New York Times Op-Ed: Trump, Breitbart News Have ‘Blood on Their Hands’ in Christchurch

The New York Times published an op-ed Friday accusing President Donald Trump and Breitbart News, among others, of having “blood on their hands” in the terror attacks against two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, which killed 50 people.

Wajahat Ali, a “contributing opinion writer” for the Times, has appeared on CNN several times since the massacres in New Zealand, calling the president an “enabler and an ally” of the perpetrators.

In his op-ed, Ali goes further. The subtitle declares, “All those who have helped to spread the worldwide myth that Muslims are a threat have blood on their hands.”

Ali blames the president, and Breitbart News, among others:

While news of the New Zealand shooting was breaking, President Trump tweeted a link — which he has since deleted — to the home page of Breitbart News, a site that has regularly published anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant conspiracy theories [sic].

Upon learning about the massacre in Christchurch, a Muslim friend messaged me, “How will we keep our kids safe?”

I didn’t have a good answer. But I know the threat we’re facing isn’t just individual terrorists. It’s the global ideology of white nationalism and white supremacy. We have to take it seriously, and call out politicians, academics and media personalities who give it a platform under the guise exploring of both sides, fostering debate or avoiding political correctness.

On CNN, Ali also repeated the false claim — debunked over and over — that Trump called neo-Nazis “very fine people” in a press conference after the Charlottesville riots in August 2017. Trump repeatedly condemned the neo-Nazis; his remark referred to protesters for and against the removal of a Confederate statue.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.