March 14, 2016 02:47 PM UTC

Conservative Media Not Immune to GOP Infighting

• 9 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: conservative mediasphere in no way united on the question of Donald Trump rally violence, as The Hill reports:

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter late Sunday weighed into the debate over Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s increasingly physical campaign events, calling for “a little more violence.”

She suggested in another tweet that some Trump supporters are simply “exhibiting manly temper” at rallies, likening it to the stamina of U.S. Marines.

Ann Coulter’s not alone, either:

Listen up, protesters: former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin doesn’t have time for your “petty punk ass little thuggery.”

Palin appeared Monday at rally for GOP frontrunner Donald Trump in Tampa, Florida, after canceling another Sunshine State campaign appearance earlier in the day. Shortly after that cancellation it was reported that Palin’s husband, Todd, had been hospitalized following a snow machine crash on Sunday night.

“What we don’t have time for is all that petty punk ass little thuggery stuff that’s been going on with these quote-unquote protesters who are doing nothing but wasting your time,” Palin said at the rally. “And trying to take away your First Amendment rights, your rights to assemble peacefully, and the media being on the thug side.”

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As Sarah Kaplan reports for the Washington Post, the ongoing schism within the Republican Party — a festering wound ripped open by Donald Trump — is beginning to tear through “conservative media outlets” as well.

Three staffers for Breitbart News, the conservative media outlet founded by Andrew Breitbart have now resigned in the wake of the outlet’s general indifference toward an alleged assault of one its reporters:

Last week, Fields recounted in a post for Breitbart how Lewandowski allegedly grabbed her by the arm and yanked her away as she attempted to ask Trump a question after a news conference in Florida. The encounter left finger-shaped bruises on the 28-year-old reporter’s arm.

The Post’s Ben Terris, who witnessed the incident, has reported that Lewandowski was the one who grabbed Fields.

Trump and Lewandowski vehemently denied the accusation, and on Friday Breitbart — which has been sympathetic to Trump throughout the campaign — published a long post by senior editor at large Joel Pollak that painstakingly pieced together the event in question before concluding that the altercation couldn’t have happened the way Fields described it. Ultimately, Pollak suggested that perhaps Terris mistook Lewandowski for a security official or that her injuries were an accident incurred in the press scrum.

James Hohmann of the Washington Post has more on the fallout from last week’s alleged assault, include rumors that more resignations are likely on the way. As Hohmann writes for “The Daily 202“:

The turmoil at the site is a reflection of the degree to which the Republican civil war has also divided the conservative media.

Old guard publications like the Weekly Standard and National Review have been sounding alarm bells about the front-runner, warning in often apocalyptic terms about what his nomination would mean for the GOP and the country. Fox News’s coverage has also been markedly critical. Such stinging rebukes might have been fatal for Trump in elections past, but many grassroots activists now see these institutions as mouthpieces of the very Republican establishment that they want to topple.

Breitbart, a news site founded by the late activist Andrew Breitbart, has been Trump’s biggest cheerleader for months, churning out a stream of positive stories about him and ripping establishment figures like Marco Rubio.

The entire political world has been waiting and wondering for some time now to see if (and when) the Republican “establishment” might finally stop wringing their hands over Trump and accept the fact that he is going to be the GOP nominee for President. Trump has been slowly picking up endorsements from elected officials throughout the country, though Colorado elected officials have been a bit more reluctant to jump aboard the Trump Train.

The Republican Party is certainly at a crossroads over Trump, and increasingly, so is the conservative media infrastructure that Republicans have built over the last few decades. This is going to get a lot worse before it gets better; it’s not a stretch to suggest that things may never be the same for the GOP after Trump.