Appearing at the Schlapp-headed CPAC, Townhall columnist Kurt Schlichter demonized the media, in all seriousness. He said, “I identify the opponent, I identify the enemy and that’s what the media is.”
Then he reminisced about serving in the Gulf War “back when America won wars and the Pentagon knew which bathroom to use.” That drew snickers and chuckles from others in the room.
Putting his hands together in prayer position, Schlichter said he remembered a sergeant asking him, “Sir, if we have any reporters around, can I shoot ‘em?” That drew more laughter.
Schlichter continued, “I was a good officer. I always listened to my NCOs.” There was a loud chuckle nearby, presumably from the moderator.
“You’re not advocating that anybody would …” the same voice said.
“No, no!” Schlichter insisted. “No, I would never advocate hunting the media for sport.”
Notice the qualifier there?
Schlichter then attacked any reporting about these comments by saying they were made “thirty years ago.”
But he did not disavow them in any way.
Schlichter is part of a long tradition of violent conservative rhetoric that they try to sanitize by framing it as a joke. Marjorie Taylor Greene defended her boast that she would have won the January 6 insurrection because she would have been armed, by calling it a joke; Michael Flynn joked about shooting people in Washington, D.C.; and Glenn Beck once staged a “comedy” sketch, on Fox News, in which he joked about poisoning then Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
