Ben Collins, NBC News senior reporter, said Wednesday that many from former President Donald Trump’s “base” simply “want to get violent” and don’t want to vote anymore.
Collins also suggested to the panel on MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports” that Trump-endorsed Republican candidates underperformed in Tuesday’s midterms because the aforementioned Trump supporters didn’t vote, the Daily Caller said.
What did Collins say?
“There’s a large portion — so, like, the people who planned the insurrection still have their forum, and they gave up on democracy a long time ago, and by the way, we should have factored this in a little bit more before people started voting, I think,” Collins said. “There is a large section of the Trump base that simply does not want to vote anymore, they just want to get violent, and maybe those people didn’t show up.”
How are folks reacting?
Many of those responding to the Twitter clip above weren’t buying Collins’ theories. Believe it or not, a couple of detractors actually got quite sarcastic:
Image source: Twitter
As you might imagine, there’s more where that came from:
- “Does he mean they want to get violent like the liberals and Dems have been for the last 6 years?” another commenter asked. “If so, maybe, just maybe, he has a point.”
- “This guy’s a dope & a liar. Almost ALL the political violence lately has been cause by the left. [Bots & Dem-idiots: spare us the J6 Capitol pictures. Very little actual $ damage was done to the Capitol (~ $1.5 million, compared to the $2 *BILLION* by Antifa/BLM in ’20).],” another user said.
- “Can someone tell me where all this right-wing violence is and, of course, white supremacy???” another commenter wondered. “I have no taste for violence, but it is getting harder and harder to stomach Democrats. I think Dems are completely insane & just plain stupid …”
- “Where is your evidence of this? On the other hand, Republicans have reams of videos of left-wing violence and property destruction, in many states across this nation,” another user said. “You have one riot, over a couple of hours, on one afternoon, with FBI instigators leading the charge.”
The Daily Caller added that MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow made an accusation on Election Night similar to Collins’ pronouncement, claiming the “far right” was using its “open carry privilege” to intimidate political opponents.
Anything else?
The consensus is that Republicans underperformed Tuesday. In fact, conservative writer Marc Thiessen implored the GOP to head into some deep introspection after failing to deliver the promised “red wave” for the midterm elections.
“We had the worst inflation in four decades, the worst collapse in real wages in 40 years, the worst crime wave since the 1990s, the worst border crisis in U.S. history. We have Joe Biden, who is the least popular president since Harry Truman — since presidential polling happened — and there wasn’t a red wave,” the Fox News contributor said late Tuesday.