Politics

Robert Reich to CNN: Breitbart News organized Berkeley riots — Video

Reich Berkeley riots
Robert Reich tells CNN Breitbart News behind violent liberal riots at Berkeley. — YouTube

While appearing on a panel discussion with CNN’s Don Lemon, former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich stepped in it with both feet, claiming that Breitbart News played a role in organizing the violent liberal mob that shut down a scheduled event featuring Breitbart editor Milo Yiannopoulos.

Lemon got things starting by putting forth the tinfoil-hat conspiracy theory that conservatives were possibly behind the riots, according to a transcript posted by Grabien:

LEMON: “You think it’s a strategy by Yiannopoulos or right-wingers? They put this on in an effort to show there’s no free speech on a college campus like UC Berkeley?”

REICH: “I wouldn’t bet against it, Don. Again, I saw these people. They all looked almost paramilitary. They were not from the campus. And I’ve heard — again, I don’t want to say factually, but I’ve heard there was some relationship here between these people and the right wing and the right-wing movement that is affiliated with Breitbart News.”

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

LEMON: “It is interesting because there have been protests but nothing this violent. We haven’t seen anything to this level.”

Really?  Apparently Lemon hasn’t been keeping up with current events.

Here’s video of the statement:

Breitbart reported:

Despite admitting explicitly that the claim was not based on facts, Reich charged ahead in claiming that Breitbart News had an affiliation with the violent rioters that lit fires around campus and beat and pepper sprayed the MILO supporters who were waiting to get into the venue.

The National Review added:

Alleging that a news organization executed a premeditated attack demands much more than hearsay. But that was all he had. How did host Don Lemon respond to these allegations about Breitbart and their cronies? He said, “It is interesting because there have been protests but nothing this violent. We haven’t seen anything to this level.” Such a comparison might apply to the women’s march, but violence and property destruction is not at all unprecedented in other left-wing riots from recent history.

But Lemon did not acknowledge any of that. He went into the segment looking for reasons to assign blame on Yiannopoulos, and Reich gave him all that and more.

Reaction on Twitter was pretty much what one would expect:

https://twitter.com/chuckwoolery/status/827594900711538688

https://twitter.com/Cwbintn/status/827615661107060736

https://twitter.com/CounterMoonbat/status/827517362530295808

https://twitter.com/pat_jubbs/status/827532087498571784

https://twitter.com/Wolfiemann/status/827520665297235968

We agree.

https://twitter.com/DCDude1776/status/827523106742878208

True…

Rush Limbaugh weighed in on Reich’s statement on Friday:

Do you know any right-wingers capable of this kind of behavior? (laughing) I mean, go to Ferguson, go to Baltimore, go to San Bernardino, go to Watts. Take any protest, any violence. Go to Oakland any time you want. Any time there is violent protests, it’s always left wingers bought and paid for by the Hillary campaign, the Democrat Party, or George Soros, and never once have the Democrats ever condemned them, ’cause they’re proud of them.

They’re proud of these anarchists. They’re proud of the people who blow up bank buildings. They’re proud of the people that start fires. They never blame them. They never try to pass it off as fake protesters hired by Republicans. (chuckles) Until now. Why now? Why would it be…? Why don’t they embrace these people? Why isn’t former labor secretary Reichhhh and the rest of the left embracing these people and giving them a bunch of attaboys? Why aren’t they encouraging ’em?

At best, Reich’s comments were highly irresponsible.  At worse, they’re defamatory — at least in my humble opinion.

The only questions I want answered are: Will Breitbart sue and for how much?

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Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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