Christian Toto, the Media Research Center’s right-wing movie reviewer, just can’t quite quit his old boss no matter how terrible he becomes. In a Nov. 14 post, he plays whataboutism to diminish ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon — his old boss at Breitbart, which he does get some credit for disclosing — for advocating the behading of Anthony Fauci and FBI director Christopher Wray, by invoking Kathy Griffin’s provocative image of herself hold the (obviously fake) bloody severed head of President Trump:
Steve Bannon and Kathy Griffin have something in common.
Both are political warriors of the first order. Bannon, a former Trump White House confidante, wages political battle via “Bannon’s War Room” show.
Griffin attacks primarily via social media and comedy stages.
They have something else in common, though.
Both imagined their political enemies killed in a gruesome fashion, but only one got punished by Twitter. [Editor’s Note: This reporter previously worked under Bannon at Breitbart News]
Bannon’s recent “War Room” episode imagined a bloody end to two key figures — Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I’d put the heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a warning to federal bureaucrats.”
Bannon continued on with the tirade, making it harder to envision it as political satire.
That last line was the closest Toto came to criticizing his old boss — which means he didn’t criticize him at all. The rest of his post was dedicated to whining that Griffin retweeted someone who posted the severed-head image of herself and didn’t get banned from social media the way Bannon did. He went on to play even more whataboutism: “What’s interesting is that Bannon said what he said on his own show, not via a specific Tweet. Griffin’s ghastly image was shared roundly on social media then, and now.”
Note Toto’s phrasing there: Bannon merely “said what he said” while Griffin made a “ghastly image.” Perhaps Toto fears Bannon will behead him if he criticizes his old boss — a not-unreasonable fear given the crowd Bannon runs with these days.