Jake Tapper took a drumming online Thursday for having the audacity to give Pamela Geller the chance to respond to being the original target of the suspected terrorist who was shot dead in Boston Tuesday after drawing a knife on officers.
In a series of tweets (noticed by Twitchy), Tapper was reprimanded by followers (including vocal Islam defender Reza Aslan) for allowing Geller—who they condemned as a "vile," Islamophobic," ego-centric hate-monger—to voice her opinion. Tapper defended the interview by pointing out that she was named by FBI as the original target of the ISIS-convert Usaama Rahim and asking, "maybe next time the alleged terrorists can select for a beheading someone more to your liking?"
A few of the "Islamophobia"-shaming tweets:
Tapper responded by referring critics to the CNN article in which Geller is named as a target and then asking one particularly persistent critic, "Shoshana," a rhetorical question:
@jaketapper She is still a vile, hate-spewing bigot. Nothing, of course, that justifies being executed. But a KKK member shouldn't get a…
— Shoshana (@shoshpd) June 4, 2015
@jaketapper … platform to spew their bigoted views either just because extremists opposed to him plot to kill him.
— Shoshana (@shoshpd) June 4, 2015
@jaketapper Not my point, Jake. I just don't think she should continue to be given such a large platform. The people who she spews hatred
— Shoshana (@shoshpd) June 4, 2015
@jaketapper against aren't the ones who planned to attack her. She attacks peaceful, law-abiding Muslims viciously on a regular basis.
— Shoshana (@shoshpd) June 4, 2015
After some back and forth about whether or not Geller "attacked" Muslims, Tapper ended the discussion by saying he was simply doing his job as a journalist:
