Leftist and legacy media leapt to cast blame on the right for political violence following the assassination of Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk, using absurd data from an anti-free speech researcher known for demonizing the right.
A Sept. 12 article from The Economist, as well as the BBC, The Bulwark’s Molly Jong Fast, Truthout, The Scheer Post, leftist actor George Takei and others, pushed a graph purporting to show that the right in America is responsible for far more cases of political violence than the left or Islamists. However, The Economist does not mention that Michael Loadenthal—the founder and executive director of The Prosecution Project (TPP), the organization that compiled the data—is a self-declared Antifa (domestic terrorist) member and has been exposed for his contempt of free speech and organizations on the right.
In seminars that would later be used by a government-funded program to “draw on the expertise of the University of Dayton faculty” to fight “domestic violence extremism and hate movements,” Loadenthal utilized a pyramid demonizing organizations such as Kirk’s TPUSA, the Christian Broadcasting Network, the Republican Party, Fox News and the National Rifle Association. The “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization” depicted these organizations within the same pyramid as militant neo-Nazi groups.
And the data is just as suspect as the researcher responsible for it: Some of the most notorious cases of political violence against Republicans are nowhere to be found in the group’s dataset.
TPP omits Nicholas “Sophie” Roske, a biological male claiming to be a woman who attempted to murder Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It also left out Thomas Crooks, who nearly killed President Donald Trump, and Ryan Routh, now convicted for attempting another Trump assassination. TPP also omitted James T. Hodgkinson, a Bernie Sanders supporter who shot Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) in 2017. Tyler Robinson, who is accused of assassinating Charlie Kirk, is also absent.
However, they did include 20 entries concerning peaceful pro-lifers pardoned by President Trump as “rightist” political violence. Additionally, TPP included Mark Houck as an example of political violence for pushing a man who volunteered as an abortion mill escort who was verbally abusing his young son. According to the TPP website, Houck “was found not guilty on the charges.”
Beyond these atrocious admissions and inclusions, TPP also made several absurd choices concerning what to label “political violence” and who to call a “rightist” on their website.
For example, TPP labelled the “Progressive Anti-Abortion Uprising” as “rightist” in 15 entries where the identified political violence involved people pushing their way through a doorway.
And TPP’s definition of “rightist” stretches even further to include white supremacists somehow. During the period depicted on The Economist article's graph, The Prosecution Project listed at least 329 acts by white supremacist prison gangs such as the Aryan Brotherhood, Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, Aryan Circle, Aryan Warriors, Dirty White Boys, European Kindred, Ghost Face Gangsters, Hammerskins, Nazi Lowriders, New Aryan Empire, Soldiers of Aryan Culture and the Universal Aryan Brotherhood.
And their numerous offenses—many of which were drug-related—were twisted into examples of political violence because the proceeds benefited the groups. TPP labelled many of these entries as a crime that “supports organized political violence.” A full 255 of these 329 entries were labelled as the crime of “providing material support.”
Is it any wonder that the Economist graph shows more cases of political violence on the right if TPP includes every white supremacist selling drugs?
Other so-called “rightist” offenders include Pakistani members of the Khalistan Commando Force who allegedly committed credit card fraud.
Additionally, during the relevant period, TPP lists 528 cases of political violence that had “no direct target.” Dozens of cases of “rightist” political violence are listed as “criminal violation not linked or motivated politically.”
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