In what turned a typically quite boring event into a scene of much hilarity for those who tend toward disliking both sides quite a bit, CNN anchor Dana Bash’s book signing event in Washington, D.C., turned to chaos when a group of anti-Israel agitators showed up and interrupted her with heckling, saying she is complicit in “genocide” against the Palestinians.
The incident occurred in D.C.’s Politics and Prose bookstore. It was there that Bash appeared to promote her new book, “America’s Deadliest Election: The Cautionary Tale of the Most Violent Election in American History.” The election to which she refers was the Reconstruction-era 1872 election, which saw a great deal of unrest, and to which Bash compares the present.
The book’s description provides, “The Election of 1872 was the most contentious in American history. After both parties complained of corruption, neither candidate would concede, two governors claimed office and chaos erupted. Rival newspapers engaged in a bitter war of words, politicians plotted to overthrow the government, and their supporters fought in the streets and attempted assassinations. The entire country watched in grim fascination as the wounds of the Civil War were ripped open and the promise of President Grant’s Reconstruction faltered in the face of violent resistance and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan.”
In any case, Bash hadn’t had much of a chance to rant about the present American electoral situation and compare it to Reconstruction, when she was heckled and screamed at by mask-wearing far-left activists. The interrupters were accusing her of being complicit in Israel’s alleged war crimes by playing a part in covering up those alleged war crimes. Bash attempted to reprimand them but was shouted down.
In a clip of the incident that has circled on social media, a shouting woman accuses Bash of hiding alleged war crimes and declares that Bash ought to be imprisoned, shouting, “You belong behind bars! We know what you are. We know what you’re saying. It’s not a war, it’s never been a war – it is ethnic cleansing, it is genocide! There are children getting bombed!”
Hilariously, the moderator tried and failed to quiet down the roaring protesters, with the one woman mentioned above screaming about the relative hostages and prisoners on each side, “Do you understand that when you tweeted five days ago about the hostages that there were over 10,000 political prisoners in Israeli death camps!”
She still wasn’t done. Still screaming about the issue, she yelled that Bash is lying “every single time” she speaks about the matter. “I came here to ask her why she’s telling lies in public every single time,” she yelled as a man tried to intervene. Continuing, she yelled, “Every single time she lies, a neighborhood in Gaza dies! She is killing people! You know you are! Look me in the eye! Look me in the eye!”
Making the scene even funnier was that, as police officers dragged her out of the bookstore, other members of the audience started taunting the angry protester, mocking her and roasting her as she made her ignominious and involuntary exit. “Take off your mask,” one replied. Another yelled, “You don’t deserve to look [Bash] in the eyes.”
That still wasn’t all. A second protester jumped up and continued the ridiculous spectacle, angrily shouting, “My friends have been dying in Gaza and you have not been reporting it!” She continued, “You call yourself a good journalist? Report the truth!” Bash didn’t reply to the woman’s continued accusations, and the police soon removed the second protester.
Watch the riotous spectacle here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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