Leftists ‘Shoved And Pushed’ Missouri’s GOP Elections Chief, But You Won’t Hear It From Big Media

Corporate media regularly run dishonest articles hyping concerns about the safety of election officials throughout the country. So, why haven’t they reported on Missouri’s leading election official getting accosted by leftist agitators last week?

The incident in question occurred on Feb. 6, when Republican Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft was attempting to enter a venue hosted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Held at a local business in Jefferson City, the event took place following remarks by Israeli Consul General Maor Elbaz-Starinsky before the Missouri General Assembly.

According to KOMU, a local NBC affiliate, anti-Israel demonstrators were already in the area and blocking traffic prior to Ashcroft’s arrival. Despite being asked by the Jefferson City Police Department (JCPD) to “clear the roadway,” the agitators “began blocking access to several local businesses, including the private event.” One such demonstrator, who has been identified as 20-year-old Ainslee Harkins, was arrested for trespassing after she “allegedly entered the private event and would not leave.”

Video footage of the incident shows Ashcroft walking by the protesters — who had lined up to block entrance to the facility — upon arriving at the private venue. After reaching the entrance to the building, Ashcroft attempted to open the door but was accosted by some of the demonstrators.

“There’s a lot of yelling and screaming but as I was just walking along the sidewalk, it was fine until I turned left to actually head into the doorway,” Ashcroft told The Federalist. “That’s when they … collapsed around me and [started] shoving me and pushing me.”

Despite being jostled, Ashcroft kept attempting to enter the facility. As he was reaching for the doorhandle, Ashcroft said one agitator — who video footage appears to show grabbed the secretary — told him he was going to “throw me to the ground.”

“I just didn’t think it was good to go to the ground in this mass of Hamas supporters, so I threw him over my hip and that’s when the police came in and arrested him,” Ashcroft said.

KOMU identified the detained man as 56-year-old Christopher Henry from St. Louis. A JCPD spokesman told The Federalist there is an active investigation into the incident and that both Henry and Harkins have since been released from custody.

Ashcroft said he will respect the eventual decision from the local prosecutor on whether or not to pursue charges against Henry.

Where’s the Media Outrage?

Last week’s incident isn’t just an example of Democrat activists’ violence against their political opponents. It also exposes America’s self-righteous legacy media “journalists” as the hacks they are.

For the past several years, corporate media have run story after story warning about a widespread wave of “threats” levied against election officials by Republican voters, whom they paint as extremists aiming to squash “democracy.” The media-manufactured narrative of mass anarchy by poll watchers didn’t materialize during the 2022 midterms and has been undermined by numbers from President Biden’s own hyper-partisan Justice Department.

Of course, this hasn’t stopped the press from continuing to parrot these lies in order to discourage conservatives from engaging in legitimate forms of election oversight, such as poll watching.

Yet, for all their alleged concern about the safety of election officials, America’s national media apparently couldn’t be bothered to report on Henry’s arrest. In fact, Ashcroft told The Federalist that he has yet to be contacted by any national media outlet regarding the incident.

The lack of media curiosity is also apparent when conducting a cursory Google search of the arrest, which revealed that local outlets have largely been the only news organizations to report on the matter. Meanwhile, The New York Times and The Washington Post — both of which have published articles pushing Democrats’ “election workers everywhere are under attack!” conspiracy — have yet to report on Ashcroft’s ordeal.

The media “really don’t care about election workers,” Ashcroft said. “They just want[] to push a narrative that … Republicans complaining about the lack of elections being run correctly [is] a danger to our republic.”

The Missouri Republican also noted that despite the media’s insistence, there hasn’t been a “rash of attacks against election workers” and said the incessant fearmongering is “overblown.” He further expressed opposition to measures being introduced primarily by Democrats in state legislatures across the country that invent new special protections for election workers, explaining that there are already laws on the books to penalize potential crimes.

“I don’t think that there ought to be a special right for election authorities to be able to say, ‘Oh, you said something bad about me’” and now you should be charged, Ashcroft said. “We should be a free country, and what’s wrong for one person to do should be wrong for anyone else.”

[RELATED: Virginia Democrats Behind ‘Harassment’ Bill Really Want To Make Election Oversight A ‘Hate Crime’]

Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood

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