NBC News reporter Ben Collins, who describes his focus as the "dystopia beat," vilified pro-Trump Republicans in a Monday tweet for being focused on political "revenge" and "retribution" instead of "facts."
"I think it's time we start covering Trumpism for what it is now. It's no longer a political movement. It's a violent fairytale of revenge on political enemies," Collins warned of Republicans outraged at the FBI. "Feds could've found a body in those Mar a Lago boxes and followers wouldn't care. It's about retribution, not facts."
He tweeted a video of a recent appearance on MSNBC where he claimed Republicans ultimately don’t care whether Trump broke the law, and are ultimately more focused on vengeance for having their ideal America stolen from them.
"Yeah, it’s just retribution. That’s what Trumpism is now," Collins suggested in the interview on Hallie Jackson Reports. "They want the world to return to the pre-90’s world in general, but they also just wanna get revenge on the people who changed the world to make it so they have less power-in their view, in their eyes."
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He explained further, "That’s what they thought they were getting with Trumpism 1.0. They didn’t think he was serious enough about this culture war. Now they think that he’s going to actually exact that revenge if he gets back into office."
In a following tweet, Collins hammered his point that Trump supporters don’t care about the truths revealed by investigations.
"Pro-Trump forums now exist to disseminate weaponizable data on new perceived villains to harass and threaten. One week it's FBI agents, then IRS agents, then teachers or doctors," he theorized. "This won't stop, even if Trump is indicted. But it deserves to be reported on as the pattern it is."
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Many commentators pushed back against Collins' claims, however.
Columnist David Marcus skewered the NBC reporter for targeting everyday American voters rather than actually criticizing the powerful.
"Once again, not an attack on Trump, but an attack on his voters. Conservatives go after politicians and institutions with power, progressives go after average Americans," he observed in a tweet.
Commentator and Claremont Institute Fellow David Reaboi slammed Collins for suggesting that coverage of Trump supporters had turned some kind of corner, as if they haven't been condemning Trump supporters for years.
"They keep dialing up the rhetoric—as if the media has been covering ‘Trumpism’ as a political movement until this point, rather than as a boogeyman they want to completely destroy," he noted.
Stephen L. Miller, contributing editor for The Spectator replied to Reaboi saying, "It's interesting they Ben thinks his job is to act as the defender to powerful bureaucracies like the FBI and IRS."
Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton appeared to quip that Collins got the "memo" from other powerful figures to scapegoat Trump supporters.
"Leftist @NBCNews reporter got the Biden/Garland memo to treat political opponents as violent terrorists to make it easier to abuse, prosecute and jail them," he tweeted.
