Two years ago, Elon Musk released the Twitter Files and exposed the most rampant government violation of First Amendment rights in our nation’s history. Thousands of accounts were muzzled on social media platforms or silenced entirely, under pressure from the FBI and dozens of other government agencies.
Millions of Americans had the right to hear those censored views. Yet the media all but ignored this, because the banned voices were those of conservatives. I wrote more columns on this than the entire staffs of the New York Times and Washington Post — combined.
Likewise, the media looked the other way when leading Democrats spoke out against the First Amendment in the past year: President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, her running mate Tim Walz, former Secretary of State John Kerry, Squad member Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.
So it was a surprise when the media rose up in support of the First Amendment — for a Palestinian immigrant who had just gotten arrested by ICE agents. He was an organizer of anti-Israel protests on the Columbia University campus in New York, where Jewish students were harassed, spat on, blocked from attending classes, and otherwise intimidated.
Mahmoud Khalil is a 30-year-old, Syrian-born Palestinian admitted to the U.S. two years ago. He was arrested by ICE agents in New York on March 8. Existing law, buttressed by a new Trump executive order, lets the feds deport foreigners who lend support to terrorist groups or their affiliates.
Cue media outrage.
The Washington Post quoted a Columbia law professor (Jameel Jaffer) as saying the arrest “is the kind of action one ordinarily associates with the world’s most repressive regimes. … It runs roughshod over individual rights and rule of law.” An official of the New York Civil Liberties Union told CNN the Khalil case “reeks of McCarthyism.”
The New York Times said, “The arrest and attempted expulsion of Mr. Khalil by (ICE) has provoked alarm over free-speech rights and the Trump administration’s escalating crackdown on immigration and on universities.”
So media outlets were unfazed by the Twitter Files and violating the rights of thousands of American citizens — but now they go to bat for this guy?
Columbia officials have said Khalil played a “substantial role” in circulating posts on social media criticizing Zionism and glorifying the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians. He was a spokesman for CUAD, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a student group heavily involved in the campus protests against Israel.
The Jerusalem Post reports that CUAD “perceives itself as a revolutionary force working toward the destruction of the United States and Israel.” It says the group “directly employs” vandalism and civil unrest and “also supports terrorism at home and in the Middle East.”
Why should we allow a guest in our country to spew views that support terrorism or advocate for the destruction of America? They don’t get to come here and trash the place.
Or maybe they do, in the eyes of the media — and U.S. District Court Judge Jesse Furman in New York. Last week, he blocked the Trump administration from deporting Mahmoud Khalil.
Then Furman just ruled this week that this case falls outside his jurisdiction — though this failed to stop him from issuing the original ruling against Trump’s effort. Go figure.
Judge Furman also ruled against President Trump in 2019 when he wanted to add a citizenship question to the U.S. Census; and again in an immigration policy dispute with New York City. He was appointed by President Obama, and he is the brother of Jason Furman, who chaired the Council of Economic Advisers for President Obama; isn’t that cozy?
The media, however, are unlikely to bother pointing this out. They are too busy defending a terrorist sympathizer and siding against the U.S., and all because … Trump bad.
Dennis Kneale is host of the podcast "What’s Bugging Me" on Ricochet and author of "The Leadership Genius of Elon Musk." Read Dennis Kneale's reports — More Here.
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