WSJ Reporter Rips Trump For Not Calling for Death Penalty for (Dead) Vegas Shooter

In making a point about the difference between President Donald Trump’s reaction to the Las Vegas shooting and the NYC terror attack, WSJ reporter Eli Stokols made a pretty obvious mistake by questioning why Trump didn’t demand the death penalty for the assailant who killed 58 concert goers in last month.

Stokols, an MSNBC contributor, spoke with Nicolle Wallace Thursday about the President saying the NYC terrorist should get the death penalty. And Stokols talked about the difference in how Trump approaches these attacks compared to others.

But in making his point, Stokols said this (emphasis added):

“He did not react this way when a white person shot dozens of people in Las Vegas. He did not come and say, ‘Well, we have to do an immediate policy change, we have to give this guy the death penalty.’ He did not call for this after Charlottesville when the criminal here did the exact same thing as the person in this case––driving a vehicle into the crowd.”

The Vegas shooter, of course, was found dead the night of the attack.

Stokols acknowledged the error on Twitter last night:

Fair criticism. I failed to make that distinction and it’s an important one.

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) November 2, 2017

Yes, you’d have gotten my point from the full clip. But the way I spoke, it was conflated. It’s on me.

— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) November 2, 2017

He wasn’t the only one who got called out for raising this question this week. GQ posted this pretty astounding correction on an article:

Welp, it’s one of those days, folks pic.twitter.com/ZJIVRbePKn

— Jay Willis (@jaywillis) November 2, 2017

You can watch the clip above, via MSNBC.

[image via screengrab]

— —

Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac