That Mike Pence attended a performance of “Hamilton” Friday night shouldn’t be news, but that changed when a cast member singled out the vice president-elect from the stage and read a statement from a cue card — not how one normally engages in “conversation.”
Pence handled the whole incident with dignity, while President-elect Donald Trump called out the cast as “rude” in a tweet and called on them to apologize. As reasonable as that might seem, the Left’s reaction is a good indication of just what’s in store.
The expert legal opinion of the ACLU, for example, was that Trump should be the one to apologize for questioning the appropriateness of the cast’s actions.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich expressed a similar outlook Saturday, calling it un-American for Trump to respond the way he did.
I'm with @BrandonVDixon. @realDonaldTrump must stop using tweets to criticize free speech he disagrees with. That's unAmerican.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) November 19, 2016
Aaaaand you just did the same thing. #WizardsOfSmart @BrandonVDixon @realDonaldTrump
— While Supplies Last (@corrcomm) November 19, 2016
What’s the problem, exactly? Trump didn’t even say he disagreed with cast member Brandon Dixon’s statement; he said the cast was rude. And if Reich is suggesting Twitter is no place to criticize speech with which one disagrees, Twitter might as well pull the plug on the service now.
Or, like the ACLU, is Reich suggesting that Donald Trump surrendered his own right to free speech by winning the election as a Republican?
https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/800081658741329920
https://twitter.com/SallyAnneTaylor/status/800024317568450560
https://twitter.com/CanuckCon/status/800035687835705345
https://twitter.com/LVStories/status/800029948350083072
Irony is dead. @RBReich killed it.
— Where the elite meet to #yeet (@vermontaigne) November 19, 2016
Ummmm…………. pic.twitter.com/lvNRbSCcFs
— Cardinal Curmudgeon (@Gimblin) November 19, 2016
"Person who disagrees with me must stop publicly disagreeing, because un-American."
— Razor (@hale_razor) November 19, 2016
So using free speech to answer free speech is what? Too American?
— Carl Gottlieb (@c_cgottlieb) November 19, 2016
The liberal mantra: Free speech for me and not thee.
— EJ Hill (@EJHill_PSC) November 19, 2016
https://twitter.com/dmartosko/status/800045058363981824
The account’s real; the man behind it is the parody.
Um… criticizing someone is also free speech. Stopping someone from same is, er, un-American. @RBReich @BrandonVDixon @realDonaldTrump
— Natasha Fatale, P?ttsylvanian B?mbshell (@N_Fatale) November 19, 2016
and with this tweet the Universe folded in upon itself and vanished. The contradiction tore it apart.
— Josh Walrath (@JoshDWalrath) November 19, 2016
This fact-check seems pertinent to everyone weighing in on Trump’s tweet about the incident:
Election results before Hamilton "speech":
Trump: 306
Clinton: 232Results after:
Trump: 306
Clinton: 232— Autumn Johnson (@AutumnDPJohnson) November 19, 2016
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