An attendee of Monday’s Second Amendment rally in Virginia slammed NBC News’s Ben Collins for originally smearing the event as a “white nationalist rally,” blasting those on the left for attempting to paint Trump supporters as “neo-Nazis and white supremacists” and adding that they “want another Charlottesville.”
“Ben Collins from NBC yesterday tweeted that the white supremacist rally tomorrow — he was telling his fellow journalists, ‘Make sure that at the white supremacist rally, that you report the facts and that you get the facts before you report it,'” she explained.
“The fact that he tweeted that — what an idiot,” she exclaimed. “He finally deleted it because he got a lot of pushback. But yeah. That is the narrative they want to paint. They want to paint Trump supporters as neo-Nazis and white supremacists, and they want — they want another Charlottesville is what they want.”
Collins came under fire on Sunday after inaccurately describing the pro-Second Amendment rally, organized by the Virginia Citizens Defense League (VCDL), as a “white nationalist rally.”
“Reporters covering tomorrow’s white nationalist rally in Virginia, I’m absolutely begging you: Verify information before you send it out tomorrow, even if it’s a very sensational rumor you heard from a cop,” he wrote in a now-deleted tweet.
“Don’t become a hero in neo-Nazi propaganda circles with made-up stuff,” he warned.
Some attendees of the rally have spoken to Breitbart News, emphasizing the peaceful nature of the event.
“They want to liken this to Charlottesville, and they want to anticipate crime and violence,” Virginia resident Chuck Smith told Breitbart News. “But these are peaceful people who come around with their weapons and they’re showing up here to send one message, and that is a message of unity.”
“These are civil people. These are citizens of Virginia. These are citizens of the United States, and we want that message to go out there,” he continued, blasting Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the rally last week. “The governor … cannot put in one blanket what he feels happened in Charlottesville somehow is going to transcend to Virginia”:
Matt Perdie / Breitbart News
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.