No Democratic president should send in troops trained for lethal combat into a pro-life rally, a worship service, a gun show, or any other peaceful gathering expressing solidarity on an an issue that rubs Democrats the wrong way, at least not in a land where people have first amendment freedoms (no establishment or prohibition of religion, no prohibition of speech, press, assembly, or petition for redress of grievances). 

And of course, the same goes for a Republican president who has called the free press “the enemy of the American people,” who pardoned the duly convicted Jan 6 insurrectionists, and who floats the idea of arresting the governor of a state whose constituents have different values than the president.

If you’re happy that reporters in L.A. are becoming targets for doing their jobs documenting what happens when the president sends troops into a state against the governor’s wishes, then you don’t actually love the nation our flag stands for, you love the abuses of power that our own Founders rebelled against.

Video shows the perpetrator raising a weapon to aim, and then firing very deliberately. Closer to the action, we can see several people who appear to be random citizens holding phones, so if the masked thug were trying to clear the area, it’s unclear why he chose to assault a reporter farther from the action. (The victim, who was not seriously injured, continued to do her constitutionally protected job.) 

CNN: “We are pleased the situation resolved quickly once the reporting team presented law enforcement with their CNN credentials. CNN will continue to report out the news unfolding in Los Angeles.”