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Ezra Klein’s tweet about Rep. Scalise shooting is as tone deaf as they come

Some tweets are better left in drafts.

Photo of David Covucci

David Covucci

Ezra Klein twitter

While Vox tends to pride itself on being above the hot take industry that dominates the media, Ezra Klein, the explainer site’s editor-in-chief, on Twitter apparently isn’t. Today, in the wake of the shooting of Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), he tweeted that Americans were lucky that they live in a world where “politics rarely lead to violence.”

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https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/874970394813444096

America, as any casual observer of American society knows, is an extremely violent place, and its violence is based in politics, a fact Twitter was swift to point out. For example, not a few minutes after Klein’s tweet, the head of Flint, Michigan’s health department was charged with manslaughter for the city’s water crisis.

https://twitter.com/nkulw/status/874973470240772098

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That’s just one instance. There were plenty, plenty more.

https://twitter.com/SeanMcElwee/status/874987091163262977

https://twitter.com/fivefifths/status/874978941790015488

https://twitter.com/amandamull/status/874980861736779776

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https://twitter.com/saladinahmed/status/874982401210015745

https://twitter.com/juliacraven/status/874981487589945344

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https://twitter.com/Patrick_Wyman/status/874984826360668160

https://twitter.com/NoTotally/status/874972827560026112

https://twitter.com/DavidDTSS/status/874979634429001728

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It’s such a patently bad a take that it even got the Mocking Spongebob treatment

https://twitter.com/gatorgoat/status/874986379809361921

Ezra, thankfully, though, whose wheelhouse is explaining the news, explained this news.

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/874982719050182657

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https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/874983112593342464

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/874983526181023744

Then there’s this.

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/874984691786543104

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What?

That take immediately aged poorly.

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Anyway, Klein continued.

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/874985545109295104

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/874985685354250240

https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/874985991404216320

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https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/874986232513785858

As everyone pointed out, we all already knew this. Merely the fact that no one was surprised or shocked that sitting U.S. congresspeople were the target of gun violence disproves his first tweet.

Thankfully, Twitter knows how to explain that news to people who may not get it.

 
The Daily Dot