Dem
47
GOP
53
Here's a little inside information that was not worth mentioning at the time, but is plausibly relevant now: While (Z) was working on the most recent Q&A posting, there was a murder investigation taking place maybe 500 feet away. There is a fairly tall office building (18 stories or so) three buildings north of (Z)'s apartment building, and a fellow was shot to death in the parking garage under the building.
The reason it was not worth mentioning, of course, is that the crime is not of particular significance. Well, undoubtedly it is of significance to the family of the victim, and to the perpetrator, but it doesn't speak to anything writ large. It's a big city, violence sometimes happens in big cities (and even in small ones), and sometimes that violence leaves one or more people dead. Such is life.
At the same time, Donald Trump and his underlings are itching for an excuse to go DEFCON 1 on one or more American cities. They've been trying to cook up a predicate act, by doing things like dispatching armed military personnel to patrol the streets of Washington, DC. This has produced a few acts of sandwich-throwing, but nothing provocative enough for the administration's needs.
Now, however, the White House hopes it's found the act of violence it's been looking for. The crime in question was undoubtedly violent; it was a murder that took place in Charlotte, NC, a city that is about 60% Democratic and about 35% Black. This murder actually happened about 3 weeks ago, but it apparently takes time for these things to spread through the right-wing grapevine. From the administration's perspective, the killing checks many boxes:
In other words, manna from heaven for the White House.
Once Trump got wind of the "opportunity" here, he hopped on his felon-owned social media platform, and unspooled a bunch of unhinged ranting about the incident. Just in case you doubt us that he was looking to score political points here, consider this message from him:
I have seen the horrific video of a beautiful, young Ukrainian refugee, who came to America to escape the vicious War in Ukraine, and was innocently riding the Metro in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she was brutally ambushed by a mentally deranged lunatic. The perpetrator was a well known career criminal, who had been previously arrested and released on CASHLESS BAIL in January, a total of 14 TIMES. What the hell was he doing riding the train, and walking the streets? Criminals like this need to be LOCKED UP. The blood of this innocent woman can literally be seen dripping from the killer's knife, and now her blood is on the hands of the Democrats who refuse to put bad people in jail, including Former Disgraced Governor and "Wannabe Senator" Roy Cooper. North Carolina, and every State, needs LAW AND ORDER, and only Republicans will deliver it! Additionally, where is the outrage from the Mainstream Media on this horrible tragedy? VOTE FOR MICHAEL WHATLEY FOR UNITED STATES SENATE, HE WON'T LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN!
Subtle, he is not.
Quite a few MAGA types also hopped on the bandwagon. A bunch of them (e.g., Elon Musk)
indulged in
dog-whistle and/or outright racism. White House Press Secretary Tokyo Rose Karoline Leavitt, for her part,
lectured the White House press corps,
and demanded to know why they failed to cover the murder. For some reason, she did not ask why the press corps did not
direct its attention to the murder that took place near (Z)'s residence, or any of the other 2,500 or so murders that
have taken place in the U.S. since Zarutska was killed on August 22.
All of this said, and for all the effort expended by Trump and others, clearly the story did not get enough people's blood boiling to give the administration cover to actually invade Charlotte. We don't know exactly what the political calculations are in the White House, but there are clearly some, because all the President has done since dispatching the (embarrassing) trash-pickup detail to D.C. is expend hot air about going to war in Chicago, about sending troops/ICE to New York City/Baltimore/Boston, and about the murder in Charlotte. He hasn't actually pulled any additional triggers. (Z)