NBC News Reporter Deletes Post Calling Pro-Second Amendment Event ‘White Nationalist Rally’

NBC News reporter Ben Collins deleted a January 19 tweet in which he referred to the then-pending Virginia Second Amendment event as a “white nationalist rally.”

Collins tweeted the white nationalist moniker on Sunday, the day before the rally was held.

Breitbart News reported on Collins’ tweet.

NBC News Reporter: Virginia 2A Rally a 'White Nationalist Rally' ⁦@BreitbartNews⁩ #2A https://t.co/A7Nu45V1If

— AWR Hawkins (@AWRHawkins) January 19, 2020

As the tweet gained more and more attention, Collins removed it.

This is what it said:

Reporters covering tomorrow’s white nationalist rally in Virginia, I’m absolutely begging you:

Verify information before you send it out tomorrow, even if it’s a very sensational rumor you heard from a cop.

Don’t become a hero in neo-Nazi propaganda circles with made-up stuff.

— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__)

Collins is not the only establishment media source to frame the pro-Second Amendment rally in racial and/or extremist tones.

For example, the Washington Post previewed the rally in a way that gave the impression January 20, 2020, in Richmond was going to be Charlottesville 2.0.

Gov. Ralph Northam (D) used a January 15 speech to warn of so-called “threats and violent rhetoric” associated with the rally, but he did not provide an example of the threats or the rhetoric. He did, however, declare a “state of emergency” and ban the exercise of Second Amendment rights on Virginia Capitol grounds.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.