Wednesday afternoon a video made the rounds on social media showing an arrest taking place in Washington, DC. The suspect was reportedly yelling "I'm not a criminal," which we discovered to many anti-Trump Dems and media types automatically means the person must be completely innocent no matter what.
Here's what got it all started:
BREAKING: Just saw DC Police + federal agents detain a man on the National Mall. He appeared to try to escape, then was quickly tackled to the ground by several agents + was screaming in Spanish “please, I’m not a criminal, I work here, I want to be with my family” @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/56IlXEvYbN
— Aimee Cho (@AimeeCho4) August 20, 2025
And just like that, with no other information available, the Left had found another narrative to push.
Former ABC News journo Terry Moran posted this: "Anyone who celebrates or takes joy in this is wrong. You are hurting our country, not saving it."
Jessica Tarlov said the following: "This doesn’t make D.C. safer. It’ll just make people not come to D.C. The cruelty is always the point."
The cruelty is the point, eh?
Naturally many didn't bother to wait to find out the whole story, and those comments aged badly in record time. Here's the rest of the story the Left didn't want to wait for because it might wreck the talking points:
UPDATE: ICE has sent a statement on this man’s detention, saying his name is David Perez-Teofani and that he was arrested in Fairfax County in 2024 and charged with aggravated sexual battery against a minor under 13 @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/KOhxoBnXDD
— Aimee Cho (@AimeeCho4) August 20, 2025
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"He was arrested in Fairfax County in 2024 and charged with aggravated sexual battery against a minor under 13."
In other words, some Dems had found another "model citizen" to defend all in the name of "Trump bad."
Tarlov ended up deleting her post, and Trump adviser Stephen Miller asked her a question:
Why are you defending a criminal illegal alien invader charged with sexually assaulting a child? https://t.co/5Iltgogny3
— Stephen Miller (@StephenM) August 20, 2025
Instead of just saying "I instinctively wanted to push a narrative on behalf of the Left," Tarlov kinda-sorta blamed the DHS for her initial defense of the suspect:
I didn’t know he was - the DHS memo on him came out hours after the video. Wouldn’t ever defend such a person! Hopefully you guys will only go after these types versus hardworking folks that have committed no crimes! Will delete my original tweet.
— Jessica Tarlov (@JessicaTarlov) August 20, 2025
There's a huge straw man in that post that you can probably easily spot.
You didn’t bother to find out why he was detained. It’s really disgusting. Bash Americans first with you people. pic.twitter.com/Ob7LOOsk3V
— TheMorningSpew2 (@TheMorningSpew2) August 21, 2025
It's just an instinct at this point.
Maybe instead of assuming the worst about people just because Trump supports them, you could wait a few minutes for the facts to come out.
— 🫃🏼💉🇺🇦🥥Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) August 20, 2025
Heaven forbid!
Turns out jumping to conclusions is bad, Jessica. You say you wouldn’t defend such a person, but you did. https://t.co/okt6RWPfgW
— Abigail Jackson (@ATJackson47) August 20, 2025
How come every single one of these scumbags that you folks defend has a rap sheet? https://t.co/ZsblZ025hg
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) August 20, 2025
And amazingly Tarlov ended up telling Miller that "hopefully all the illegals you end up arresting end up being just like the guy I just defended in kneejerk anti-Trump fashion."
You can’t make this up.
— Tiffany Justice (@4TiffanyJustice) August 21, 2025
“Wouldn’t ever defend such a person!” @JessicaTarlov says after defending him.
Such a nonsense, clickbait performer. https://t.co/PdwpjWnVwn
She'll get back to doing that very same thing tomorrow.
Update:
Tarlov responded to anyone claiming she would knowingly post false information:
For those of you who think that I quietly deleted my tweet, see below. When you’re trying to be quiet you don’t reply to Stephen Miller. I wouldn’t ever want to promote knowingly wrong information so I deleted the original tweet after the DHS memo came out - which was hours after… https://t.co/n4DbqQxMhc
— Jessica Tarlov (@JessicaTarlov) August 20, 2025
Yeah, that's not really it...
You’re missing the point, Jessica. It’s not that you got it wrong, we’re used to that. No. The point is WHERE you went with it and what you said before anyone knew anything. What you assumed because of your own ugly, warped biases.
— The🐰FOO (@PolitiBunny) August 21, 2025
THAT’s the issue.
That’s the point. https://t.co/MqP3koKZLz
And then she basically blamed DHS for not putting out the full context fast enough instead of her side for jumping the gun. This won't be the last time either.
*****
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