December 28, 2024 01:53 PM UTC

Just Another Very Fine Person Taking Donald Trump Seriously

• 1 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

AP reports via CNN on an incident the week before Christmas involving a reporter for Grand Junction’s KJCT-TV, who was reportedly chased for miles and violently assaulted outside the station’s studios for the crime of being a reporter in “Trump’s America.”

A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now,” according to court documents.

Patrick Thomas Egan, 39, was arrested December 18 in Grand Junction after police say he followed KKCO/KJCT reporter Ja’Ronn Alex’s vehicle for around 40 miles from the Delta area. Alex told police that he believed he had been followed and attacked because he is Pacific Islander.

After arriving in Grand Junction, Egan, who was driving a taxi, pulled up next to Alex at a stoplight and, according to an arrest affidavit, said something to the effect of: “Are you even a US citizen? This is Trump’s America now! I’m a Marine and I took an oath to protect this country from people like you!”

After this friendly exchange, Very Fine Person Patrick Thomas Egan reportedly followed the reporter to the station, tackled him outside the entrance and was in the process of choking his victim when station employees arrived to pull him off. The owner of the taxi company that employed Egan at the time of the alleged assault issued this statement:

“This type of behavior has no place in our society and I strongly condemn it. I deeply regret the harm and disruption this has caused the victim, his family and co-workers. Sunshine Rides has suspended Egan pending a full investigation, will assist law enforcement and will use this incident to re-emphasize our core values and expectations with our entire team.”

It’s good that the taxi company that happened to employ the alleged attacker is taking another look at their “core values and expectations” following this assault by one of their drivers. But this is also a moment to reflect on the extreme rhetoric directed against the press over the past year by President re-elect Donald Trump, who routinely referred to reporters covering his campaign as the “enemies of the people” and directed the crowds in attendance to enthusiastically sneer and jeer them. In this particular case, the reporter targeted for violence also had the disadvantage of not being white, which if you’ve seen the movie Civil War you are already aware tends to increase the risk of, to put it as politely as possible, bad personal outcomes in these situations.

Given the ferocity of Trump’s rhetoric against the media during his now-triumphant campaign for re-election, acts of violence by Trump’s supporters against reporters unfortunately cannot be considered unexpected. Despite this, it’s taken a week for this story to make its way to national headlines, after being originally reported by the Denver Post on December 20th. Part of this is due to the media outlet at the center of the story being unable to comment with the criminal case pending:

KKCO/KJCT vice president and general manager Stacey Stewart said the station could not comment beyond what it has reported on the attack.

But a violent assault on a television news reporter by a man screaming “this is Trump’s America now” fulfills some of the worst fears voiced by Trump’s opponents before the election. The cause and effect of Trump’s vitriol and this assault are too plain to ignore. This is not a moment to downplay such a horrible event in hopes it won’t happen again. In order for this behavior to stop, everyone in America needs to know the story of what Patrick Thomas Egan did to his local TV news reporter, and everything Egan said when carrying out the attack. Egan’s face should be in the national headlines, and Trump himself squeezed by an outraged public into condemning his actions.

That’s what ought to happen. In the worst case, what we’re seeing could be a chilling preview of the next four years.