Trump shouldn't support protesters behaving badly

President Donald Trump in the State Dining Room of the White House on Monday. President Trump retweeted a video of a News12 journalist being harassed by protesters several times over the weekend. Credit: AP/Evan Vucci
A few hours after the Thursday afternoon rally organized by the group Setauket Patriots to oppose New York’s pandemic-related economic shutdown turned ugly, the group apologized for the ugly behavior.
President Donald Trump, though, took to Twitter to recklessly applaud that unacceptable and threatening ugliness. Trump’s move signaled to his followers and the nation that it’s fine to intimidate and accost journalists, even if those journalists are doing nothing but highlighting the event the organizers themselves hoped would bring attention to their cause.
Kevin Vesey, a reporter for News12, was accosted at the Commack event as marchers shouted, “Fake news is not essential,” and harangued and insulted him. Vesey, who had the coronavirus and has recovered, shot video as some marchers shouted at him and others wearing no masks invaded his space. That footage went viral, sparking coverage that multiplied exponentially once Trump got involved.
The Facebook apology from Setauket Patriots read, in part, “We can tell you that the few who decided to harass you and try to prevent you from doing your job are not members or affiliated with the Setauket patriots group in any way, shape or form. We were looking forward to you giving us fair coverage with what you documented when we first arrived. But as with all mass rally events you will always get a few idiots to disrupt an otherwise peaceful, pleasant demonstration and they should have been removed by police.”
The president didn’t seem to get that message. The first Trump retweet of Vesey’s video, posted Friday night just after 9:30, said: “FAKE NEWS IS NOT ESSENTIAL!”
Trump again retweeted the video a bit later Friday with no comment.
Trump retweeted it again Saturday morning, adding, “People can’t get enough of this! Great people!”
And he did so once more on Monday morning, adding, “This love of Country went all over. They hate Fake News and so do I!”
By Saturday afternoon, the Setauket Patriots group, buoyed by Trump’s support and all the attention, had abandoned its conciliatory tone and begun touting Trump’s support. That support got the page 2,500 new members in two days, according to a Sunday morning post.
The News12 video clearly shows crowd members trying to intimidate Vesey. The footage is scary.
But Trump’s support of the tactics is even more frightening. The president saw a St. James native and Long Beach resident attacked for doing a job whose First Amendment protection is fundamental to this nation’s freedoms, and cheered the attackers.
One of Trump’s strongest supporters, Rep. Lee Zeldin, was with the president at Camp David this weekend. Zeldin said he never discussed the News12 story with Trump and, stripped of his electronic devices, did not know Trump was tweeting about it.
But when the weekend was over, Zeldin was quick to tweet accolades of Trump that “the man never slows down or sleeps. It’s incredible.”
Zeldin should be just as quick to admonish Trump in defense of Vesey, freedom of the press and peaceful disagreement.
And Trump should listen.
— The editorial board