Greenwald asks if MSNBC’s Joy Reid to blame for radicalizing would-be Kavanaugh murderer

On Wednesday, journalist Glenn Greenwald mused whether liberal media hosts have some share in radicalizing the would-be Kavanaugh murderer. (Fox News)

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Independent journalist and The Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald considered the idea that MSNBC host Joy Reid radicalized the armed suspect arrested outside Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home on Wednesday. 

His point was if the left can claim domestic terrorists are radicalized by conservative pundits, then maybe the suspect was radicalized by Reid and her smearing of Kavanaugh as a “Christian nationalist” in favor of “theocracy.”

Greenwald composed a lengthy Twitter thread on Wednesday arguing that it’s entirely possible that a man who “made threats” against Kavanaugh, and who was charged with attempted murder of the justice, may have been radicalized by Joy Reid’s content.

Greenwald began his thread, stating that the suspect “was angry about the Court’s leaked ruling in Roe and the lack of gun control, and reportedly sought to kill Justice Kavanaugh in response. It’s vital that we know which cable hosts he likes and which magazines he reads so we know who radicalized him and is to blame for this.”

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A group of protesters marched outside of Kavanaugh’s house after an alleged assassination attempt. (Fox News)

The journalist floated Reid as an influence, pointing to her radical anti-Kavanaugh language. “We don’t yet know if this would-be Kavanaugh murderer watches Joy Reid’s show — chances are very high he didn’t since virtually nobody does — but she regularly calls the Justice a Christian nationalist who favors theocracy.”

“Did this inspire violence?” Greenwald asked, adding a screenshot of Reid’s tweet claiming Kavanaugh may help the Supreme Court strike down birth control in the future. “Y’all think these Christian nationalists are playing on theocracy? They’re not,” she claimed.

He then slammed the lack of media coverage on what influenced the suspect, tweeting, “The steadfast lack of interest in discussing who and what likely radicalized someone to try to murder a Supreme Court Justice in the name of Democratic Party dogma on Roe and gun control is extremely. . . . conspicuous, and unsurprising.”

MSNBC’s Joy Reid has railed against Justice Kavanaugh since the Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v Wade leaked several weeks ago. (screenshot)

Greenwald also implied that there’s a double standard in this lack of coverage on the suspect’s motivations. “Using prior, very recent standards: anyone in media or politics who expressed political views similar to the ones in whose name the attacker acted can be credibly accused of inciting this violence,” he said. 

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It’s clear Greenwald was referring to the myriad of leftist pundits who linked the Buffalo, New York mass shooter’s views and those of other domestic terrorists to talking points used by conservative commentators and GOP lawmakers. “For some reason, this standard isn’t being applied this time. Anyone know why?” the journalist asked.

Greenwald brought up the attempted murder of Congressman Steve Scalise, R-La., at a baseball practice in 2018, writing, “It reminds me of that time when a fanatical follower of Rachel Maddow tried to kill a bunch of GOP members of Congress at a softball field based on his belief that they were Russian assets and traitors.” 

Protestors gather outside the Supreme Court to protest in favor of abortion rights. An angry pro-abortion man was arrested for attempted murder of Supreme Court justice Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday.  (Fox News Digital)

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“There, too, this blame standard wasn’t invoked. It’s confounding,” Greenwald added, while sharing a screenshot from an NBC article claiming that Scalise’s shooter “said his favorite TV program was ‘The Rachel Maddow Show’ on MSNBC.”

Gabriel Hays is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @gabrieljhays.