Never-Trump Editor of Conservative Magazine Just Doxed Trump's Attorney
We all recall the Never Trump movement that sprang up in opposition to then-candidate Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, a collection of “devout and pure” conservatives who simply couldn’t bring themselves to support or vote for the man who eventually became president.
While the movement should have died the day of the election — as its foundational basis no longer existed since Trump was indeed elected — there has remained a hardcore contingent of NeverTrumpers who refuse to get over his victory or let their absolute hate of all things Trump subside.
Take, for example, one of the movement’s putative leaders — Bill Kristol, editor-at-large of The Weekly Standard — who just utilized a common tactic favored by the left to attack a new member of Trump’s legal team, attorney Emmet Flood.
“Emmet Flood, a serious attorney who presumably cares about his reputation, should be asked — try him at Williams & Connolly, 202-434-5300 — whether he agrees the investigation is a witch hunt, and if he thinks it appropriate for the White House to call a DOJ investigation that,” Kristol said via Twitter.
Emmet Flood, a serious attorney who presumably cares about his reputation, should be asked–try him at Williams & Connolly, 202-434-5300–whether he agrees the investigation is a witch hunt, and if he thinks it appropriate for the White House to call a DOJ investigation that. https://t.co/ssn0IZKtJR
— Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 2, 2018
Kristol was referring to a remark attributed to White House press secretary Sarah Sanders — contained in the linked tweet — in which Sanders said, “Emmet Flood will be joining the White House Staff to represent the President and the administration against the Russia witch hunt. Ty Cobb, a friend of the President, who has done a terrific job, will be retiring at the end of the month.”
According to AMGreatness, what Kristol just did with that tweet is something that is bitter, childish, vindictive and far beneath the stature of an individual with great intellect who was once viewed as a prominent leader of the conservative movement, having descended from one of the movement’s founders, his father Irving Kristol.
In essence, Kristol just “doxxed” Flood, an action defined by the Oxford Dictionary as to “search for and publish private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent.”
Doxing people is a particularly pernicious and vile tactic often favored by leftist activists. It’s done to intimidate those they disagree with by publishing personal or private information and then sending an online mob after them to harass and silence them — or worse, inflict violence upon them.
Aside from also snidely smearing Flood’s reputation as a “serious attorney” — in Kristol’s mind, no serious attorney would ever work with a neanderthal like Trump — Kristol unleashed his horde of thousands of Trump-hating followers to inundate the phone lines of Flood’s employer, where they will no doubt badger and harass his co-workers.
Interestingly, what Kristol just did may be in violation of Twitter’s policy against abusive or harmful behavior, in that he posted the personal information about Flood with an obvious intent of ill will toward him.
Even though the law firm’s phone number is public information that can be obtained elsewhere, Twitter states that “if the publicly available information is being shared to harass or incite harassment, then we will take enforcement action under our abusive behavior policy.”
It remains to be seen if Twitter will apply any of its consequences to Kristol for violating the policy. Penalties could range from simply removing the offending tweet to having Kristol’s account temporarily locked or even suspended.
Considering that Kristol has come to rely heavily upon Twitter to keep his lingering Never Trump movement still active on a daily basis, losing access to the platform could be devastating to him and his anti-Trump comrades.
Kristol used to be widely viewed as an intellectual leader of conservatives. His thoughts and analysis of politics and current events carried great weight among the base of the Republican Party.
Unfortunately for him and the conservative movement in general, he appears to have devolved into little more than a angry, small and spiteful man who is more at home with the anti-Trump left’s #Resistance than he is with normal conservatives who simply want to see the nation improve after the eight long years of the Obama administration.
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