The Anti-LGTBQ Terrorist Attack That Wasn’t

BUCK: It was a tragic accident. But, at first, they didn’t say that. That’s not how it was reported. In fact, you saw a lot of politics, a lot of narratives immediately afterwards. There was an accident at a pride parade in Ft. Lauderdale, and initially the mayor went to Twitter to say that this was, quote, “a terrorist attack against the LGBTQ community. He,” the driver of the truck, “came to destroy people. This was clearly no accident,” end quote. The problem, Clay, is that it was clearly an accident, which everyone now admits, and we should get into why they got this so wrong. But you have more details.

CLAY: Yeah, look, this was a 77-year-old individual who was not healthy enough to be able to actually march in the parade, and so the idea was he was going to drive a car to be in the parade. He evidently inadvertently hit the accelerator as opposed to the brake, and ended up killing and severely injuring several people. You know this, Buck, because you — back in a different world — used to get paid by CNN. They actually paid you, right?

BUCK: Mmm-hmm. I was a contributor.

CLAY: You were a contributor.

BUCK: I used to do terrorism analysis at CNN.

CLAY: That was before CNN had lost their mind and completely had gone to the dogs, but Buck Sexton employed there. And the number-one rule of any incident such as this is what?

BUCK: You wait until you know. You wait until have the facts. I will say, though, that that’s adjusted, Clay, depending on the narrative, based upon who the likely suspect is or the likely —

CLAY: Perpetrator is, yes.

BUCK: — perpetrator’s ideology and profile. That’s where all of a sudden the rules get very hazy for some people.

CLAY: All right. Well, this certainly was immediately, “This was a terror attack.” I can’t believe this happened, but of course you all can believe it happened, and we’re gonna talk about the fallout. The mayor of Ft. Lauderdale. As soon as this incident happened he ran straight to the microphones, it spread and propagated throughout Twitter and social media, which we’re gonna discuss. But first, here is the “esteemed,” and I’m putting that in quotation marks — the “esteemed” — mayor of Ft. Lauderdale. I believe his name is Dean Trantalis and this is pretty much a disaster of leadership. Listen.

TRANTALIS: What we saw was a terrorist attack on the LGBT community. This is, uh, disgusting. We will not stand for this! Uhh, this is not gonna happen in my city or any city.

CLAY: Oh! First of all, I notice, Buck, he left off the Qs. He said it was only an attack against the LGBT. I don’t know how many more letters there are now included in the LGBT community, but I know that Q is in there, and he left it off. All of that’s not true! The number-one thing that we should rely on a mayor to do I think in an incident such as this: Stand in front of the microphones and give us information and make it reliable. Instead, everything that he said was false.

BUCK: Now, this is fascinating because it’s a window into the mind of the left in America right now, the Democrat Party broadly and their view of their political opponents. Because what happened here, everyone agrees, as we’ve already described that this was clearly just a tragic accident. I mean, he ran somebody over.

CLAY: A 77-year-old man accidentally hit the accelerator.

BUCK: He hit the wrong pedal.

CLAY: He was there to support the parade.

BUCK: That’s right. He’s a member of the Gay Men’s Chorus, actually —

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: — and had a pride flag on the back of his pickup truck. But here’s what happened: “Pride parade, pickup truck, someone killed,” and immediately, not just this politician but the media apparatus around him… The Democrat-aligned media.