When the Word 'Insurrectionist' Should Be Used

It would have been a dangerous drinking game during the Biden presidency to chug every time the media broadly described Jan. 6 protesters as "insurrectionists." It didn't matter whether the protesters were violent or vocally supported overthrowing the government. That was the automatic journalistic assumption for every protester on the scene.

So it's remarkable when you consider the case of radical leftist Mahmoud Khalil and the group he led, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD). On March 10, the network evening news shows didn't find an "insurrectionist." They came rushing to his defense.

The Trump administration pulled Khalil's green card for his support for Hamas terrorism. Everything President Donald Trump does is reflexively opposed as unjust.

NBC's Emilie Ikeda was vague: "Khalil recently finished a masters at Columbia and helped lead pro-Palestinian protests on campus."