CNN Reporter Tweets Image of Trump In Crosshairs, Should He Be Investigated?

Chris Cillizza Trump

CNN political analyst Chris Cillizza posted an image of Donald Trump on Tuesday which featured a graphic overlay that placed the President inside a sniper’s crosshairs.

The tweet had the caption, “Donald Trump, pointing to heavens to commemorate police officers killed in the line of duty.”

The image, however, had a startling GIF that colored the image in a hue of green and featured crosshairs and a hotkey menu. It almost appears to have been an image pulled from a first-person shooter video game.

Cillizza quickly deleted the tweet, but not before sharp-eyed viewers saw it and grabbed a screenshot.

As in most cases, the coverup usually raises more eyebrows than the crime.

In deleting the image, Cillizza claims it was a mistake made by use of a program called Gif Grabber.

“I’ve deleted a GIF about President Trump,” he explained. “We use @GifGrabber to make our GIFs and it defaults to the image below as a first frame.”

Not everyone was buying that explanation.

The Daily Caller’s Benny Johnson tried to duplicate the alleged mistake Cillizza had made but was unable to put crosshairs on an image of his own tweet.

Still, it may have been an honest mistake, but would the left be so understanding if somebody from Fox News did the same thing over an image of Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton? Of course not, they’d be investigated for making a threat.

No, Cillizza will escape the outrage, escape the responsibility.

He won’t be nearly as lucky as Sarah Palin, who once used target graphics over political opponents and was wrongfully blamed for inciting the mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona in 2011.

Then again, double standards in media are the norm.

Do you think Cillizza made an honest mistake or a Freudian slip? Share your thoughts below!

Rusty Weiss has been covering politics for over 15 years. His writings have appeared in the Daily Caller, Fox... More about Rusty Weiss

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