the evils of communism, so, too, must we take on the ideology of radical Islam.”
The same applies to the threat posed by MAGA terrorism. If we want to defeat the threat posed by MAGA—which has spanned from the Jan. 6 attack to threatening judges and elected officials to the MAGA bomber to attacks noted above—it must be openly discussed to raise red flags. In fact, if people had been on alert to the threat posed by this right wing, white supremacist fueled movement, perhaps the friend of the man who attacked Rep. Omar would’ve called the police when he heard him say he might get arrested that night at Omar’s event.
The longer corporate media continues to not cover these MAGA terrorist attacks for what they are, the more we will see in the future!
For the same reason they don't use the words "liar," "insurrectionist," or "felon" with Trump. They're not on our side.
Trump and rightwing media have been radicalizing and weaponizing these angry, confused individuals for years.