There’s a dude out there, Isaiah Wartman, who got together with this other guy, Luke Mahoney, and set up a charity scam around the train crash in East Palestine, Ohio. They said they were going to buy water for the residents of the town but then just lined their own pockets. They got caught. They got convicted. They’ve been sentenced. They have to pay some money back.

Oh, and one of them, Wartman, once worked as a campaign manager for Marjorie Taylor Greene. No rational person likes or respects Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Two pieces of information, side by side. One, EVERY story I’ve seen on the subject makes absolutely certain to mention the “connection” to MTG in the headline. (You wouldn’t click on it, otherwise.) Two, as of this writing, not ONE story I’ve seen has included information that MTG had anything to with the crime, whatsoever. She just knows the guy.

I’d say this is getting awfully close to a ‘Hunter-did-some-bad-things-so-Joe-must-be-guilty’ kind of story. That is, a smear campaign. Guilt by association. It’s something I expect from conservative media. It is NOT what I expect, want, or need in journalism. It’s not just click-bait. It’s a lie – at least until some evidence is presented to show she was involved.

SO…show she was involved or drop her name from the headlines and move this tiny little story to page D-36, where it belongs. I’m really getting sick and tired of all of these trials of public opinion. With apologies to Patrick Henry, give me evidence or give me silence…