DeWine Gives Report On ‘Threats’
Following the second assassination attempt on Donald Trump, a familiar narrative began circulating across major media outlets: political violence is a "both sides" issue. This line, repeated on MSNBC and echoed by various newspapers, implied that violence isn’t something that can be pinned on one political party. The notion here is that if Democrats are called out for incendiary rhetoric, then Republicans must shoulder blame as well, creating a false equivalence between two very different forms of violence.
CNN's Dana Bash provided a prime example of this deflection. She accused Ohio Senator JD Vance of inciting bomb threats in Springfield, Ohio, during the tense period surrounding Haitian migrants being transported to the area. Bash’s claim, dubious at best, was offered without any real evidence, yet it served as a convenient counter-narrative to the very real and recent threat to Trump’s life.
JD Vance to Dana Bash: "You accused me of causing a bomb threat. Doesn't that mean you should shut up about the residents of Springfield? Don't you realize you're engaged in basic propaganda to silence the concerns of American citizens?" pic.twitter.com/tYFvpZgVKJ
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 15, 2024
From the moment Bash made the accusation, it was clear that this wasn’t about facts. Bomb threats, though alarming, rarely materialize into actual violence. Historically, they are scare tactics—pranks designed to cause chaos without resulting in real harm. Why would a would-be attacker call in a warning if their intent was to inflict damage? It makes no sense, and yet Bash drew a line from these hoaxes to Vance, suggesting that his rhetoric had somehow escalated tensions to the point of near-violence. This is where the narrative truly falls apart.
The bomb threats Bash cited? They turned out to be just that—hoaxes. Not a single one was tied to JD Vance, and there’s no evidence they were connected to the Haitian migrant situation at all. Yet, Bash and others in the media used these empty threats to craft a story that implied Vance and, by extension, Donald Trump were stoking violent tendencies on the right.
Gov. Mike DeWine says that all of the bomb threats that were made against Springfield schools were hoaxes and came from overseas.
But we were reliably informed by the media that JD Vance's cat memes were responsible for thispic.twitter.com/oKf0ri6dyn
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) September 16, 2024
Predictably, there’s been little mention of this development now that the truth is out. Media figures like Bash will never revisit these claims, let alone apologize for them. She won’t go on air and say, “Actually, those bomb threats were a hoax and had nothing to do with JD Vance.” Instead, she’ll move on, unscathed, as though nothing ever happened. The damage is done, and no accountability is required. That’s the media playbook in action.
The broader issue here is how the press consistently operates with this double standard. When violence occurs from the left, it’s excused, ignored, or outright justified. Yet, when even the faintest shadow of a threat comes from the right, it’s blown into a full-scale indictment of anyone remotely associated with conservative politics. And when these baseless claims fall apart, no one ever circles back to correct the record. The narrative simply moves on, unchallenged, with new talking points ready to take its place.
If @DanaBashCNN is going to blame JD Vance for these as she did last Sunday, then she needs to reveal on air to her audience that they turned out to be foreign hoaxes. https://t.co/fArBI9pXLG
— Stephen L. Miller (@redsteeze) September 16, 2024
In the case of the bomb threats, this predictable cycle played out perfectly. The threats were never real. They were never tied to JD Vance or his supporters. But that didn’t stop the press from running with the story when it was useful. Now that it’s not? Silence.